March 2023 Newsletter

Fam, in an effort to make us ever more efficient at disseminating knowledge I'm going to try to make this general News and Announcements a recurring thing for our Newsletter. So what follows are a couple things to keep on the radar and to stay updated with club happenings

Racing News

This month we have both a UVRS Race and a NHGP race!

March 18th is the annual and much beloved Shamrock Shuffle!! You can register for that here: https://lebanonnh.gov/816/Shamrock-Shuffle 

And be sure to do that before March 11th to get your t-shirt! Unless of course you already registered for the whole UVRS (you can do that here)

Later in the month on March 26th is our first NHGP race, the Nashua Soup Kitchen 10K. Info and registration for that is hither: https://nsks.org/run-and-walk-for-food-and-shelter/

You can check out the full series here: https://www.nhgp.org/2023-series/

Club News

Join the Social Committee!

As much fun as it is to run with y’all, we also want to host more fun social events for our members! But we need your help and ideas to do so! Consider joining the UVRC Social Committee and make your cool events ideas into a reality! 

We will be having a committee meeting towards the end of March (dinner provided), please reach out to contact@uppervalleyrunningclub.org if you’re interested!

Spring Couch to 5K Season is Just Around the Corner!

The Kick-off will be April 22nd so there is still time but March will fly by before you know it! So sign up soon while you’re thinking of it!

Couch to 5k NEW

Couch to 5k Alumni

March Runner’s Night Out will be March 14th @ Hanover Ramuntos (IT’S PI DAY!!!!)

I’m not saying anyone has to….but if people came to Runner’s Night Out with pies it would really butter my toast and fill me with joy. 

Membership Update

Just a fun note for the curious: As of right………now we have 204 registered members! I’m so happy we have such a large Fam and I hope to see all 203 (not counting myself) of you at some point this year! 

UVRS Finisher Prizes

If you weren’t able to attend the Runner’s Night Out and pick up your sweet sweet finisher prize for the UVRS, worry not! We WILL get them to come heck or high water. Please reach out to contact@uppervalleyrunningclub.org to arrange a pickup or delivery of your prize.

Club Announcements

Need Volunteer Website Keeper

It pains me to say this Fam but our website needs some help! Or at least a bit of more regular updating and some razzle dazzle. I’m looking for someone with website design and maintenance skills to volunteer to take the helm of keeping our website running smoothly and looking fly. If interested please reach out to contact@uppervalleyrunningclub.org and let me know!

The Covered Bridges Half Marathon continues to be an incredibly difficult race to get in on registration day (because it is a supremely good race). But if you missed out and had resigned yourself to the “better luck next year” camp, I have exciting news for you! While the CBHM has many individuals that run, did you know they also support several teams that represent charitable organizations and non-profits? One such local team is the Family Place.

Located in Norwich, Vermont, the Family Place  "delivers comprehensive programs designed to strengthen positive relationships, teach essential skills and promote enduring healthy growth for families with young children in the Upper Valley and surrounding communities". Since 1985, The Family Place has provided "a whole-family approach to helping children thrive". They "work with children and caregivers together, promoting positive parenting strategies and ensuring that children have the kinds of experiences that support their physical development, their social functioning, their ability to learn, and their long-term health." They provide several crucial services to the community such as: "parenting classes and groups, nursing services, early intervention, child advocacy, and child care financial assistance".

They are a wonderful organization and you can both support them AND still race in the 2023 CBHM by joining their racing team! As of now they still have open spots so please see the details summarized below (and more on their team page here) and consider registering with them! You can also learn more about The Family Place and the work they are doing for the community at their website: https://www.familyplacevt.org/about.

I wanted to take a moment to mention that we are surrounded to the North and South by some really awesome running clubs! Our neighbors to the North in Vermont’s capital city Montpelier for example have a group of highly active and dedicated runners called the Central Vermont Runners (CVR). 

Much like us they are a hodgepodge of runners of every kind, your road runners, your trail runners, racers, ultra runners, you name it. Also like us, they have a running series! Sadly I wasn’t fully aware of the CVR until recently so I wasn’t able to let you know before the official start of their racing series (they kick off on New Year’s Eve!) BUT they have a lot of races coming up on some great courses that I think are worth the “relatively short” trip up 91! 

