The results are up for the 2nd annual Paine to Pain, and a big congratulations to all that finished. A number of people indicated afterwards that this was a hard race, which was of course, the reason we gave the race this name.
Finish line volunteers got a special treat with a close men’s finish, with Ricardo Santos beating Matt “Wrong Way” Patrick by 17 seconds. This was no blow-out. Congrats to Lisa Marie Gleeson, our woman’s winner, taking the winner’s tankard with a solid three minute lead.
We had 192 finishers out of 237 registrants, right by our goal of getting 200 finishers to the end. (And a hell of a jump over the 50 runners we had for our inaugural event last year.) Since your registration forms indicated that the most common way people heard about the race was “friend,” I thank those that passed on information about the race to others.
As I mentioned to a number of people, we hope to expand the race next year to 350 runners. I think the trail can hold that capacity without having wave starts and chip timing, but I would love to get feedback from others on whether you think the trail can support double the volume.
Of course, if we do expand, we will need more volunteer assistance. Those that have an interest in helping with next year’s race, please let me know. While one job we need to fill can be from anywhere (webmaster, anyone? This site needs to be updated and improved.), others we seek are local. This includes such things as trail marking, flag pick-up, water station management, finish line logistics and assistance, and other nuts and bolts logistical issues. So if your spouse, friends, kids, dog or goldfish want to help out, we would be grateful.
You can contact me at Eric [at] TurkewitzLaw [dot] com.
Eric,
Thank you for putting on such a wonderful event! Although I’ve run on all of the trails in the race at one point or another, I’ve never run them in succession like that. It was much more challenging than I expected it would be with the rocks, the mud, the slippery cat walks, stream crossings, etc., but all part of the experience that a trail race should be. The trails were in very good shape as well despite the heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday. I will be telling all my running friends up in Connecticut and elsewhere about running the race next year. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help next year.
Brian Vanderheiden
I’ve been telling local officials for years about creating this trail system:
If you build it, they will run.