XC Race Report Jamesville Beach

Thank you to everyone who represented and ran for our Fleet Feet team on Saturday. It was a perfect day to run cross-country on the two-loop 5k course. I really appreciate and have respect for our team members who ran the 1/2 marathon or marathon the week before, and a couple who did the Highlander Bike tours on top of the races. Awesome that you came out and ran with us. We also had at least three people who continued the weekend by racing at the FingerLakes Triathlon on Sunday!
Check Pete Glavin's Upstate NY Cross-Country web site for complete finishing times and places.

To those of you who witnessed my meltdown and temper tantrum before the race, I'm sorry. Thanks to everyone who assisted in carrying stuff to our site and set up the tent. You are all great and I appreciate the understanding.

A quick explanation is that I arrived at the race site about 15 minutes later than desired, through no one's fault but my own. But then we had to park at least 1/2 mile from all the other team captain's parking area. When I asked about this I was told I could not move in order to unload stuff. Let's just say I was a bit upset, but got a great warmup running to the car, getting all the stuff out, and running back with the tent. Some friends helped carry the shirts and food, staying far back as the steam from my head created a localized warming effect.

As to the race, I thought we did well. Mary Lee was first in the women's 40-49 age group with a great time of 22:33. Brenda Reeb was our other finisher in that age group. Terry Christo was 3rd in the 50-59 division with a time of 22:24. Our Vet women's team with Terry, Jan and Eileen earned two points and finished in fourth place out of six.

The men were led by Marty Coffey in a nice time of 20:15 and our 40-49 team finished fourth. Carl Palmer, Alan McAllister, Sean Hendrick,Ken Rhoda and Richard Doe completed our team.

Our men's vet team was short one runner and didn't score. But, Frank Quattrone ran a nice race, in 21:14, followed by Mike Weinpress, myself and Lou Katz.

My goals for the next race:
1. Leave earlier and be set up at least 1 hour before the race starts.
2. Run faster.
3. Have complete teams in all divisions.
4. Beat GVH (don't tell them)
5. Don't have a temper tantrum.
6. Remember everyone's name (we need to have a meet and greet, though I think most of you did that on your own).
7. I like the support everyone seemed to have for teammates and found it nice to know other FF people were all around me. This might sound weird, but I mean it.

Let me know what kind of food/drink you want for after the race. Last time we had gatorade, water, danish, cookies, bananas. The cookies seemed to be the favorite.

Next race, Sunday, October 11, 11am, 6k in distance (about 3.8 miles). It's about a 90 minute drive from Spencerport. Jan and I can pick up two people at the LeRoy tollbooth area if anyone wants a ride.

Beaver Island State Park
2136 West Oakfield Road
Grand Island, NY 14072

Top Ten Reasons to Love XC Running

10. No cars to worry about when running.
9. Beautiful scenery (if you can look and not trip over a root while running)
8. Variety of terrain, short steep uphills, long gradual uphills, the ridiculous hill at the FLCC course 3 miles into it, at a time when you are already hurting.
7. Did I mention there might be hills? Oh, and you can sprint hard and go around a corner and lose competitors in the trees.
6. Your finishing place is important even if you are in the bottom 30% of racers.
5. Another excuse to shop at your favorite running store (Fleet Feet, right?) for the right gear.
4. Spikes make you feel fast even if you aren't and they come in cool colors.
3. Why should the kids in high school have all the fun?
2. It's fun to travel to new areas to run.
1. Listening to Mike W. complain.

Upstate NY Cross-Country

The annual Upstate NY cross-country series is set to begin on Saturday, September 19, at Jamesville Beach st park, southeast of Syracuse. The races continue as follows;
October 10: Grand Island State Park
October 25: Ithaca College (confirmed) 11:00am
November 1: Seneca Park (Rochester) 11:00am
November 15: Finger Lakes CC (Championship Day) Women's 6K @ 10:30, Men's 8k at
11:15am.
Fleet Feet Sports of Rochester is sponsoring teams of men and women for the Masters and Senior divisions this year. In 2008 our Senior men's team finished third overall in the series.
More information about the series will be presented on this blog as the series progresses.

Snowshoe Sprints

Saturday, January 10th, will be the first annual(?) Pineway Ponds Empire State Games sprint qualifying races. We have a 300meter track set up on the snow covered fields. The races will begin at 1:00pm. No cost, no shirt, no food, just an accurate course and timing.

