tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68139115860503396912024-11-01T06:34:48.979-04:00Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-78004285404834250232010-04-10T22:47:00.011-04:002010-04-11T20:50:30.498-04:00

I haven’t posted anything since my marathon in Pennsylvania back in October but thought I’d put up something before Boston next week. I'll put up another post after the race (sure to be loaded with excuses).Cathy and I have followed a modified McMillan training plan getting ready for Boston. McMillan emphasizes miles over speed. At age 51 after two knee meniscectomies my legs simply cannot take

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-43119528820215835972009-10-13T21:28:00.004-04:002009-10-13T22:04:01.332-04:00

Cathy and I flew to Philly on Saturday morning as I wanted another try at Steamtown. Last year I ran a Boston qualifying time in 3:23:55 but I was disappointed with the last half of my race. This year I lucked out on 2 fronts: the weather was unusually cool and I stumbled on a group of 20 somethings at the starting line trying to qualify for Boston---which they had to run in 3:10 or less. I felt

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-54479135820906996462009-09-20T20:50:00.011-04:002009-09-22T10:50:11.662-04:00

I'm going to take a break from blogging for a few months as I enter my final three week taper for the Steamtown Marathon (October 11) and continue coaching with the Nashua PAL school program (check out our exciting team blog here: http://ledgestreetxc.blogspot.com/ ) and later with our Granite State Flash Junior Olympic program from late October thru mid-December. http://www.granitestateflash.com

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-58418323607448869052009-09-07T23:06:00.004-04:002009-09-07T23:21:40.522-04:00

There are plenty of local road races devoted to worthy causes but the St. Charles Children’s Home 5k race has got to be at the top of the list. The St. Charles Children Home in Rochester, founded in 1945 by the Grey Nuns of Canada was originally an orphanage and now serves as a group placement home under the direction of New Hampshire Catholic Charities for children from families in crisis. The

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-42121226099220149422009-09-02T22:24:00.007-04:002009-09-06T08:44:49.039-04:00

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a while starting today. I've enjoyed the blog but today I started coaching with the Nashua PAL school program and will coach the Granite State Flash youth boys from late October until mid-December. I am also running more than 70 miles/week getting ready for my October 11, 2009 marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so, combined with family and work

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-901025248317275092009-08-24T21:50:00.004-04:002009-08-25T12:07:19.479-04:00

The past week has been brutal payback for the cool and rainy summer we experienced here in New Hampshire from late June into early August. I'm a terrible hot weather runner so 4 out of 5 days this past week I (reluctantly) crawled out of bed early, put on my running gear and headed down to Nashua and the Mine Falls trails near where I work to get my run out of the way before the day's heat and

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-50656798142988681952009-08-18T21:30:00.006-04:002009-08-18T21:46:34.033-04:00

My son Chris is a runner but prefers to juggle. We have the dents on our living room ceiling to prove it. Here is a 5 minute juggling video he put together (filmed in our back yard) a few days ago and posted on juggling tv. Juggling video hosted @ Juggling.tv

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-87714157315680550122009-08-14T22:29:00.013-04:002009-08-16T21:41:40.301-04:00

It has been many years since I’ve run the Cigna 5k race but I decided to give it another shot this year after a nine year hiatus. The race is by far the largest field of any distance in New Hampshire and one of the largest 5k fields in New England with close to 5000 runners. I last ran the race in 2000 with temps close to 90 degrees and vowed it would be my last Cigna. This year I decided to

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-71245408586603317782009-08-12T21:48:00.008-04:002009-08-13T21:54:46.861-04:00

On Sunday we headed up to beautiful York Golf & Tennis Club in York, Maine for a Merra family golf outing. I’m not exactly sure how this fits into a running blog other than to note I was more tired at the end of this 18 holes (riding a cart no less) than I was running 20 miles on Friday night. We had three groups and played scramble format (everyone hits and you pick the best shot and then

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-25061224805305573172009-08-08T22:32:00.005-04:002009-08-08T22:55:31.945-04:00

We took a break* from racing this weekend and volunteered at the 7th Annual Crisman Memorial 5k Race in Amherst, New Hampshire. The race is run in memory of Kyle and Tim Crisman. On the afternoon of November 3, 2002,the two brothers from Amherst (pictured above), then students at Souhegan High School, were killed in a tragic automobile accident on Rt. 101 in Peterborough, NH while returning home

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-45150212111116580882009-08-03T21:55:00.006-04:002009-08-03T22:18:52.482-04:00

It’s been more than a week since I’ve posted but I’ll try to catch up. Last Tuesday night (7/28) we ran the 49th Annual Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler in Newburyport. This was our first time running this race and the race drew more than 3500 runners for the 10 miler and 5k combined. Newburyport is an incredibly scenic coastal town and there were more spectators on the course than any race in recent

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-14829208474712995212009-07-24T17:05:00.013-04:002009-07-24T21:57:17.854-04:00

I’m not exactly sure why I’m posting the below video today. It's one of my favorite sports videos of all time. I remember watching this race live on TV back in the 1972 when I was 13 years old and I’ve lost count of the number of times since then I’ve watched the re-play. The version I have at home is actually on a video cassette and has an interview of Dave Wottle spliced throughout the clip. I

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-67020875426203950892009-07-18T19:10:00.013-04:002009-07-19T10:27:14.990-04:00

Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s when I was in high school and college it seemed like most of the local road races were 5 milers or weird distances like 5.4 or 7.1 (like Falmouth) with a 10k thrown in once in a while. Somewhere in the late 80’s and early/mid 90’s (what I refer to as my lost weekend from real running) the 5k distance crept in and that seems to be standard fare these days.