The official details for their racing series are as follows:

“The Central Vermont Runners race series is a group of races in which CVR club members are awarded points based on their finishing time compared to the best time run by a CVR member in their age group. Standings are published throughout the year, and awards are presented to the age group winners and additional overall points leaders at the annual CVR banquet.

Our race series consists of 13 races. This includes trail races as well as road races. To be considered for the race series, a runner must be a member of CVR and volunteer in at least one CVR event (we hold 20+ events a year).  Our race series begins with a New Year's Eve 5K. Our next series race is the Kaynor's Sap Run on April 1.”

Their race series is below and you can see their full racing calendar and learn more about their club from their website: https://cvrunners.org/

2023 CVR/ORO Race Series

• New Year’s Eve 5K 2022
• Kaynor’s Sap Run (GMAA)
• Paul Mailman 10 Miler
• Adamant Half Marathon
• Capital City Stampede
• Onion River Outdoors Birdland 5K
• Bear Swamp Run
• Barre Heritage Trail 5K
• Berlin Pond 5 Mile
• Northfield 5K Run/Walk and Kids’ Mile
• Groton Forest Trail Run 10K
• Sodom Pond
• Leaf Peepers Half Marathon and 5K

Do you have coaching experience and want to make a positive impact in the community? If so, I have good news! Finding Our Stride, in partnership with the CCBA, are looking for a Head and Assistant Coach to lead their after school program this Spring!

You might have heard of Finding Our Stride, a local non-profit committed to improving community health and engagement through running and other activities, from Kristen Coat’s phenomenal article in last month’s Newsletter.

They continue to provide support to our community through youth engagement and you could help with that by coaching! 

In the program itself Runners meet twice per week after school (coaches can determine which days) and the program is open to Lebanon kids attending CCBA’s after school program. A season will last for between 6 and 8 weeks with a start time around the first or second week of April

Head and Assistant Coach will be provided a stipend of $700 and  $600 respectfully.

If you are interested, please reach out to Marisa Miller and Mike Fenzel for more details

In no particular order

• You are a naturally heavy sweater. The amount you sweat will border on concerning and preposterous but that’s just how your body does and there’s nothing wrong with that
• You need to warm up. Yes, every time. It may seem tedious but you’ll thank yourself later
• Always, always, ALWAYS, empty yourself before you go on a run even if it’s just a suspicion. Otherwise you will be forced to do some things you will not be proud of.
• It’s going to suck for much longer than you think but only if you try to do too much too fast. Take your time and give yourself grace. 
• Your actual pace is irrelevant. There are people that can run 2 miles in the time it takes you to run 1. And that’s totally fine, and you don’t need to try to become that fast person! The sooner you start running to run and not running to reach an unattainable goal, the sooner you’ll actually enjoy running. Comparison is the thief of joy my guy
• You WILL enjoy running. Eventually. 
• Get some GD good running headphones that loop over your ears and treat them well because otherwise you will burn through them like crazy.
• Even after you get consistent at running you’re going to have bad days where you just aren’t into it. Run anyway. The consistency is worth it and you’ll always feel better that you did
• It can be too; cold, hot, windy, or rainy to run. You have nothing to prove or gain by ignoring your gut. Be sensible or be sorry
• At least for your feet the whole neutral, over pronation, under pronation stuff is useless. Just get a shoe that doesn’t hurt and roll with it. Saucony and Brooks all the way
• Your feet are totally whack. They’ll carry you further than you ever thought, but they are whack
• Your toenails can fall off from running too much. Yup. 
• The "Runner's High" is real! It doesn't happen often but it does happen
• Nipple chafing is also real and can/will happen to you if you aren't careful
• Hills are weakness but you *can* do them
• You can run further and faster than you give yourself credit for
• Keep running. Even when you don't want to. It's one of the best decisions you've ever made
• If you let them dry, you totally can wear the same outfit multiple times. It'll start off gross but then you'll realize how often you have to wash your clothes otherwise and you'll get over it real fast
• Don’t listen to what anyone says, run commando it’s fine.
• YOU. NEED .TO. STRETCH!

