Agro in the streets of Boston

Event: Legend of Zelda Replay Race Type: Alleycat bike race Date: 7/15/06 Team reporting: E, J, C, C, and Me Location: Boston and Cambridge Number of times crossing the bridge by Science park: 6 Race Report: Imagine all the nastiness of criterium bike racing: the breakaways, the nasty corners, the aggressive, relentless pace. Now imagine doing it in the streets of Boston on a Saturday afternoon. Add urban orienteering, and that should give you a taste of what this race was. It all started the night before when C, C, and I, promised both a). cheap beer and b). info about the race showed up at a downtown bike shop for a "bike porn" show. No, gentle reader, no mechanical sexual deviance actually took place, just a lot of tatooed, grungy, bike messenger guys showing of their pimped out fixed gear bikes. We voted on our favorites, got the race info (a cryptically marked 1960's map of Boston) and a start location (the Hatch shell) and headed back to C's, seeing as between the three of us we had too few tatooes to hang with that crowd. We arrived at the start around 3:20, and got "registered". Just before the race start we were told we would be given the list of checkpoints at Winter Square. Some of us thought that was Winthrop square, but in the end, that didn't mater. At go the 100 odd racers jumped on their bikes and the madness began. We rode right across Storrow drive and onto the streets of Boston. It became immediately obvious that the strategy was to follow people who knew where they were going. So, I jumped on a big group with C, E, and J and we rode to Winter square, wherever that is, and got the list of checkpoints. There were 8 corresponding to the 8 dungeons in the "Legend of Zelda" video game. Here they are: Pierside, 3 Dolphin Way, 02210 St. Johns, 9 Moon St. 02113 Step Inc, 31 Beverley St., 02114 The Dirt Pile, 23 East St., 02141 Ampitheater, Terry Ring Way, 02109 along Quaker Lane, 02109 the end of Carver St., 02116 the Kings Castle, 10 Scotia St., 02115 We busted out maps, which I unwisely didn't have, thinking all maps save the one we got the night previous were forbidden, but then just decided to follow a group to the first checkpoint. Riding with these people was a harrowing experience. Basically, you sprint through the streets, traffic (and traffic laws) be damned. It was a challenge. In looking for the actual check point, C crashed pretty hard, but got back up and continued the race, torn and bloody. We finally got to the first checkpoint, a warehouse on the waterfront that looked the start of a GTA mission, and got our first USPS priority mail envelope, this being a bike messenger race and whatnot. I threw this in my messenger bag, and jumped back on the group. They busted off towards cambridge, but soon I lost them, being simply not able to ride that speed and getting cut off by impenetrable traffic. I got to the bridge by the science museum, and then ended up pairing up with a woman named R, who, as it turns out, is a pro mountain biker and triathlete. She was awesome enough to let me tag along for the next 5 checkpoints. Her style was absolutely fearless: she would take lines into gridlocked oncoming traffic, riding between the cars. It was all I could do to keep up. At Moon st. we hit our second checkpoint, and had to do a shot of tabasco and whiskey to get the envelope. It was unpleasant, but never the less, we did it. We then bike back to the science museum and hit up East st., the checkpoint at which, we were told, had been broken up by security. Undaunted, we headed to 31 Beverly st. where we had to dance around in Too-toos to get our prize. We then hit up the ampitheater on Terry Ring Way (in the naval ship yard), where a wasabi fig and spinning 10 times were the price of completion. Quaker lane, we learned from a fellow racer, was off congress street, so, that way we went. Along that way, we met C, C, J, and E, and road with them for a while, though we took different ways to the checkpoint in the end. We stopped at Quincy Market to ask a policeman where Quaker Lane was. He looked at us, and laughed, and said he was on his way there to break up a group of bike messengers. He then said he was in no particular hurry, and gave us a wink and directions. Dude, you rock! We found the alley, and did 20 pushups for our prize. On the way to the next checkpoint I lost R in traffic, but picked up C, C, E, and J, and we rode together to the end. Carver st. was an alley near the common where we had to meditate and eat cashews, and the final checkpoint, Scotia st., was right by C's house at Fenway. They had no challenge for us, so we proceeded to "Death Mountain", which was a three lap circuit of Boston Common. By the third lap of cranking at maximum velocity, I was very tired. J and C broke off to get a final checkpoint C had missed, and the rest of us headed to the finish, a bar over by Longwood. Here's a map with all the checkpoints. According to the GMAPs pedometer, we rode 15 miles...as the crow flies. What that is in actual miles, nobody knows. The race took about 2.5 hours, and I was never riding any speed less than all out. The race was as exhilarating as it was dangerous, but that's just kind of how life works. I definitely learned a lot of traffic tricks, and maybe even became a touch more agro myself, so, it was definitely worth it.

