Monday, January 16, 2017

Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble

I met Dave Dunham at the Newburyport Park and Ride. Two hours later, we arrived at Whitaker Woods in North Conway for my first snowshoe race of the year. CMS teammate Kevin Tilton is the race director. Several CMS mates also arrived: Ed Shelton, Paul Bazanchuk, Sam Wood, & John Pajer. It was sunny and temps warmed up to maybe 20 degrees. I did a warm up in sneakers on top of the groomed trail with Dave and Paul. Once I got on a single track down hill, it was suicidal, and lost them so I shuttled around on my own. I got back and changed into my racing gear and Dion Snowshoes. I did another 10 minutes out on the course.

At the start line, I saw a lot of new faces (new comers). I got out at the start and settled in behind Kevin Tilton who had enough volunteers to let him race. I held my own on a few climbs in the first few miles. Kevin put a gap on us that I could not make up. The groomed trails were nice and I would say that this made the course pretty fast. The single track trail was manageable in all respects. I had a battle in the 2nd half of the race with John Corona in what was mostly flat groomed terrain. I finished in 8th place, time of 27:29.7, 1st in my age group for the 3.9 mile course. I did a cool down with Dave and we settled inside for some soup and waited for the awards where I scored home baked goods courtesy of Jess Tilton. I devoured the cookies and brownies as soon as I got home. Check out the sweet photos that Joe Viger took.

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