NH Snowshoe champs

I headed up to Great Glen (at the base of Mt Washington) to close out this short season on snowshoes.  Acidotic King Chris Dunn was hosting the final race of the NH series which doubled as the Granite State snowshoe championships.  It has been a tough year for snowshoe racing in New England but a great year for training to run on the roads/trails/track etc.

I was a bit surprised to see Jim Johnson's vehicle on arrival at the race site.  JJ is recovering from a lingering calf injury and I could have sworn I read on his blog that he wouldn't be racing for a while.  I never bought it :-)  We headed out on route 16 for an easy 3 mile warm-up.  After that I changed into my Dion racing shoes and headed out for another mile to get loose.  It was over 40 degrees and bright sun, the view of Mt Washington was spectacular.

JJ took it out like a man posessed.  I hit the end of the first down hill and the start of the main loop in second pace with Chris Dunn right behind me.

Pic by Gianina Lindsey

It was a modified course of running twice over the Mt Washington side trails.  That was a bummer as the other side with the aqueduct loop had most of the big climbs.  The trail was solidly packed so it was fast underfoot, the fact that it was just "rolling" hills kept the pace very quick.  I hate quick paced snowshoe races, maybe hate is too strong a word.  I just don't like that style of racing because I'm better at the long slow grind.

Anyway, JJ was out of sight by a half-mile in and I was on my own and didn't hear any footsteps after 1 mile.  I got my final look at JJ when we looped the big field before heading into the 2nd loop.  He was almost exactly a two minutes ahead of me as we entered the second 5k loop.

My goal for the second loop was to not get caught and to hopefully run as close to even as possible.  I'd timed my split out to the Great Angel Station which was about half-way through the loop.  I was a little slower the second time around but within reason and kept it moving right to the finish.

kicking it in

After finishing, JJ and I hooked up with Keith O'b and headed out for an easy 3m back on the road.  We got back just in time to catch the award ceremony where basically everyone took home something!

Splits:
Downhill from the start to the loop    - 2:00
Start of loop to the Great Angel Sta - 10:50 (8:50)
Great Angel to end of loop 1            - 19:41 (8:51)     Loop = 17:41
Start of loop to the Great Angel Sta - 29:03 (9:22)    
Great Angel to end of loop 2            - 37:58 (8:55)     Loop 2 = 18:17 (36 seconds slower than loop 1)
Uphill from loop to the finish             - 40:37 (2:39)

Complete results:
    1 JIM JOHNSON          34 M   124 MADISON         NH CMS POLAR BEARS            37:30  6:03
    2 DAVE DUNHAM          47 M   119 BRADFORD        MA CMS POLAR BEARS            40:38  6:34
    3 CHRIS DUNN           43 M   113 STRAFFORD       NH ACIDOTIC RACING            42:56  6:56
    4 RICH LAVERS          35 M   126 CONCORD         NH ACIDOTIC RACING            44:03  7:07
    5 PHIL ERWIN           44 M   120 CALVERTON       NY ACIDOTIC RACING            44:26  7:10
    6 PETER KEENEY         45 M   117 BAR HARBOR      ME CROW ATHLETICS             44:44  7:13
    7 JASON MASSA          44 M   107 CONCORD         NH ACIDOTIC RACING            45:35  7:22
    8 KEITH O'BRIEN        47 M   123 CHELMSFORD      MA GREATER LOWELL RR          46:13  7:28
    9 DONALD FREDERICKSON  52 M   125 CONWAY          NH                            47:29  7:40
   10 LESLIE BECKWITH      36 F   101 NORTH CONWAY    NH ACIDOTIC RACING            48:00  7:45
   11 GABRIEL FLANDERS     36 M   129 KEARSAGE        NH                            48:06  7:46
   12 CHANDLER PELLOCK     30 M   105 CONCORD         NH WHITE MNT CROSSFIT         48:46  7:52
   13 SCOTT MITCHELL       43 M   115 NEW DURHAM      NH                            49:34  8:00
   14 PETER MALINOWSKI     57 M   110 BEVERLY         MA                            50:56  8:13
   15 STEVE SPRAGUE        42 M   116 BROOKS          ME ACIDOTIC RACING            51:05  8:15
   16 RICHIE BLAKE         43 M   121 TYNGSBORO       MA ACIDOTIC RACING            51:35  8:20
   17 MICHAEL RIVET        34 M   109 PORTSMOUTH      NH ACIDOTIC RACING            51:45  8:21
   18 SAL GENOVESE         46 M   128 MARBLEHEAD      MA DUNGEON ROCK RACING        53:01  8:34
   19 TIMOTHY LINDSEY      40 M   122 STRAFFORD       NH ACIDOTIC RACING            53:43  8:40
   20 CHRIS PETER          31 M   131 STRATHAM        NH GATE CITY STRIDERS         53:54  8:42
   21 BOB DUNFEY           60 M   127 CAPE ELIZABETH  ME TRAIL MONSTERS             57:59  9:22
   22 BRIAN GALLAGHER      62 M   104 ROCHESTER       NH ROCHESTER RUNNERS          58:15  9:24
   23 CRAIG POIRIER        42 M   103 BRENTWOOD       NH ACIDOTIC RACING            59:27  9:36
   24 ALAKA PELLOCK        35 F   106 BOW             NH WHITE MNT CROSSFIT       1:00:52  9:50
   25 GARY REUTER          72 M   108 KITTERY         ME ACIDOTIC RACING          1:02:06 10:01
   26 MARIANO SANTANGELO   42 M   102 DERRY           NH ACIDOTIC RACING          1:02:06 10:01
   27 DIANE LEVESUE        58 F   118 ROCHESTER       NH ROCHESTER RUNNERS        1:10:14 11:20
   28 ELLIE FERGUSON       51 F   111 NORTH HAVERHILL NH UPPER VALLEY RC          1:22:17 13:17