Swimming with the Beavers

Event: Holliston Lions Triathlon Date: 7/9/2006 Location: Stoddard Park, Holliston, MA Weather: Sunny, temps 75-80 degrees Course: 800m swim, 15 mile bike, 5 mile run

Report: This was an unusual race in many respects. For one, the distances were really strange for a “sprint” tri. Never-the-less, it turned out to be pretty fun. I woke up at 5:30 a.m., and drove over to pick up another MIT triathlete, M, and then we headed to Holliston. There was no parking at the race start, so we parked on the street like ¼ mile away. Registration was easy. I told them my name and they handed me a bag with everything in it. K, the MIT captain was hanging out near registration, and gave me my sweet ass MIT jersey. I then set up my transition zone, which was in prime real estate close to the run/bike interchange, put on my wetsuit and headed to the beach. The water was warm and murky, but not overly weedy, so I warmed up and waited for the start.

Right before the the race start, the Lion's Club guys (who organized the race) played the national anthem, the version of which they had chosen was only slightly better than the one with Rossanne Bar. It was HARD not to laugh. The 40+ men got to go off first, and then the sub 40 men, and finally the women all with 3 minute intervals in between. The swim was typical: grabbing wetsuited legs and getting kicked in the face for 200m and then open swim for the rest. In the absence of current and 3ft swells, swimming in straight lines was pretty easy. I was out of the water in about the middle of the pack, which is about my speed these days. I suspect that the 14-year-old version of myself, country club champion no less, would be faster, but, whatever. I ran out of the water and had my suit half off by the time I reach my rack. I then peeled the rest off, jumped into my bike shoes, and started out again much, much, much faster than last time.

The bike course was sweet: 3 laps around a 5 mile loop with short, steep uphills followed by long gradual downhills (link). There were no flats and the course ran fast. The first lap I was feeling the swim, but by the end I was cranking pretty well, turning decent gears. I got in with a group of dudes and we worked off of each other. The second lap was pretty much the same, but I was feeling much better on the uphills. On the third lap, all racers were out on the course, and it was crowded. In places it was like being in a peleton, and the yellow line and no drafting rules got violated like the prime directive. Still, we were moving along well. With two miles to go I noticed another MIT racer pass me. It was M. I climbed the final hill and slipped my feet out my shoes. This proved well, as the people in front of me Mau-Maued the transition zone and took each other out after jamming the brakes and slipping on their cleats. I dodged and jogged through. Racking my bike and putting on my racing flats took all of about 20 seconds and I was back on the course.

The run loop was the bike loop, only in reverse. Think about that for a second…do you see a problem? Yes, that’s right, we were running against bike traffic, which was a bit scary as the main group was coming in when I left. Still, there were no close calls, so, all turned out well. My legs didn’t feel dead, just not terribly fast. Also, I should not have worn my 8 year-old cross country waffles. They now have several blood stains, and I think its time to grab some road racing flats. Anyway, I soldiered on as best I could. The course was actually pretty challenging with long, gradual climbs and short steep downhills. The first 1.3 miles took something like forever, but afterwards I sped up a bit and passed a bunch of people. At around mile 4, someone behind me yelled “go tech!" It was M. She passed me, and we ran together to the last hill where I pulled ahead again for my kick to the finish. We finished around 1:33:25 on the clock, a final time of 1:30:25 for me 

So, in the end I finished around 40^th out of 250. I was hoping to finished sub 1:30:00, but I was pretty close, and I’m psyched about my bike split and my transitions. If I’m going to get back to being as fast as I once was, I’ve got to work the run and swim more (my run split was 35ish and my swim was 12ish). The MIT triathlon people were really fun, and we hung out for a while after the race waiting for awards; M took second in the women’s race, not bad for her first ever tri, and another one of the women, C, took an age category award.

