Happy holidays!

Happy Holidays and New Year to all!

That Warm & Fuzzy Feeling

If you're still feeling warm after last night's workout, it may be more than just your love for NBB...

Basking in a Workout's Long, Mysterious Afterglow

Mettle to be tested at Club XC Nationals

New Balance Boston heads down this morning to Charlotte, NC to test their cross country prowess at the 2010 Club XC Nationals hosted at McAlpine Park.

The women are sending two teams for the first time and the men have a full roster to score. Competition will be stiff with more talent arriving at the yearly event.

Stay tuned for results.

Groupon for GBRC

For those who use Groupon, you'll already see this in your email box. For others not in the Groupon-know: Today's Groupon is for the 50% off at the Greater Boston Running Co. Check it out.

Fresh Pond followup

Some people have asked about further information on the Fresh Pond meeting. The October (Meeting 2) meeting minutes are here.
There is a 3rd Meeting to followup on the Shared Use of the reservation. The flyer is posted here, to be held on November 30th.

For more information, visit the Fresh Pond Reservation Shared Use website.

Daylight Savings Ends

This Sunday is the 2010 USATF New England Cross Country Championships at Franklin Park.

10:00 a.m. Men’s Masters 8 Km
10:50 a.m. Women’s Open & Masters 6 Km
11:30 a.m. Men’s Open 10 Km
 
Remember to turn your clocks back for the end of Daylight Savings before going to bed on Saturday.

Fresh Pond debate

Tonight, there is a meeting to discuss the shared use of the Fresh Pond Reservation. Undoubtedly, there will be a discussion of the runners versus walkers/dogs. Meeting 2 will be held tonight at the West Cambridge Youth Center (680 Huron Ave) from 6:30-9p. Here is the meeting agenda.

Interesting to read is the Incidents Report. It is recommended that if any of you have any run-ins with dogs and their owners to report it to the Ranger Station. It will be help shed light on the unleashed dogs issue.

If you are unable to attend the meeting (as many of us will be at practice tonight), you can send your comments/suggestions to fpr@cambridgema.gov. Remember to be polite and cite specific facts, you are a representative of New Balance Boston and New Balance.

Shop NB - Free Shipping thru 10/16

FYI, use your discount and combine with FREE SHIPPING through tomorrow at shopnewbalance.com.

Bohlke voted VP of USATF NE

At the Annual Meeting of USATF New England, Joan Bohlke, formerly an Athlete Representative, was voted as the Vice President.
The first Board Meeting was held last week, and are held monthly.
The year's agenda was discussed with plans for how to spend the USATF NE budget a major topic of discussion amongst the other board members and Athlete Reps.

2010 RTB results

New Balance Boston won the Co-ed division at the 2010 Reach the Beach relay. For 208.95 miles in a time of 22:07:17, the co-ed team still showed dominance amongst the entire field, finishing 9th overall out of 430 teams and competing with some very talented men-only teams.
The weather was perfect for the entire event. Cool, crisp fall temperatures kept all comfortable while battling NH's rolling climbs and descents. The night time hours provided the most moonlight in many years and the rain backed off for the NBB team before their 4pm start. At the much sought after finish in Hampton Beach, the sun shone strong, providing a perfect way to celebrate a long racing event. After a quick dip into the ice-bathing ocean temperatures, the team feasted and enjoyed a good time at the beer tent.

Here are the raw numbers for the number crunching geeks:
Official Results
NBB 2010 RTB splits


Photos are being uploaded and video is to come:

NBB's RTB WMDs

With 1 week to go, let me introduce NBB's RTB Weapons of Mass Destruction!


Ryan Carrara
aka Poliwrath
Favorite stinky smell: Hydrogen Sulfide
Color I hate most: Vermilion - U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi. You are not red, you are not orange, you have no idea what you are! I hate your lack of direction as much as your appearance! (227,66,52) Seriously? You call that a color code! I hate you Vermilion with all my heart!
Someplace I'd like to travel to: Pompeii, I think I could do a lot of good there
Best running achievement: 1996 Greek Relay Champions - anchor leg


Tom Szumita
aka Uncle Fire
Favorite stinky smell: Wet Kittens
Color I hate most: Whatever color the Jets are wearing this Sunday
Someplace I'd like to travel to: Hampton Beach (OK, been there but want to go again)
Best running achievement: Not being booted from the 2010 NBB RTB team by Carrara


Justin Lutz
aka The Long Pole
Favorite stinky smell: Bud Mud
Color I hate most: I love all colors equally
Someplace I'd like to travel to: New Bedford, Massachusetts
Best running achievement: 74th place in the 2001 UMass Dartmouth Invitational

Justin Maloney

aka luvs2eatkittystu

Favorite stinky smell: Sweaty running clothes stuffed in an airtight plastic bag and left in a dark place for two weeks, then opened in my face.