I fall in with Kelsi and Peter. I find that if I work hard I can match their pace - barely. I understood most of the route George had laid out for us, but I'm not clear on the farm loop, or how to get from Smith Lake to Sheep Creek, so I am inspired to stay with these two to find the way.

Our pace never looks impressive on my watch, about a minute per mile behind where I think I should be, but most of the time we are in 2-3 inches of snow and I am sure the effort level is more than sufficient. That "Wind", they all complain about it, is a barely felt breeze by Upper Valley standards. But winter wind really is uncommon in the interior of Alaska.

It is about a mile around the farm loop and we meet a few people walking their dogs. I tell Kelsi that I might not be allowed to permanently move to Alaska unless I was to acquire a dog. "Or a team of dogs", she suggests. Kelsi just led a workshop on skijoring with dogs at the "Alaskan Musher's Hall" a week ago.

I have been impressed with the number of people I see biking on the commuter trail. Not right now, but on other days I've seen commuters with handlebar mitts, and headlamps. Some even with full helmets and face shields. And all of them with 5-inch tires or wider.

After the commuter trail, we are on the "North Campus" trail network. Most of these are groomed for cross-country skiers, but the bigger trails have a small side strip for snowshoes, walkers, and of course runners. Because the days are so short, with three hours of daylight when we arrived at New Year's, a number of the trails also have lights. It is a bit magical to be bounding down a trail through a thick boreal forest of spruce all clad with snow, when around a corner we meet the Nordic club. I'm told the Nordic club usually meets at Birch Hill on the other side of town, but occasionally skis north campus. It seems to me as if some of them are skating uphill about as fast as we are running downhill.

A small trail I don't know branches off to Smith Lake, and so we go and run across the ice. The lake probably has 3-5 feet of ice, with another foot of snow on top of that. There are moose tracks underfoot, and Jupiter and Venus are brilliant in the western frozen sky. Another small trail through a bit of muskeg, or spruce bog, and out to Sheep Creek and back to the Patty Center.

On a night like tonight picking the right number of layers is a bit of an art. Last week I was sweating at the end. Tonight I have three layers on the torso and two on the legs and I think it is about right. Five minutes out my fingers were numb, but by mile two I was warming. And mile three to the end were very comfortable.

Back the Patty Center people are trickling in, where George has hot chocolate for use.

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So how is RCN different from UVRC? First, a few words about how Alaska is different from the Upper Valley. Alaska has a population a bit larger than Vermont's (733,000 vs. 656,000), but an area 70 times larger them Vermont or New Hampshire. In fact, Alaska is almost ten times larger than all of New England (and Maine is not small!) The nearest rival running club is in Anchorage, 360 miles away. Fairbanks itself has a population of 30,000, and there are members who come in from North Pole (not the north pole), Fox, Chena, etc. Locals will point out that the "North Star Borough" (the equivalent of a county) has a population of 100,000. But it is the size of New Jersey!

The long and the short of it is that people in Fairbanks compete against people in Fairbanks. Once a year they might go elsewhere, and once a year people come here to run the Equinox Marathon.

But they still fill their calendar with all sorts of events. I ran in the Borealis Fun Run, and there is a full moon run every month. There are a number of snowshoe races and they share their calendar with the Endurance North Club, which means 100-mile run/ski/bike races in the wilderness.

A few weeks ago RCN had their winter sociable - a spaghetti dinner, their first indoor event since COVID. Sitting around a table with eight other runners I feel very at home and like I have "found my people". These are people who talk about the same things I think about. Any one of them could have been a member of UVRC - or even Central Park Track Club (the New York City club I ran with during our last sabbatical). Steph is a wildlife biologist who studies geese on the North Slope - but right now is recovering from a foot injury. Kelsi is a physical therapist who also does skijoring. Peter works for the rec. department. Scott is a Coast Guard retiree who hikes in kilts and runs in shorts if the temperature goes positive. And they all welcomed me, like a long lost brother, with open arms.