Overall, a fun morning and a good race!

My next tri will be the Boston Triathlon, which will certain be an adventure, what with the swim in Boston harbor and the bike on Mem. Drive.

That’s assuming I survive the Jay Challenge MTB race :)

Crazy C's Big Ass Adventure Race

Date: 6/24/06 Location: Franconia Notch, The White Mountain's, NH Team: Me and D Duration: 11 hours Total miles on foot: 18 Total miles on bike:23 Total Elevation gain: 7500 feet Check points reached: 6 Overall Place: 3rd Liters of water consumed by the team: 9 Ah, adventure! How best to describe it? Let start with a little history. Last year C, C and J won the MIT GNARPMFSK adventure race in Acadia. Their prize: to organize this year's race. They moved the race to Franconia Notch, pretty much home turf for Dartmouth Skiing, and set two challenging courses: a medium-core and a hard-core. The medium-core was mostly road biking and hiking, with some team swimming as well. The Hardcore was Franconia Ridge, some mountain biking with orienteering checkpoints, and then Mt. Moosilauke with several orienteering checkpoints. Friday night the weather in Boston was really crappy: rain with threatened thunderstorms. The weather for the next day in Franconia looked no better, and I was concerned that severe weather might cancel the event. However, we got our stuff together and set a northward course. There was some doubt as to the end point of our Friday night journey. However, I got in touch with C, and she invited us to stay with her mom, so I mashed go and the cruise control and blasted up 93. When we arrived, C and B were busy writing up the hardcore course, which looked the best for us due to its epic hiking. We decided to eschew the mtb section, since we had road bikes, in favor of a day on Franconia ridge and Moosilauke. We fell asleep to C and B arguing about how to convert GPS coordinates to the system on the map. Saturday broke with rain, and I was not amused. Never the less, we suited up a drove over to Echo Lake. We got the bikes set up and obtained maps and coordinates from C, and then helped some old hippies jump start their conversion van. They gave us the peace sign, which I took for a sign of good karma for the day to come. We then sat in the car for 30 min and tried to mark the map. Due to the early hour (and my lack of caffeine) this process went slowly, and but for D's quick coordinate-to-centimeters calculations and my improvising a straight edge with a piece of paper, we would have been screwed. With the map marked, we jumped into echo lake, the temperature of which was actually quite pleasant. At this point, the rain had abated, and we mounted up and hit the bike path. After about 10 minutes, we arrived at Lafayette Campground, one of the Franconia trailheads. We locked our bikes up in the woods, and started up the Old Bridal Path. At first, we were running, but, knowing we were in for a long day, I slowed down our pace. The climb, about 3400 feet and 4 miles, took us a little over an hour. The trail was empty of people and absolutely gorgeous, especially after Greenleaf hut. The sun began to break through the clouds as we cleared the tree line. We summited Lafayette at around 9:15, our high point for the day at 5260 ft. The ridge continues on southward, and we followed it that way, jogging on rocks in ringed in clouds. The lack of other people on the ridge was a real treat: normally on a summer's morning its a like a crowded highway being only a 2 hour drive from Boston. Lincoln was maybe 3/4 of a mile from Lafayette over wonderful, rough terrain. I'm not sure why I'm not smiling in the picture. Maybe I'm trying to look tough. Our next checkpoint was Shining Rock, a water fall about 1000 feet lower than the ridge. Reluctantly we headed down the Falling Waters trail, which turned out to be steep and slippery, and probably would have been a better way to come up. Shining Rock was really cool, especially since I'd never seen it before. We continued down Falling Waters, which crossed many streams and involved a lot of slipping and sliding. However, we managed to keep our ankles safe and our knees unscratched. We returned to Lafayette campground at 11:00 a.m. after about 10 miles of hiking/running. After getting some calories and water, we set out on the road biking portion of our quest. It involved about 15 miles, 6 of them on the flat/downhill bike path. The bike path is a real rush. You know how in Return of the Jedi there's a speeder bike fight on the moon of endor? Thats what it feels like riding the bike path at 20 mph. When the bike path ended, we took turns leading and drafting, and came to the town of North Woodstock feeling pretty strong. Turning west on rt. 112, we climbed once more into the mountains. 