Sunday December 6, 2020
This race was postponed from November which I signed up for
in order to have cross country tune up before the New England Cross Country
Championships. Former CMS teammate Tim Cox and family have been hosting this
rolling terrain cross country event for almost two decades at Coe-Brown Academy
in Northwood, NH. About eight inches of snow had fallen the day before. Most of
the snow was plowed along the trails with a 4 wheeler while even a few trees
were reported to be cut down and out of the way. There were six heats of races during
the day to keep everyone distanced out. I fell into heat # 3 which started at
1:15PM. I saw Dave Dunham and Dan Verrington cooling down from their 11AM race.
I got schooled on what the course terrain and conditions were like. Dave lent
me a pair of Kahtoolah Microspikes which helped a lot in getting traction on
the course. The toughest part of the course was the opening and closing 150M
where the snow was ankle deep but already beat down by the first two heats of runners.
I jumped out and settled into 2nd place after
a quarter mile. I got passed by 800m in by the eventual winner who would run
23:45. I moved up to second place and held that place until getting passed with
400 meters to go. I was gassed and maintained into the finish which
was on the track buried by snow. I placed 3rd in the heat and 23rd
overall with a time of 24:55 and 8:02 miles for the 5K distance. It was
certainly a fun race even with the tricky footing. I benefitted with the Katoolah spikes. I am going to invest in a pair which is perfect for lightly
packed snow. I headed out for another 3 miles on the course for a cooldown on the quiet course which waited another hour for the last two heats/races for the day.
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