By Tyler Sheedy
Have you ever wondered if it was possible to run ten cross country courses in a single day?
Well, probably not. But that was the question I set out to answer on Friday, October 31st (one day before Meet of Champions), which also happened to be my 22nd birthday. Seeing how I would be back home from college to commentate at the race on Saturday, I figured that I could skip my one class Friday morning to spend my entire birthday in the Granite State. Normally I don’t support missing class, but I think birthdays are a reasonable exception!
My original plan was to go do some sort of epic climb or run up in the White Mountains, but one look at a very snowy weather forecast put an end to that idea. I still wanted to celebrate by getting in a ton of miles though, so I thought about what other cool things I could do. I knew it had to be at a place that was really fun to run, and I have always found that revisiting my favorite cross country courses from high school is really exciting. You can imagine yourself in races, relive your best (or worst) memories from high school, and in general the run flies by. So, I decided that to celebrate my birthday, I was going to run ten iconic cross country courses for a total of 50K, or 31 miles.
The process of choosing the courses wasn’t too hard. There were some obvious championship courses (Derryfield, Alvirne) and others that host some of New Hampshire’s more notable invitationals. Altogether I compiled a list of ten courses which were all relatively close to each other (it would be a little over 4 hours of driving from my house in Dover) and made sure the actual routes on each were well-documented, since there were three I had never raced at. Finally, I went to bed early on the 30th so I could wake up and get the adventure started straight away!
My first leg of the journey was Coe-Brown’s course. I met up with Tim Cox and his dog Brady at 5:30am and set out to run my first 5K in the dark. The trails were wet and I could barely see, but we had a fun time as Tim rode his bike next to me. In the spirit of it being championship season, we debated which courses were best for hosting Divisionals and Meet of Champs (you’ll hear my thoughts on that later), and eventually I entered the track and crossed the line in 24:57.
The next course was Merrimack Valley, which hosts the annual Capital Area Championship. I’d never been to this course before, but for years I’ve always watched the race video and it looked like a fun place for a meet. I pulled into a park next to Merrimack Valley High School and then located the starting line on the map. The course was awesome! Definitely not big enough for a race like states, but perfect for a small invite. The trails were fun, and the sharp hills around mile two were crazy – even borderline dangerous, which I enjoyed. The best part was running around places I’d only seen on video, sort of like I was jumping through the screen and finally seeing what the rest of it looked like. I wrapped up the course in a time of 24:10.
Next was the Cofrin Classic course at NHTI, where finally the sun was out! This was another one I’d never been to, so it was interesting seeing the final turn to the finish around the basketball courts that I had only seen on YouTube. The course was nothing like I expected, as it was pretty much just two laps around a pond while I’d expected a bunch of winding trails through the woods for some reason . There were some nice views of the State House, and before I knew it 9 miles were done, as I finished in 21:23.
The fourth stop was at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds, maybe the most popular course in New Hampshire right now. I never raced here in high school or college, but I’ve been to a few meets so I knew the course pretty well. It turned out that the America East Championships were being held at Hopkinton that day, and I drove in about two hours before the first race. At the gate I learned the entry fee was $15 and even though I’d be long gone well before the meet, I ended up paying it. Two seconds later I realized I’d totally messed up, since I had my media pass sitting next to me in my car, which I could’ve easily used to get in for free! But I suppose the entry fee will go towards the fairgrounds, which clearly is worth it because the course is in incredible shape. I made two and a half laps around the course for the 5K, said hello to some friends who were racing that day, and even had a little fun on the last mile, getting across the finish in 19:56.
The fifth course was Derryfield Park, my pick for arguably greatest cross country course on the planet. That being said, it’s actually not my personal favorite, as that one is coming up next. I ran the course three times the morning of Divisionals and spent six races videoing up in the reservoir loop, so I was all too familiar with where I was running. I took the ski hill very easy, and then bombed it on the descent just because whether you sprint or jog down the hills, it’s the same effort. I finished up the run and got a few pictures at the finish line, and luckily stayed on my feet down the stretch. Come to think of it, none of the athletes running in NH this year were in high school back when I crawled across the line at Manch Invite, which is crazy! I don’t think there’s a better place to host a state championship than Derryfield. It’s so iconic, and mile two is the perfect place for NHXC history to go down. Once I finished the run in 21:58, I was officially halfway done with my day!
Finally, it was time to run my favorite course, the Nashua South/Mines Falls course. I ran Meet of Champions here three times in my career, and always seemed to run really well. It’s fast, it’s iconic, and I love it. I thought it could be fun to crank up the effort a little on this one, and decided to shoot for a sub-17 5K. I got out hard in 5:25 for the mile, and then out in the woods I was flying! I felt awesome, and got deja vu back to when I dropped my good friend Lars Hogne along the canal in 2021. After rolling through two miles in 10:45, I decided to keep up the effort and eventually finished the course in 16:38, exactly one minute off my course PR, which was a pleasantly surprising result! I wish that Meet of Champions was moved back here, but maybe that’s just because it’s a nostalgic course for me.
After a short drive over to Alvirne, it was time to run the course which would host Meet of Champions the following day. I’ve never really liked the course to be honest. I think it’s hard to get into a rhythm and I miss the long stretches of smooth, fast running you get when Meet of Champs was held at Nashua. Speaking of, I was pretty tired from my run in Nashua, but I still felt alright and enjoyed the run, feeling excited for the action that would come the next day. The course was in fantastic shape and I spotted a few mowers working on getting the fields ready for the big race. I jogged down the finishing chute in a time of 21:38 and walked to my car, knowing I’d be back in less than 24 hours.
I quickly got lunch and then embarked on the longest drive of the day out to Kingston and the Jamie Martin Invitational course. I thought the course was pretty bad. Running through the center of town with no real looping was kind of weird, and while the woods were nice, they were also confusing at times. The lollipop section at the end of the out ‘n back was all on pavement too! It seems like a great meet is held there each year, but for me the course was lacking. I was very much feeling the effort of a hard 5K and 21.7 miles at this point, but I toughed it out and got to enjoy the scenery along the lake since I wasn’t focused on any sort of time goal. I finished back at the gazebo in 22:58 and got back on the road.
The ninth course was Oyster River’s DeMeritt Hill Farm, one of the toughest places to run in the Granite State. The orchards are a very fun place to visit for a hayride, but the same cannot be said about running! 24.8 miles in, the only goal was survival at this point. I just tried putting one foot in front of the other, and admittedly took a ton of breaks. Halfway through, I crossed a marathon on the day and following a grueling last hill, I finished in 23:57. I was one course away from being done!
The final course was a very personal one for me! I chose to run the 5K I created at Garrison Hill Park in my hometown of Dover. Each year since I was a freshman in college I’ve hosted a small invitational at the park over Thanksgiving break. The whole route was my own design, many of the trails were built by me, and it’s a really, really hard course! For context, the race climbs a steep sledding hill five times and an even steeper gravel access road once at the 4K mark. All in all, it’s triple the elevation gain of Derryfield! All things considered, I knew it wasn’t going to be a fast run, but it was guaranteed to be fun. I struggled through the hills, and fought across thorn bushes which had grown over the summer. Many times, the course was not runnable. However, at long last, I made the final climb and circled the park to cross the finish line in 41:08!
For most people, it would have been a pretty stupid way to spend a birthday. However, I thought it was one of my best yet! Plus, I got home in time to celebrate with my parents, and my Nana even came over for some pie while we handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. I was exhausted, but it had been a ton of fun getting a giant tour of all the best places for a race in the 603. I don’t really want to do it again, but knowing me I probably will.
