Eastern New England Trail Race Series

PRESS RELEASE

July 6, 2010
Oxford MA

Contact: John Grenier, (508) 892-9576

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TRAIL RACE EXPANDS, WELCOMES SPONSORS

For more than a decade, Hodges Village in Oxford has hosted the Dam Trail Race, an eleven-mile run through the woods and streams, attracting runners from throughout the Northeast. For the past two years, the race has been the major annual fund-raiser for the French River Connection, a non-profit dedicated to revitalizing the French River. This year, the event, to be held August 7, will include two courses, of 11.5 and 5 miles. According to race director John Grenier, this format will invite increased participation. “We hope for 170 runners, 50 more than last year,” he said.

This year, race organizers have sought sponsorships for the first time . Hometown Bank, North Oxford Mills, Wilson Language Training, Industrial Packaging Supply, and Central Massachusetts Podiatry have joined Polar Beverages as sponsors. Said French River Connection President Ken Parker “The response to our requests for sponsorships has been very gratifying, and we very much appreciate the support of these fine organizations.”

Cash prizes will be awarded to the top male and female finishers in each race, and special prizes to the top finishers from the French River watershed towns of Leicester, Oxford, Webster, Dudley, and Thompson Connecticut. Prizes for age category winners and for random draws will include baked goods, gift certificates from Dick’s Sporting Goods, and other items.

After the race, the winner of a Specialized Carmel 700 bicycle donated by Southbridge Bicycle will be drawn. The raffle has been open to the public since mid-April.

Start time for both races is 9am on August 7. Runners may pre-register by visiting http://frenchriverconnection.org/files/D2010/index.htm , or register at the race beginning at 7:30am.

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The ENETRS is adding a new race to its schedule. The April 25th race is in its second year and truly sounds like an all inclusive family event. Created by Jennifer Shultis of Eastern Mountain Sports and held at Odiorne Point State Park and hosted by the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH. The scenic course sounds like an exceptional trail running experience that incorporates forest, rocky shore, sandy beach, and historic military fortifications. For young children ages 12 and under there will be fun runs of 100 yards and/or 1/2 mile. There will be Earth Day events and educational opportunities. Prizes, music, and vendors are also included. For more information check out the website at www.seacoastsciencenter.org/events.

The Eastern New England Trail Race Series is happy to welcome the state of Maine to its schedule. Erik Boucher is the race director for several trail races in Maine that offer both variety and challenge. He has suggested a race that is part of a two-day trail running festival that includes races of 5K, 10K, 5K barefoot, canicross, 25K, 50K, and 50M. For the purposes of scoring for the series we agreed upon the 25K. Looking over the website it sounds like a unique and wonderful weekend for the hardcore as well as novice trail runner. In addition to the weekend festival there are three dates being considered for 6M, 9M, and 12M trail races at Bradbury Mountain. In addition, the 3rd annual Mountain Epic at Sunday River in Newry, ME will offer races of 4M 1 peak, 8M 5 peaks, and 12M 8 peaks. Lots to choose from and we welcome Maine to our series.

After a winter hiatus a early thaw has begun to free up some of our favorite trails and our thoughts are returning to the spring, summer, and fall trail racing season. There may still be ice and snow where some of us live and mud season is officially here but all that means is that it is a unique time of year where the mononotomy of road running gives way to avoiding shoe sucking mud and discovering what nature has done in the way of transforming the trails we have become accustomed to. With this said let me assure you that the ENETRS schedule is about to begin. As the race directors finalize their dates and other details we will have the updates loaded as quickly as possible. We hope to have changes made to the website that will include blogs from other trail running enthusiasts. If successful, sponsorship will be added to the site to help with the cost of end of series awards. As has been true in the past, we welcome all comments and suggestions. You can contact me, Rene Lavoie, at rainman52@verizon.net. Here's to another enjoyable series.

How does he do it? At 61 years young, Marshall Randolph amassed an unthinkable 1109 points to win the Eastern New England Trail Series in 2009. Throughout the year he dealt with injuries, burnout and a solid challenge by second-place finisher and teammate Jack Burke.

Recently, Dave Hannon of New England Track & Trail sat down with Marshall to get his thoughts on the long campaign that led to his topping the leaderboard this year.

