Todd Callaghan drove us up to Sandwich NH for the Sidehiller 4 mile
Snowshoe which was the first qualifier event for Snowshoe Nationals which is to
be held in Vermont. It was cold and windy. It was in the single digits with the
wind chill. Multiple layers was key. The
race was super competitive and it was awesome to see so many CMS members out
for this. The guy responsible for me getting into snowshoe racing and CMS, Ben
Nephew, was in attendance. It was like old times. Furthermore, Jim Johnson is
back with the team dominating like his old self. Speaking of old self, Dave
Dunham put a whooping on me.
I got a good clean start and settled in for the two loop
course around the fairgrounds. My early placing of fourth was short lived. I
remember Paul Kirsch’s words before the race to JJ and I that the course will
benefit a strength guy. I wanted to get in one lap and see what I was in for.
Paul designed the best possible course. That said, he made it as tough as he
could by keeping the course contained in the fairgrounds. Thus, most of the loop
was taken off groomed trail. The snow was loose and light. I could call it sandy
when the depth exceeded a foot at times. It was tough and slowed pacing down. I
saw several bottlenecks but they would not last for more than a few minutes.
I went through lap one around 14:56 and finished with a
time of 29:27. The 2nd lap felt much harder but was quicker due the
track widening after all competitors went over the course. I was exhausted but
finished strong as I got real good pressure from Ryan Welts and Nate Bassett
was strong over the last mile. I was good with the 10th place
finish. Todd ran a solid – first race. He is going to crush the rest of the
races we head to this winter. As a bonus, I won a pair of Dion snowshoes at the raffle after the race. Acidotic led by Chris Dunn and director Paul Kirsch put on a solid event as usual.
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| Ryan, Ethan, Ben, and I before the end of lap one Photo by Joe Viger |
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