5K Update... Here's a photo--I'm the one in the official TWRS yellow Corona Lite hat!

The official results show I averaged 7 min, 48 secs per mile and finished 260 out of 1000 runners.

Our 3-person team finished with a total time of 1:21:09--not bad at all.

JG

Team Runs with Scissors

THE CORPORATE CHALLENGE 5K & PLANS FOR SATURDAY

Well, just finished my first 5Km in quite a few years and it went well. I finished in about 23 minutes, 45 seconds. The official, more precise, results will be available in a few days and I'll post them. It was a blast--a terrific change from the gym. There were about 2000 people there. I'm already looking forward to doing another one.

Back to the gym tomorrow. On Saturday, however, TRWS is planning on a wicked cool day of riding and hiking. The current plan is to start our in downtown Waterbury sometime around 8:00 a.m. and ride up to Little River State Park, over to Cotton Brook and Down to Nebraska Notch Rd. From Nebraka Notch Rd, we would ride up to near the Trout Club and then onto the Trapp Family Lodge property. From Trapps we would make our way over to the Stowe Mtn. Resort xc ski trails. From there we're thinking about parking our biking and blasting up to some point(s) on Mansfield and back to the bikes. From there, it's a short ride to the Matterhorn--where I intend to check on the status of my mug, I'm sure it's missed me.

The whole trip should take about 6-8 hours, and will no doubt be followed by some festivities.

I have floated an alternative plan that involves skipping most, if not all, of our hike and biking down the Mountain Road making stops at key "check points." Hmmm....maybe I need to develop a passport.

Stay tuned!

Team Runs with Scissors

HIKING LONG TRAIL AND THE JAY CHALLENGE

Team Runs with Scissors, in close consultation with the NEST (an organization more secret, and infinately less reverant, than Opus Dei), has decided to skip The Longest Day Race in New York. Instead, we are going to hike the northern most section of the Long Trail that weekend--Hazen's Notch to Canada. Does anyone speak French? Total distance for the weekend will be about 21 miles; Graham can correct me if I'm wrong.

As is customary for our hikes, there will be much food and fun.

All Team Runs with Scissors family, friends and fans are welcome--let us know if you're interested.

On a completely unrelated topic, I'm contemplating doing the mountain bike leg of the Jay Challenge. It's, well, the most badass one-day mountain bike race around--possibly in the country. Total distance for the race is about 60 miles, (100 km) with a total of 10,500’ of elevation gain to get through before the finish. Check out the elevation chart and the topo map of the course.

The race organizer says the race takes 6-12 hours and adds: "This is a very hard race. DO NOT GET FOOLED by the fact that this is only 10 miles more than another local 50 mile race. You will hurt, get scared, want to cry, curse me more than once and you will want to quit on several occation. This is the grand final of one of the hardest off-road stage races in the world. I guarantee you lots of pain for your money."

Honestly, I'd really love to do the entire Jay Challenge which, if you haven't visited the site, is a day of paddling (Friday), a 30 mile mountain marathon (Saturday), and 60-65 miles of mountain biking (Sunday).

Unfortunately, after the run I'm not sure I'd be able to walk, let alone ride my bike. As a result, my tentative plan is to do one section this year and train to do the full event next summer.

Oh, my eye!

JG

Ahh, spring in VT. Gotta love it. So yesterday afternoon we took advantage of the great weather (hi 60s and sunny), and went for a 2.5 hr ride on the Waterbury trails. I think we rode the trail known as "Burning Spear", which is great. There is a rather steep climb up Perry Hill Road to get to the trail, but it's worth every inch of that climb. Once over the top it was close to an hour of downhill, some over rugged, rocky, technical terrain, and some over fast trails interspersed with waterbars/jumps. I also got to watch Justin plant his front wheel and go right over the handlebars. It was great, just about in slow motion, as the bike pivoted around the front axle and tossed him into the rocks (no, he wasn't hurt, beyond a scraped knee). Fun times. I think we'll be riding that one quite a bit more this summer. It's amazing the number of trails up there, and great to have such a great resource close to home. I think we could ride all day without hitting the same trail twice. Kudos to the Stowe Mtn. Bike club for maintaining them. Well, looks like rain for most of the rest of the week, so it's back to the gym and Coach Troy. Yee Haaa....