The order of events are; 1500m, 100m, 200m, and 400m. People who want to qualify for ESG need to have run two of each race. So, you can either run the races twice this Saturday, or run again at the Lake Effect Snowshoe Festival, sponsored by Fleet Feet sports and Yellowjacket racing on January 25 in Webster.

Upstate NY Cross-Country

Great results from the Fleet Feet team's first real venture into xc. We had a full men's veteran age group team at each of the five races in the Upstate NY series. We finished in third place overall, narrowly defeating Syracuse. The final race of 5 miles was run at FingerLakes Community College on a windy (up to 30mph), cold(37) day on a wet course.

The highlight was Lou K. completing the race with his reading glasses loosely hanging from his race shirt. Think how fast Lou would have run if he hadn't been so engrossed in his copy of "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker?

Special efforts during the race were made by Mike ivehadacoldallweekW, Frank Greatmyfamilygavemetheflu and Joe SprinttillyoudropK.

Mytriathletewife ran all 5 races and secured a ninth overall spot in the women's masters division, earning a tech top shirt. Dennis M, our lead dog at every race, finished fifth in the vet division, also earning a shirt.

Best of all, the team owners drove to the race to cheer us on and cook breakfast for all of us when we were finished!

Running with Fleet Feet Team

Here is my (submitted by MW) top 10 list as to why I enjoy being on the FF team.

1. Run and then wine tasting.
2. Eco friendly. We can get to a race using the less vehicles than GVH.
3. Mike McWinoneforthegipper is incredibly organized and keeps us in line.
4. I enjoy being the fastest of the non counting times.
5. Post race restaurants at exotic locations.
6. Ethnic diversity. Lou is from Queens!
7. Get to run a race that has a Mt. Everest on the course.
8. Sponsored by FF which is advertised in Runner's World, which is my favorite book.
9. Telling friends I run for the FF team. Heavily recruited. Know the owners personally.
10. The only team where one of my teammates lets me kiss her on the lips. Yeah baby!

Why I love Cross-Country Races

10. Running through the woods like a deer.
9. Shopping for and buying spikes at my favorite running store (Fleet Feet).
8. The courses are so different than running on the roads. Grass, trees, roots, dips, gravel, paths, wood chips, leaves, damn I tripped again.
7. How many times do you get to run (walk?) up a hill during a race that's so steep it's called Mt. Everest?
6. Being part of a team again, our shirts are the coolest.
5. Seldom does a plain bagel taste so good than after 6k in the mud.
4. Mytriathletewife races too and I can beat her!
3. Mikey WhydidmywifemakemedothisIonlylikeroadsPress (seen in photo) is a great sixth man.
2. We travel to neat places like Vernon, Ithaca, Canandaigua, Mendon and Syracuse.
1. Feeling like your lungs are going to burst open, gasping for air while knowing you still have another mile left.

Upstate Cross-Country

Our next race is at Vernon-Verona High School, a 6k beginning at 11am on Sunday, November 9. Here is a course description, courtesy of Frank Q.

"I love the Verona course out of all of them this is a true cross country course. There are no major hills but lots of ups and downs with many turns. It is mostly in the woods."

Team FF Vet men are in 3rd place in the series with 9 points. GVH has 16, High Noon 14, Syracuse 5, GVH2 2points and Buffalo Checkers 2pts. Best 4 races count, top 3 teams win awards, the FLCC race points are doubled. We need to look out for and beat Syracuse and Buffalo runners, though I also think our #3-6 runners need to step it up a bit and close on any High Noon guys we see in the race. I have let myself get beat by some of those guys by less than 20 seconds and need to show some guts in the last 1/4 mile of races.

Individually the top 10 vet men get awards. Dennis has 41 points and is in the top five, Frank G has 10 points and close to the top 10. In SuperVet the top 3 get awards, Dick W. has 20 points and Pete L has 17.

Masters women top 5 get awards, Jan has 9 points, probably not enough for top 5. In SuperVet Eileen has 17 points and top 3 get awards. She also is not yet in the top 3 I believe.

For team and individual awards you must run in at least 4 races and FLCC is double points. If our team wins one of the top 3 spots, our top 8 scoring guys get awards.