Yesterday, I headed out to Readsboro Vt. for a snowshoe race. Here are the
results.
I hadn't raced on snowshoes in a couple years, so I was pretty excited to enjoy the tons of snow that has been hammering New England. It took me about an hour to get there. It was a nice drive over through Brattleboro and over Hogback Mountain. The views driving on Rte. 9 were pretty awesome.
I checked in and boarded a school bus to be ushered to the start of the point to point race. The temp was around 12 degrees for the 10am start. Despite Greg's concern about my gear, I felt like I was going to be plenty warm during the run. We got to the start and had a couple minutes to get ready for the gun. I started in the middle of the pack, which was probably too conservative.
The race started with about a 100 yard straight-a-way on a snowmobile width trail. It immediately took a sharp turn down a very
steep hill. I avoided falling, but many around me went down face first or head over heals. Once the hilarity of the hill was behind, I fell in a long, slow moving line on deep single track. I knew it was going to be hard to pass on this course.
Every 5 minutes there would be an opportunity to sprint past runners in the crusty, deep snow to the side. You basically had to double your pace to make a pass. It required a lot of energy, but I enjoyed the challenge of moving forward. I entered the single track behind the third female. She ended up in 21st place, so I figure I was in about 24th place with only single track for the rest of the way.
I kept passing runners and looking ahead to see if I would eventually get to a point where I wasn't right on someone's heels. It wasn't going to happen. A few runners fell, which allowed for a guilt ridden pass. Oh well that's racing! With approximately a quarter mile to go, I caught up to the woman's leader Amy Lane. She was moving pretty well, and I didn't think I would be able to pass her until she fell face first. I passed her and held on for 8th place.
I ended up only a minute+ behind the winner Ken Clark. He, Tim Van Orden, and Tim Mahoney had the horrible duty of breaking trail. The conditions made it tough to pass, but easy to keep the leaders in sight. It was a fun day, and I'm looking forward to putting on the old snowshoes again this winter!
01. Ken Clark 48 32:04 100.00
02. Tim VanOrden 42 32:05 98.96
03. Tim Mahoney 31 32:08 97.92
04. Conner Devine 17 32:12 96.88
05. Rich Teal 32 32:29 95.83
06. David Merkt 27 32:44 94.79
07. Erik Wight 51 33:09 93.75
08. Glenn Hammett 33 33:11 92.71
09. John Agosto 46 33:12 91.67
10. Amy Lane 31 33:14 90.63