Color I hate most: Burnt Sienna

Someplace I'd like to travel to: A repeat visit to first-place-at-reach-the-beach land

Best running achievement: Successfully hitting the interior of a heckler's car with three consecutive snowballs, tying my PR of pooping in the woods three times on a single run. I'm all about the threes.

Jeffrey Caron

aka J-Cizzle

Favorite stinky smell: Powerbar scented farts with a hint of coffee
Color I hate most: Rust Orange
Someplace I'd like to travel to: Kenyan training camp
Best running achievement: Falling 3 times in a cross country race and still setting a PR. Having a 40m lead with 200m to go at the conference championships and then losing by 40m in the same race. Successfully creating a 2 mile beer relay around my house.
 

Avery Bouchard

aka Bouchi Mane

Favorite stinky smell: rotting leaves (probably mixed with a small animal carcass or two)

Color I hate most: No colors really bother me, since I am, in fact, color blind.

Someplace I'd like to travel to: I'd like to someday make my way to the top. Never been there. I hear it's nice.

Best running achievement: My fondest running memory, quite coincidentally, has to do with a deer (which was not yet a carcass). I was run over by said deer while doing a workout in the woods of the Community College of Rhode Island. It came out of nowhere and put it's head down, full force into my thigh while I was on my 9th (and last) 3:00 repeat - about 1:30 in. I did finish that repeat, but did no extras.

Yvonne Green

aka Mrs. Gui Lo

Favorite stinky smell: Any blue cheese

Color I hate most: Yellow, it's too cheery

Someplace I'd like to travel to: Hell, because only sinners have fun

Best running achievement: Surviving RTBs since 2005 without any GI issues. That's right, I've got a colon of steel.

 

Lara Johnson

aka
Favorite stinky smell:
Color I hate most:
Someplace I'd like to travel to:
Best running achievement:

Nicole Mauro
aka
Favorite stinky smell:
Color I hate most:
Someplace I'd like to travel to:
Best running achievement:

Sasha Varanka
aka
Favorite stinky smell:
Color I hate most:
Someplace I'd like to travel to:
Best running achievement:


Megan Proulx
aka
Favorite stinky smell:
Color I hate most:
Someplace I'd like to travel to:
Best running achievement:

Amber Gibney

aka Ambchops

Favorite stinky smell: I LOVE the smell of skunk. Seriously. I know it's gross and I am ashamed.

Color I hate most: Mauve, gross.

Someplace I'd like to travel to: Egypt, Greece, the Moon

Best running achievement: 1. My last collegiate race. It was the conference championship in Virginia, it was about 95 degrees out and no shade. I ran a PR to qualify for the 800m final and I set another PR in the finals and ended up placing second overall. I did this all on a severe stress fracture in my tibia and as I crossed the finish line I threw up all over the place, including on my boyfriend. We're talking violent, projectile vomiting in front of a lot of people on a hot hot day. It was awesome. 2. Recently ran a mountain race, Race to the Top of VT. 4.3ish miles up, relatively nice weather, decided to put a sweet fake tattoo of a wolf on my bicep to intimidate everyone. I ended up doing horribly, and I even got OWNED by a 68 year old woman. Talk about humbling.

Our team dropouts:

Mark Larosa

aka Mucus

Favorite stinky smell: vinegar soaked koosh ball

Color I hate most: Hello Kitty pink

Someplace I'd like to travel to: a Wendy's in northern California

Best running achievement: diving handoff in college in a relay which resulted in a 3 man collision, but our team made it out alive (although didn’t win)

What's his story: During my 2 days off a year, I decided to take a quick relaxing trip to a remote little key off the coast of Australia, where a chopper dropped me into a wave breaking 11 miles off the coast. After successfully surfing the wave and photographing the entire thing myself, I quickly hopped back on the board and started paddling in when I was attacked by a ferocious great white shark and a sea lion at the same time. Luckily I was able to quickly best the sea lion, filet him, and whip up a nice sushi platter to hold off the shark while I get free, but not before dropping my camera in the water and rendering it destroyed, and contracting a nasty case of swimmers crotch from some unruly actions by the sea lion.

Wait, I mean I hurt my back picking up my kids and can’t run for several months due to some surgery nuisance.

