Snowshoe recap
I ended up with 11 snowshoe races between January 6 and March 10, four were Granite State Series, six were Western Mass series, and one was not part of any series. The 11 snowshoe races ties for the most I’ve done in a season (the most I’ve done in a year is 12, so I might tie that as well if Woodford has a race during the last week of December 2013). I’ll be thinking a lot about snowshoe later this year as the National Championships will return to the Eastern U.S. but for now I’ll settle for a quick look back at the season, and then I’ll stow away my snowshoes for nine months.
I ended up topping the masters field in all 11 races, in the overall I took first 3 times, second 6 times, and fourth & fifth place 1 time. I think my best race of the season was probably Prospect Mountain #2 where I was able to keep Greg Hammett within 8 seconds for most the race (he buried me in the last mile downhill), from start to finish I ran that as hard as I could. Whittaker woods (North Conway ) was the fastest I ran, covering 4 miles in 7:17 pace and that was painful the entire way. My worst race was Kingman Farm where I was flat and tired and just couldn’t maintain any speed. Note to self: avoid racing at night especially if it is the second race of the day.
Races
Date Name Dist Time Pl Field
01/06/13 Prospect Mountain
01/19/13 Whitaker Woods 4.00 29:10 2 74
01/27/13 Curly's record run 5.40 43:45 2 73
02/10/13 Prospect Mtn #2 5.40 51:59 2 44
02/16/13 Moore
02/16/13 Kingman Farm 3.20 25:37 4 108
02/17/13 Horse Hill 3.70 29:19 2 44
03/02/13 Hawley Kiln 4.70 44:30 2 55
03/03/13 Snowshoe to the clouds 6.20 1:00:07 1 14
03/09/13 NH snowshoe champs 6.20 47:27 5 90
03/10/13 Prospect mountain #3 5.80 53:33 1 49
Some stats on both series:
WMAC series – Only one person (Laurel Shortell) did all 16 races, here is the breakdown: 16 – 1, 13 – 1, 11 – 5, 10 – 6, 9 – 4, 8 – 5
7 – 12, 6 -10, 5- 15, 4 – 20, 3 – 28, 2 – 67, 1 – 273, and 448 different people did at least one race
I was the only person to score in both the Granite State Series (2nd overall, top master) and the WMAC series (1st overall, 1st master). There was some cross-over between the series but no one else did at least 6 WMAC races and at least 4 NH races. The two series were somewhat stylistically different with the NH races being mostly on fast groomed trails and the WMAC races held mostly on single-track slower courses. Check out the averages below. For me, NH races ranged from 7:17 to 8:00 pace with the average of 7:43 while the WMAC races ranged from 7:57 to 9:38 pace with an average of 8:49! In my experience it is good to do both kinds of races to get the REAL idea of what snowshoe racing is all about.
Dist Time Pace
01/19/13 4.00 29:10 7:17
02/16/13 3.20 25:37 8:00
02/17/13 3.70 29:19 7:55
03/09/13 6.20 47:27 7:39
Total 17.10 7:43 Avg. pace per mile
Avg. 4.28
WMAC
Dist Time Pace
01/06/13 2.60 22:11 8:32
01/27/13 5.40 43:45 8:06
02/10/13 5.40 51:59 9:38
02/16/13 3.50 27:48 7:57
03/02/13 4.70 44:30 9:28
03/10/13 5.80 53:33 9:14
Total 27.40 8:49 Avg. pace per mile
Avg. 4.57
Here are the top five in the NH series:
Jim Johnson M 35 BAA/Dion 400.00
Dave Dunham M 48 CMS/Atlas 370.15
Ryan Welts M 32 acidotic 365.78
Chris Dunn M 44 acidotic 347.17
Phil Erwin M 45 acidotic 342.72
Top 5 Men 40-49
Dave Dunham M 48 CMS/Atlas 370.15
Chris Dunn M 44 acidotic 347.17
Phil Erwin M 45 acidotic 342.72
Scott Mitchell M 43 acidotic 338.63
Andrew Corrow M 46 acidotic 299.14
Western Mass Athletic Club (WMAC) Series
I picked up my third series championship which ties me with Ken Clark for the most series titles. Ben Nephew, Paul Low, and Richard Bolt all have two titles.
Top 5 in the WMAC
Name Raced Best 6
Dave Dunham M 48 6 591.84
Tim Mahoney M 33 7 588.50
Tim Van Orden M 44 6 578.94
Rich Teal M 34 10 571.95
Ken Clark M 50 11 568.60
2 comments:
Congrats on a fantastic snowshoe season! I'm surprised to hear that Race to the Clouds or Prospect Mountain #3 were not your top races of the season. Those were both monster wins and both the second race of the weekend. Impressive! You also ran a stellar Hawley Kiln. You had me very close to cracking while you pushed the pace on the tough single track. It was interesting to see the difference in paces between the two series. I'd like to do more of both next year. I'm also excited about nationals being in the northeast.
Thanks Greg! Fun racing you this year. I sort of overlooked Hawley, that may have been one of my best race...it was certainly a race where I knew what I had to do to win (get 30 seconds on you before the snowmobile trail) but just couldn't shake you. Damn you are tenacious! :-) Next year is gonna be awesome, I bet I don't finish in the top 5 in either series since a lot of guys will be out there tuning up for Nationals.
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