6 miles of road with 1000 feet of climbing lay in front of us. We were fine up until the 4th mile, but then the earlier hike caught up with us, and we had to put the bikes in the easiest gear and suffer. We arrived at Kinsman Notch trailhead around 12:30 somewhat fatigued, so we rested for 10 min and consumed perhaps 300 calories each. Our plan was to summit Moosilauke first, and then get as many orienteering controls as we could. However, the Beaver Brook trail lay in between. It climbs to the summit of Mt. Jim from Kinsman notch in the steepest way possible. 1000 feet/mile. In places, there are steps carved into the rock and iron bars driven in as handholds. These aids make the climb possible. In slippery conditions, this trail can be terrifying, and the rain from the previous night had not entirely dried. Undaunted we started up. After a mile, we were in a bad way. The climb, though beautiful as it follows a roaring flume, proved difficult on our legs and our water was spent. D had become pale, so we sat down, drank our remaining water, and ate sugar. I had skittles, and they tasted good! I also had a hammer gel, which was the most palatable gel I've ever had. After 15 min we were refreshed, and we continued our journey. After reaching Mt. Jim, the trail flattens out, and we jogged again a little bit, and ran across B and C on their way down from setting the last checkpoint. They told us we could still win. I was skeptical, due to our previous near bonk experience. We finally made it to the summit of Moosilauke at around 3:30. We chilled for a bit, shared a Mt. Dew Amp, and decided that we needed to start back down at 5 pm to make the 7 p.m. race end. That gave us 1.25h to find 3 checkpoints. Not possible. So, we chose the closest one, and went after it. A little bit of compass work led us down a rocky pitch to a forest. We could see the orange tape on a tree, about 200 meters away. The forest was the impenetrable white mountain sort, the kind you have to body surf through, the kind that you can only hope to endure. A 15th level druid would still be troubled by such a passage. The 200m took us 30 minutes of hard, hard bushwacking. We did find the control, our reward for cut, bruised shins and hard labor. The climb up was easier, since we didn't need to set a precise course, but every branch hit me in the most painfully cut part of my leg and I cried out in agony many a time. Finally, we were back at the summit at 4:45. We had 2:15 to get back down, and it was all downhill. Beaver Brook was still slippery, and our legs were tired after 9 hours of effort, so we took it slow after jogging between the summit of Moosilauke and Mt. Jim. We were at Kinsman by 6:15 and on our bikes for the awesome 6 miles of fast descent by 6:25. D started the descent before me, and I gave him 2 minutes headstart. I jumped on my bike, grabbed my aerobars, and cranked the downhill at 40 mph. It felt awesome. I caught D 3 miles later, and we rode together to the Traunt's Tavern, arriving at 6:45. The Pemigewasset river was right there, so after checking in we chilled our legs, and chatted with the other racers. D passed out for about an hour while I got shuttled to the car. Truants had cold Guiness and good burgers, so I was content. After dinner, we finished off a good day by joining B and C in beating up on C and her friends in Taboo and drinking Coors lite. We finished 3rd in the hardcore division, but the first with an MIT student (me), so next year, I'm in charge of the course. I think we'll return to the whites :)