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-73870536016497754972009-07-10T12:46:00.008-04:002009-07-10T14:00:33.709-04:00

After more than three weeks of steady rain it seems we FINALLY have broken out of the cycle of clouds followed by rain followed by more clouds and then more rain. Even a hard core cold/rainy weather runner like me hopes the sun peeks out once in a while.I’ve posted a few pictures above of my friend Roy Seliber of Sammamish, Washington who is training for the Cascade Crest 100 miler. http://

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-27921671956351970802009-07-02T07:25:00.007-04:002009-07-03T17:31:48.945-04:00

The Gate City Striders is New Hampshire’s largest running club. One of the Club’s most successful community outreach activities over the last twenty years has been its annual “Fitness University” program. Fitness University is completely free of charge, open to all children in the community ages 3 thru 14 and is comprised of a series of eight weekly 90 minute “clinics” centered around running as

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-63366532377863599812009-06-28T22:59:00.008-04:002009-07-07T08:07:16.337-04:00

Today we headed up to the Shaker Seven Road Race in Enfield, New Hampshire. Enfield is located eight miles south of Dartmouth College. The seven mile race starts at the Shaker Museum located on the shore of Mascoma Lake and loops around a large section of the lake (mostly rustic dirt roads) before crossing back over the Main Street bridge and back to the Village. New Hampshire is the home to

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-62406767291628007162009-06-23T22:23:00.005-04:002009-06-24T11:19:27.479-04:00

My blog rarely ventures outside of New England and most of the time focuses on my mundane running exploits. These expolits now seem exponentially mundane when you read about Ryan Johns. Ryan is a recent Columbia University architecture graduate and a friend and teammate of my son Anthony on the Columbia University cross country and track teams. Anthony has related many stories over the last few

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-25715907496013630962009-06-20T21:04:00.018-04:002009-06-27T22:52:01.931-04:00

I'm not sure I'll have time tonight to post much about today's race but I thought I would still post a few pictures. This was my first Mt. Washington Road Race and it was much more difficult than I expected. I stupidly dropped my camera at one point and lost more than a minute and had been running ahead of pace up to that point. I ran 1:29:06 and our GCS Seniors team finished 1st out of 12 teams

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-59557300314696852292009-06-08T22:33:00.010-04:002009-06-10T07:42:48.401-04:00

This will unfortunately be a short entry as I’m buried in work and have five superior court hearings this week. On Sunday we traveled 1 ½ hours south to Lincoln, Rhode Island for the 10th Annual Rhody 5k. This race is one of the races on this year’s USATF New England Grand Prix race circuit. As usual we were late (my fault) and arrived just 20 minutes before the start but fortunately the women’s

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-15258939751064480452009-06-01T22:45:00.005-04:002009-06-02T07:48:32.918-04:00

The Pack Monadnock 10 miler organized by the Gate City Striders has been a popular race for many years in southern New Hampshire but one that I had always successfully found excuses to avoid. Pack (2300 ft) is located within Miller State Park in Temple, N.H. and is the highest point in Hillsborough County. It is surrounded by Temple Mountain directly to the south , North Pack Monadnock (2276 ft.)

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-10083150643247555242009-05-27T22:42:00.011-04:002009-06-29T12:21:01.234-04:00

Despite having one city with a population of 110,000 just 10 miles to the north and another city of nearly 90,000 only 15 miles to the south we are lucky to live so close to many beautiful rural country roads. One of the most scenic routes we run on a regular basis starts in Amherst, passes into Mont Vernon and then crosses into New Boston on Joe English Road. I've written about this route before

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-68210143599887458012009-05-23T23:19:00.004-04:002009-05-23T23:29:43.917-04:00

My initial recovery from Boston was much easier than expected and within ten days I was back to daily 60+ minute easy runs. Unlike my Boston qualifier in October 2008 (where I dragged for more than three weeks after the race) I felt literally no pain in the days after the race other than some expected soreness in my quads. By the end of April I had put Boston in the rear view mirror and turned my

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-10045391613480260112009-05-15T23:03:00.005-04:002009-05-15T23:33:46.648-04:00

This will be my final post on this year’s Boston Marathon. I will however try to continue posting over the Spring and Summer so stay tuned. Overall, I was happy with my race (274th out of 1826 in my age division) and was extremely lucky to have run essentially injury free for 13 straight months. I ran every day but four between January 1 through race day on April 20 and just a little more than a

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-22530682425965138832009-05-04T21:56:00.008-04:002009-05-04T22:18:46.652-04:00

Once you reach the crest at BC the crowds are enormous and while I was relieved the hilly five mile stretch that comprises Heartbreak Hill was now behind me, my relief was tempered by the fact that I still had five miles of difficult running left. I also noticed the wind picking up and many in the crowd were now wearing hats and jackets.We descended over the trolley tracks and onto Chestnut Hill

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6813911586050339691.post-38337116123632433272009-05-01T21:40:00.008-04:002009-05-03T20:01:50.516-04:00

Just after passing the 13.1 mark in downtown Wellesley the course bears slightly left off of Rt. 135 onto Rt. 16 and then stays on Rt. 16 for the next 4 ½ miles. Miles 14 and 15 are relatively flat and I passed the 14th mile in 7:33 and the 15th mile (which passes in front of Marathon Sports in Wellesley and then immediately over Rt. 9) in 7:40, slightly slower than the 7:27 I had maintained

Mike Merrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01181238535452030165noreply@blogger.com