MRM’s Housekeeping

Website Upgrade

The MRM Website is in the process of getting upgraded! Why? The website has been operational for quite some time and functions off of an outdated platform causing it to be rather “clunky.” Feedback from the board, members and potential members is that it is challenging to navigate to become a member, manage memberships, connect to the club, find event info, etc. Sean Radcliffe our Website Guru and Pam Kingston, who brings a background in sales/marketing/website development, will be working together to complete the upgrade and smooth out processes to make the site more user friendly. 

Chiller and Membership Shirts

We are continuing to disperse shirts to those who earned through the Winter Chiller Series and to Supporting/Sponsoring Members. If you haven’t collected yours, check your email in the coming days for a reminder. Shirts can  be collected on Wednesday nights at the ConVal Track or you can connect with Becka via cell: 603-801-5762 to set up a different time that works for you. For those of you who have seen the shirts and are wishing you had one or are wishing you had another, shoot us an email as we have a few extras on hand AND keep your eyes peeled as we will be launching a Web Store soon for direct purchase!

A Message from the President (May 2024)

Hello Everyone,

Becka and I thought it might be a good idea to add some messaging directly from us, in both a better way for club members to get to know us a little bit more, and to highlight some of our thoughts on the club.  Hence the message from the President.  For this we’ll be alternating back and forth, month to month, so as not to burden either of us too much, much the same reason we were willing to be co-presidents.

I’ve known Becka since she was in seventh grade.  I coached her all through high school and may have had a hand a bit in her middle school running as well, but it’s been since then our working and friendly relationship has gone from coach/athlete, to friends, to mentor, to colleagues.  For the past two years we’ve been co coaches, equal partners in guiding Mascenic to the 2023 Division 3 championship title.  While I have a lot of faith in the program, Becka’s guiding hand was surely a benefit down the stretch.

Which is why when the club met in November to decide the fate and direction for the future of the club, I gave Beck a quick glimpse, raised my hand and volunteered us to take the reins as co presidents.  Those of you who know us, know we didn’t need to add to our plates, but recognizing our capacities while understanding our bandwidth, together we felt comfortable taking the club forward.  And we’d be remiss to not acknowledge Ross and Ginger along with the old guard for keeping things going and weathering the last couple lean years under covid.  I’m back with the club because of all their dedication to the greater Monadnock running community.

Becka and I are open to lots of ideas and directions the club can go.  We’ve had conversations with members over the last couple months on things people are interested in.  We welcome these ideas and certainly are willing to entertain just about anything (see what I have to say about Valhalla later) but please realize we both come with jobs that are important to us, family’s we want to spend time with, and other interests beyond this club’s organization.  If you have a great idea, bring it, your enthusiasm and your effort and support along with it and we’ll see what we can do to make it happen.

To your next best run,

Mike Smith

P.S. - After attending the first Wednesday Night Track workout at ConVal I recognized I didn’t recognize a lot of people, which is good, it shows growth.  I also realized that many might have been confused why  some old weird dude with a Valhalla Running Club jacket was out there yelling what I’m going to call encouragement (others might consider harassment) and offering splits and insight.  Well that was me and I thought it might be good for me, even though I wasn’t able to be on the track that night to be there and begin to make some connections I didn’t already have.  From doing that, I realized that maybe a better way to have people get a better understanding of who I am and where I’m coming from might be to do these two things.

First, I want to give a brief explanation of my Valhalla Running club.  Think of Tom Petty’s Wildflower album where he stepped away from the Heartbreakers for an album, not so much to get away from his bandmates, but rather to do something personal that he didn’t want to require them to follow.  Valhalla is such a side project that encompasses both our youth running program and a whole bunch of “off brand” styled events that don’t exactly fit with Monadnock Regional Milers.  I’m not interested in necessarily promoting anything Valhalla here, but if people are interested in our slate of activities they can reach out to me (runvalhalla@gmail.com.)

The other is with my many years of connection with the high school running scene, I’m involved with the New Hampshire Cross Country and Track and Field website (https://nh.staterunning.net/) where I write articles sometimes about high school running but mostly now about what running means and has become to me.  I’ve titled my column “Short Strides and Odd Thoughts” which sums it up pretty good.  Here’s the latest installment, which hints at why I wasn’t on the track ripping 200’s (my self professed favorite workout) but doesn’t explain why my cohort was…. In this article: https://nh.staterunning.net/2024/04/30/short-strides-and-odd-thoughts-run-the-line-post-run-recap/

MRM’s Housekeeping

Chiller and Membership Shirts

Winter Chiller and Supporting/Sponsoring Member shirts have arrived and are being dispersed! The shirts came out great and everyone is obsessed with how soft and comfortable they are, as well as their use for everyday wear, not “just another running shirt” to add to the pile. Shirts can  be collected on Wednesday nights at the ConVal Track or you can connect with Becka via cell: 603-801-5762 to set up a different time that works for you. 

For those of you who have seen the shirts and are wishing you had one or are wishing you had another…keep your eyes peeled as we will be launching a Web Store soon for direct purchase!

Winter Chiller Wrap Up 2024

Winter Chiller Series Wrap Up

The beginning of March saw the final race of our Winter Chiller's Series at BeFit in New Ipswich with another excellent turn out! We averaged close to 50 participants for all of our races, with runners coming from every town of the Monadnock Region, multiple states, and representing all age groups! COMMUNITY! 

A big "Thank You" to all of the towns, locations, and volunteers - we could not have carried out these events as smoothly as we did without everyone pitching in! Another "thank you" to all of the participants for your donations to the Local Food Pantries - what a great gift to give! 

Anyone who earned a Winter Chiller shirt will be able to pick it up at our April 23rd Quarterly Education Night. If you are unable to make it, let us know and we will set up another time! 

Welcome to Our Newest Club Sponsors

As the club moves forwards and continues its growth, we are working to connect our community based club with our local small businesses! We want to extend a "Thank You" and a warm welcome to our newest Club Sponsors and are looking forward to future collaborations! 

- Elevation PT & Sports Rehab

- Lifelong Athlete

- Divine on Main

- Rosaly's Garden

- Ben's Sugar Shack

- I'll let you know if there are others! 

Educational Series #1, 2024 : Speed works

Our first education series event starts in April 2024. You can see our educational events with local races on our race and events calendar here.

Remaining Chiller races for 2024

There are three remaining chillers for 2024.

All races start at 9:00 AM.
February 10th - Temple (Friendship Hall). Info here.
February 24th - Peterborough, NH (Elevation PT) Info here.
March 9th - New Ipswich (Be Fit) Info here.

Volunteers are the heart of a successful Chiller. If you’d like to help out before, during or after the race or bring a baked good to fill up hungry bellies afterwards please click the link to sign up!

https://docs.google.com/.../1-FpvgtyRo.../edit

Weekly group runs

MRM members gather for casual group runs every week.

• Vale Street Hills: This group meets and parks behind the People’s United Bank in Peterborough at 6 PM Wednesday. The run starts with flat warmup and ends with loops up Vale Street. All running speeds are welcome.

• Hancock Center: This group meets and parks at Hancock Police/Town Hall Saturdays at 8:00 AM. The runs are 5 to 8 miles in rural roads around Hancock.