Hyannis I Sprint Triathlon

Location: Craigsville Beach, Hyannis, Cape Cod, MA Event: Hyannis I Sprint Triathlon Date: June 10, 2006 Its been roughly 3 years since I last competed in a triathlon, and that was somewhat evident in saturday's race. Still, I had a good time, and the race was certainly a good time. The story begins Friday evening, were I braved the epic Boston-Cape Cod traffic to make it to Hyannis around 7:00. A word of warning: Mountain Dew + Boston Traffic = lots of profanity. After I popped in my Fellowship of the Ring (unabridged) on tape, I calmed down considerably. My parents decided to come up to watch the race, and were generous enough to get me a hotel room. My father spends about half his time now in Marriots on business, so, he has an butt-load of rewards points. Score! I had dinner with them at the harbor, and got to watch some World Cup action on TV. I woke up at 5:00, suited up, and got in the car. My dad drove us down to the beach and when we got there at 5:40, the primary lot was almost full. I jumped out, checked in, and then hauled all my crap over to the transition area. I should point out, this event was well run especially since there were 850 racers. My transition set up, I jogged a little, and then sprayed cannola oil all over my arms and legs to facilitate the entrance to and removal of my wetsuit. The threating rain had not materialized, but it was cold and windy, so the race director had shortened the swim to 1/8 mile. I thought this was kinda lame, but we shall soon see it was probably a good call. I managed to get the wetsuit on, and ran down to the water to swim a bit. Damn, was that water cold. I can't imagine going without a suit. The swells were also pretty big, maybe 2-4 feet. The start was delayed by maybe 10 minutes, so, I swam a bit, and jogged on the beach a bit, and laughed at the poor guys with farmer john wetsuits who were freezing outside the water. Finally the first wave, composed of elite racers, and also people under the age of 24 started. Those of us in the 2nd wave, that is people ages 25-28 got down to the waters edge and waited for the horn. Then we were off! The first thing I did was pile directly into the dude in front of me, and get tangled up. Swimming was hard through the waves, and we were getting pushed around a lot. The field opened at the first bouy, and I tried, as best I could, to set a good line for the second. I failed miserably, and swam a less than optimal route. Rounding the second buoy, I set a course for the transition area gate, and, again, failed miserably. The current kept pulling me off course. I finally made it to the beach and was supremely disoriented, but I made it to the transition area in more or less one peice. One apon a time, I could fly through a transition in like 30 seconds. For this race, not so much. I put on socks, because I though it would be cold, and that turned out to be just plain ruinous. In the time it took me to get out of there, I probably could have made a sandwich or something. I finally wheeled my bike out and started pedaling. I wasn't turning hard gears, but I was making pretty decent speed, and I dualed with some dude on a tricked out Kestrel for most of the race. Course was decent. Rolling, with no real climbing, but interesting with lots of twists and turns. I broke the yellow line rule passing a couple of times before I remembered that that was forbidden. The course was only 10 miles, so the bike was over pretty quick, although, not before I got trapped in a "no passing" zone behind some guy on a mountain bike. I rode back to the transition area and racked my bike, threw on my racing flats and hit the run course. This transition was again slower than it should have been because I didn't get my feet out of my shoes before the transition area. The run started out pretty painful, but I think I built to some decent speed by the end. I was passing a lot of people from the wave before me, but only a few in my wave. The run course was pretty good; there was a little bit of climbing, and then downhill to the finish. The actual finish was on sand, which makes sprinting not too fun. I crossed the line in 1:02:53. Overall, I'd say the race was well run, even by C's high standards. The shwag they gave out with the number packet was first rate! My level of fitness is ok right now, but my level of speed is crap. I've got some work to do, especially on the bike, if I'm going to make any showing at the Boston Tri in September. Results are posted here. Pictures to come!

Introduction

Welcome to my racing blog! The purpose of this blog is to serve as a catalogue of race and adventure reports. I'm guessing that if you're reading this blog you are either a friend or a family member, but on the off chance that you aren't, my name is Scott, I'm 25, and I'm currently a graduate student at MIT. I enjoy lots of endurance sports including road and mountain biking, running, triathlon, rock and ice climbing, adventure racing, and alpine and nordic skiing. I originally hail from CT, but more recently I attended Dartmouth College where I was a member of the Dartmouth nordic ski team. MIT has not left me with as much time for racing as once I had, and I've kind of fallen out of shape. Now its time to get back on it, since the activation energy barrier is getting higher and higher the longer I wait...