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February 4, 2006
Hawley MA Northeast Regional Snowshoe Qualifier!
This morning we were up at 5:30 to go to Hawley, MA - western MA - pretty much the only place around with at least a foot of snow to compete in the Northeast Regional Qualifing Snowshoe race for Nationals. This is the race where I first met Mark last year in person. We had known of each other and talked on the phone for about a month prior but this was the first sightings!
It took us about three hours to get to the race. We brought two athletes from our school to compete in the junior division. The race was at Hawley State Forest which turns out to be quite nice. The course was five miles and was a lollipop course. The first mile was downhill on a snow mobile trail which is the same thing as a fire road or just wide trail where four or five people can fit across. The snow was icey and thin in patches but still present and runable on snowshoes. The next three miles was great. It was a single track trail through the woods, up and down big ravines and along windy paths. There were beautiful pine trees covered with snow that we ran by. We had to go across two streams that were not frozen so that was cold and a bit scary on snowshoes and some of the downhills were really slippery because the ground was exposed and it was rocky. Somehow I managed not to fall. The last mile was a repeat of the first mile only in reverse and uphill.
I knew three athletes there. One was an athlete I coached at Smith and two are athletes I coach at People's Academy here in Vermont. I ran with the Smith athlete for the first mile and caught up with her. I then ran with the senior I coach and for the last mile I ran with the freshmen boy I coach. I felt really good despite my three hour run yesterday. My time was slow, 57.10 or so compared to the first place time: Kelli Low (awesome runner/athlete/mountain runner) of 52 and change. I was happy that I felt good and could definitely go faster if I wanted. I did not do a cool down or run extra because I was satisfied with the run. The senior girl was first for her age group, the freshmen was third for his age group, and the Smith athlete was third for her age group.
Mark finished a disappointing third. He lead the entire race until the last mile. He had to break trail on the single track and found himself very tired by the last uphill. Richard Bolt was first and Paul Low second, both extremely good trail/mountain runners. However, Mark was only about 15 seconds behind Paul in the last race and has beaten some of Paul's times this year. Leading a snowshoe race is really hard work so I think that had an effect on Mark as well as the onset of a cold. Mark has already trained for Nationals in another race so really this was just a practice run for Nationals in March.
Total Mileage for the week: 71 miles! Made my goal!
Upcoming: Sunday I plan to run 10 miles and I would like to begin some regular ab work next week. My mileage goal for next week is 75 miles and I would like to do a 3 to 3.5 mile long run next week. I may go to Johnson tomorrow in the afternoon for some pool running if it works out.
Posted by mary at February 4, 2006 5:02 PM
Comments
Wow, the race sounds beautiful. It sounds like you snoeshoed strong!- good strategy , catching up to everyone. It sounds very very nice. Good job!
Liz
Posted by: Liz at February 5, 2006 3:44 PM