The truck was pretty angry when I started it up. -5 degrees outside.
Fifteen minutes later, I pulled into the Brooksby Farm parking lot,
shocked that it was only half full
thirty minutes before the 10AM start. I went inside the retail store and glad
to see Bob and Denise Dion from Dion Snowshoes. I grabbed my goodie bag (contained a pair of
gloves, socks, hand warmers, caramel candy, a stick of honey) and number and
headed back to the truck to start a warm up with Brett Rickenbach. It was
chilly into the wind but not too bad otherwise in the layers that I had on. I
saw Dave Dunham after I got my snowshoes on and we traded notes on the course
for which he said was a little tricky in terms of being able to see arrows in
and on the snow in a few areas. He was right.
We were off after few words from the race crew and I jumped
into the lead with Dave right behind. I was working hard and stumbling a bit to
stay on top of the snow. Dave floated by a half mile in and got us into the
woods. After a mile, I mentioned our split, just for awareness (7:53?). I moved
around Dave a minute later as I felt good and wanted to bear some of the load.
The footing was fast and ideal in the woods. I wish we had more trail portions
within the race. We got out into the field and I did not see any arrows so I
gambled on one of three ways to go. I picked the path based on what I recall
the course was a few years ago and common sense that would get us back up to the
finish area. I was right as a red arrow in the snow awaited 30 seconds later
taking us up the hill.
Dave was on my heels making sure I did not take any time
off on the deeper snow or in the last climb. I held on for the win with Dave
just four seconds back. The course measured out to 2.7 miles, shorter than the
3 miles/5K that I knew of in the past. Brett mentioned where they changed the
course this year during our cool down. My time was 21:21. I got the shoes off
right away and wanted to cool down just as fast after giving a few answers to a
local Peabody Patch reporter. Dave, Brett, and I did a short cool down on the
roads before heading inside to enjoy hot apple cider, Apple Crisp, soups,
sandwiches, and raffle prizes. Race results
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| Brett and Dave post race |
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| Dave and I in the CMS gear |
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