Chris Lowe
What's his story: (Injured)

Christine O'Donnell

What's her story: I am a competitive person, and didn't want to be out-done by anyone on our team who might have gone so far as to have surgery to avoid RTB. So, I got myself a bad back too involving a likely Spondylolisthesis on top of a scoliosis and a leg length discrepancy, all causing a disc/nerve problem. (At least this explains my ugly running stride). Or maybe I'm just trying to use all my PT jargon to throw off Hello Kitty?!?!

I wasn't sure if the back problem would be quite enough to get me out of running this year, so I decided I should pick up some GI problems. This quickly got me off the team, as no one wants to be in a van with me! I would have definitely violated the "no going in the woods rule" and been kicked out of the race anyways.

I am really good at running easy, infrequent, and in circles around my neighborhood (never can be too far from a bathroom)! So, if there is a run/walk relay race around Charlestown or a pool running competition -- Hello Kitty better watch out!

Liz Turner
What's her story: (Anemic and immune system malfunction)

Laura Kennedy
What's her story: (The never ending injury)

Meggie Sullivan

aka The Columbian

Favorite stinky smell: Irony

Color I hate most: The black in "little black dresses". Why not "burnt sienna dresses"?

Someplace I'd like to travel to: A finish line that requires a passport.

Best running achievement: When I first learned to walk.

Calling all women!

Our NBB Reach the Beach relay is still down a woman. Please let us know if you're interested in joining us or know of anybody who'd be interested.

It's a pretty nice deal and a kickass time to boot.

For crying out loud, there's a beer tent this year at the finish!

shopnewbalance.com

Just an FYI - the shopnewbalance.com (formerly nbwebexpress.com) has free shipping on most items right now.

Kitty go Boom!

Kaboom Kitty

We're into August now and the weekly count down is on.
Come here, little kitties, we're going to destroy you!

Movie invite

Anyone interested in watching Inception tonight?  I'll be at the Waltham theatre for the 8p showing. There's a small group of us for now.

Hello Kitty Crosses Line

I knew those pedophile-like mustaches had some truth to them:
Cover your children's eyes

Anders of HKAC has officially incited the 2010 RTB Blog War.

Anyone need housing?!

Hey everyone,

I'm currently looking for someone to take my room in my current house/the unofficial New Balance Boston women's team house/Marathon Monday Party Spot. I've decided to leave my comfortable and convenient Brighton bachelorette pad to live with a close college friend who is moving up to Boston at the end of August. The new lease begins September 1, 2010 and whomever moves in would sign a year -lease. Here are the details for anyone interested/or knows of anyone looking for housing:

Monthly rent: $497.50 (includes heat & hot water)
Parking available: $110 per month
Utilities: ~$60-70 per month (electricity, wireless internet & cable)
2 full bathrooms
Large eat-in kitchen
comfortable living room (that fits 29 (skinny) people as seen at the Marathon Monday party in April 2010)
Room available has the following: large walk-in closet; room for queen size bed, two dressers, desk
Apartment is on 2nd story of 3 story house
Coin-op laundry in basement
Located between the c-line (Englewood Ave stop) & B-line (Chiswick or Sutherland Rd & D line is 10 min walk away - Beaconsfield Rd)

Ideally, we're looking for a young, female grad student or working professional and if she runs that's even better ;)

Feel free to contact me should anyone be interested or know someone interested Leah.Brogan@gmail.com.

thanks for letting me spam the blog!

NBB to HKAC: Get a fresh pair of undies, you'll need them

I'm trying to decide if Hello Kitty is actually worried that we may not show up or are rejoicing that they can relax a little.

"Yvonne et al,
Yo... Hello Kitty just took a look at the team sign up page for RTB and all we saw were teams NB1-7? What the frig? You guys still running as New Balance Boston? Let us know what the deal is. Hello Kitty would be very sad if you guys weren't there as a team again. I mean...what about our arch rivalry???
C. Huggins HKAC"
 
Well, HKAC, worry not. We're coming and bringing the thunder. Trim your fur and sharpen your nails. The 2010 RTB fight is ON!!!

Rainy lake party talk

When you can't drink in the sun and go swimming, inevitably there's some good conversation drummed up about the most random things:

Exploding Whale

Reminder: Jenny Grist Mill 5k

The Jenny Grist Mill 5k is this Saturday @11a in Plymouth. Adam Stuhlfaut, the race director and one of the NBB board of directors, would greatly appreciate our help in this race, if you're not racing.  If you are thinking of racing, there is prize money available for top 3 men and women finishers.

For more details of the race, visit Jenny Grist Mill 5k.

I plan on going to help. If you are too or are racing, let me know if you'd like to carpool. Post-race there is a gathering at the nearby Run of the Mill Tavern.