Q: First off, I wanted to get your overall thoughts on what you’ve accomplished in winning this series.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the New England Trail Race Series this year was the remarkably good weather at the races I ran. As a Virginia native the New England weather can be quite a challenge for me, particularly when you toss in the black flies of summer. If it were me on the Mayflower, stepping off onto Plymouth Rock in a Nor'easter or swarmed by black flies, I would have yelled back to Myles Standish (or Pocahontas, or whoever it was), “Whoa, dude, wrong place—turn this puppy around and set the GPS for San Diego.”

But overall, the worst weather we had was a light drizzle at the Edaville Rail Run. And maybe the best was the gorgeous day running the Wapack Trail Race.

Q: Had you planned to do this series from the start of the year?

I didn't intend to compete in the eastern New England Trail Race Series. It may have been you [Dave Hannon] who mentioned that you could find a listing of trail races at their website. I checked the site and went to the results page, since I had done perhaps four of them already. I scanned down to about halfway through the rankings where I thought my name should be and I couldn't find it, not realizing that I was actually leading the series-- I don’t usually look up that high! Well, now, I thought, “Maybe old age and treachery will stand a chance against youth and good looks.”

I started to target the series races, only to find out that Jack Burke was doing the same thing (fortunately his old age and treachery aren't as well developed as mine). We were pretty much neck and neck through the weeks, but heading into the last race, I had a lead and we decided to run the last race, the Fells Trail Race, together. It was really enjoyable coming across the last finish line with Jack, a class act if ever there was one, each of us having some similar tales of the year, no doubt.

Q: Which was the most difficult race in the series?

Wapack certainly gave me the toughest test. It's not enough to run over four mountains, but then you turn around and run back?? And nobody dies during this thing? Unbelievable.

To make it even more challenging at Wapack, I lost my gel flask before I ever had a chance to down any, so I only had some fluids, making the last 3 or 4 miles a real sufferfest. I missed most of the jaw-dropping views keeping my eyes glued to the trail. Summiting Watatic on the return, I tripped right at the edge of the granite crest with such force that three hikers came rushing over to see if I was okay. Fortunately only my little finger took the brunt of that one. I took a couple more spills before finishing, but looking back on the season, though, these were the only three falls I took so I’d say that’s a good thing.

Q: What was your favorite race in the series?

I can't really pick out a favorite trail race among the many but there are aspects of many that I liked a lot. I didn’t know what to expect at these races, so there was a lot to be savored at these races.

For example, one place that sticks in my mind was part of the Blue Hills race that we ran in April. Perhaps halfway into the race the trail cuts uphill through stunted trees and beautiful single-track, skirting the odd block of rock. I ran alone through this area and it reminded me of some of the alpine trails up in the White Mountains and it was hard to remember that we were just miles from Downtown Boston.

Almost as enjoyable as the trail races were the cross country races in the series and I really like the variety they bring to the series. After longer races like Wapack, races like the Thomas Chamberas 6K and the Wayland XC Challenge are a breath of fresh air. They are open to all but get some real speedsters, like Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker, so it’s fun to mix it up that way.

And each race has similar things that stick in my mind. The Merrimack River Trail Race has the flats and compensating muddy cliffs (that sucked off one of my tightly laced shoes which ended up 30 feet above me since I couldn't stop on the downhill). Not to be missed, of course, is the post race stand-up comedy routine that Steve “Petey” Peterson puts on each year! The Groton Town Forest race has its intricate trails, welcome mid-race flat interlude, and the up and down swoops near the end. The Overlook race, which has one of the most enjoyable last miles of any trail race--slight descent making it feel like, “Yes, I really can run!” The Busa Bushwack is special too, because in addition to being a great course, it honors our own running legend Richard Busa.

Q: Did you have any navigational issues during the races?

Surprisingly, I didn't get lost once in the 14 races, so that alone is pretty cool. Well, actually I guess I did get “lost” at the Busa Bushwack, but that was due to a race marshal sending us back up part of the course. Most of the folks in the pack I was with were chuckling at the minor chaos. Instead of being “lost,” it turned out the marshal was wrong and we inadvertently short-cut the course by maybe a minute or two. Does that disqualify me from the series?

Q: Any secrets to your success this year that others can learn from?

Well when it comes to year-long series like this, stubbornness is the more important virtue and I’m the perfect example!

I would like to thank Rene and Rob for being instrumental in maintaining the series this year. And of course all the individual race directors doing the work on their end. On a personal level, it was really nice to see the committed trail runners routinely, like Emily Trespas, Dan Scotina, and Rob MacDonald, and to be befriended by all the new folks I met out there as well as the friendly faces from NETT that were at many of the races. It really is a great community.