Grambo

Sorry to all our friends and fans for the late post!!

Last Sunday, April 30 we competed in the Savage Adventure Race (see link to the right) in southeastern PA. It was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky and in the 70s. We had a good race, completing the course in 4 hours 40 minutes, a 45 minute improvement over our last 6 hour race. This put us at 64th of 105 teams. Not as great as we could have hoped, but we finished the entire course and improved on our last time, and also had a great time. We also didn't get lost, and only made 1 navigational error, which actually worked out in our favor. Yee Haaaa! I'll give a brief summary of each section of the race, and once GOALS gets some pictures up we'll supplement them...and J and Justin can chime in their comments, as well:

1. To begin with, J had to run a couple hundred yards to a field, grab a canister, and sprint back to us. The canister contained our passport, which determined the order in which we'd be doing the 4 sections of the race. Section 1 for us was the canoe leg. So, we grabbed our paddles and PFDs and ran about 3/4 mile to the launch area. We loaded up and set off. After a couple races we have determined that the best order is J in the front (he is the lightest), Justin in the rear (he's the most experienced canoer in the group) and me in the middle (I'm the navigator). J had a Kayak paddle, and literally DRAGGED us around the lake. This race, along with 4 checkpoints along the shore, had 2 canoe checkpoints which were several hundred yards inland. Being the speediest of us, J ran to collect both of those. Once we had all 6 checkpoints, it was back to the landing, and then we set a bearing and bushwhacked back the the TA (transition area), which cut the distance about in half. Then, on to the next section...

2. The second piece for us was the Team Challenge area. This was 5 team challenge events which had to be completed. Most were easy and we blasted through them, including a balance beam, a bag lift (we had to haul a rope and lift a heavy back to a certain height) and a cargo net. The cargo net was much bigger in this race, and great fun. Then we clipped Justin into a rope, which he had to follow, winding around trees, through knots, etc. He wound around the rope more like a snake than a turtle! The most time consuming team challenge involved a PVC tube with 2 1 inch holes in it. The object was for 1 team member to cover the holes with his hands while another ran to get water to fill the tube. When the tube is full, you're good to go. The complication was we had to switch off holding the holes each time, loosing water. This took some time, but eventually we completed, and it was back to the TA for section 3.

3. Section 3 was the orienteering/trail running/on foot section. This took us the longest, but it was great. Navigation was spot on, even when we left the trail (which was frequently). We did some major bushwhacking through some wicked thick brush/brambles/briars, and we have the severely scratched up legs to prove it. Looks like we all lost a fight with a pack of rabid cats! This section also had us crossing back and forth across the Brandywine River (about 20ft wide), often above our knees in the water. That was very cool, although I don't think the fishermen appreciated it very much. If I recall, there were 9 foot checkpoints, and after 9, we again shot a bearing and bushwhacked back to the TA. Worked great...

4. And now, after a quick water fillup, it was on to the bike section, which is arguably our strongest area. And indeed, we cranked it out pretty good. We rode some great single track (man, my new bike jumps great!), but then, after CP4, we took a wrong turn and ended up outside the park. A quick map consult determined that rather than ride back the way we came, a quicker course would be to ride around the park on paved roads to CP 7, and then pick up 5 and 6 later (they don't have to be done in order). This actually worked out great, because instead of a 1 mile+ climb uphill on a singletrack through mud, we did all the uphill on paved roads, which is much, much better. We hit the trail, picked up CP7, and then screamed down that muddy single track, which rocked. We hit the last several CPs and then returned to the TA a final time and crossed the finish. The staff validated our passport to make sure we hit all the CPs, and then posted our final time of 4hr 40 minutes.

Anyway, it was a great race. These guys (GOALS) put on a well organized, well run race, and the location was awesome. We'll definitely be back down there for the Edge in Oct, and the Savage again next spring...

Grambo