Exeter snowshoe
hullabaloo – My final snowshoe race leading up to the nationals was
the penultimate Granite State series race this weekend. I’ve never run in a “hullabaloo” so this
looked very interesting to me.
I got to
the race early, with the late start (11am) I got in a run earlier in the day to
help loosen up, and headed out for my normal 3 mile warm-up. It was already about 50 degrees and
warming. The snow was going to be very
soft. I changed into race gear and
headed out for a mile on the course in snowshoes. This was going to be interesting! The course was a big figure 8 with a ton of
up/down and turns. Basically you never
went more than 100m without a change in direction and/or a climb/descent. It was also entirely single-track and the
snow was soft and getting softer.
hul•la•ba•loo – noun
: a very
noisy and confused situation
: a
situation in which many people are upset and angry about something
It truly
was a hullabaloo at the start as 80+ anxious runners took off down the
single-track. I got out cleanly in
2nd place as Ryan Kelly stormed off.
The fifth runner of the line got his shoe stepped on and went down
blocking the trail and nearly getting trampled to death. I heard a lot of yelling during the first
half mile, I guess it was people calling out “on your left” as they attempted to
pass and sort things out. It is
considered good sportsmanship to yield the trail to a faster runner. I heard after the race that this did not
happen and especially the top woman runner was impeded. Sad to hear that.
Anyway,
I was out clean and working hard to keep Kelly in sight. I had Ryan Welts and Chad Carr right behind
me keeping me honest. The effort felt
very hard, mostly the footing was very poor and you’d slip/slide or punch
through a lot. That can be
exhausting. I looked at my watch at 16
minutes in and thought “probably half-way done”. Right around the same time we did a section
of the course with a big looping turn and I could see Kelly out in front but
only about 25 seconds ahead. Within
another minute or so Ryan Welts made his move and flew by me on a downhill. I was happy to have him lead for a bit and I
settled in trying to place my snowshoes wherever he got good footing.
At 22
minutes I snuck a peek at my watch again.
I was getting tired! We turned
the corner onto the pipeline trail and with the long straight-away we could see
Kelly not that far ahead. Chad Carr made
his move and flew by me and Welts. He
looked like a man on a mission.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on where you were in the pack,
that was about the point where the snow was the deepest and least tracked. Kelly and Carr were doing a ton of work
stomping through the deep and very heavy snow.
It wasn’t easy back in fourth place but it was slightly better than being
in the lead.
We
continued to close on Kelly and with ½ mile to go Welts and I both made a move
to go by Carr who graciously allowed us by.
The last climb over “Camels Hump” was difficult and I egged on Ryan with
a shout of “come on we’ve got him”. We
got to within a couple of seconds of the lead when we hit 400 to go and the
first really packed out section of the course.
Kelly took off, Welts said something like “damn tri-athletes” and he took
off as well. I was already all-out and
was left flat footed. Kelly took the win
in 33:32 with Welts 7 seconds back and me another 7 seconds back. Chad Carr rolled in 25 seconds later and a
fast finishing Kristina Folcik took 5th place overall (despite the
aforementioned tangle with some less than gentlemanly runners).
Another
great event put on by the Acidotic Racing crew on a perfect late winter
day.
1 33:32
Ryan Kelly 32 M Concord, NH NH Multisport
2 33:39
Ryan Welts 33 M Northwood, NH aR
3 33:46 Dave Dunham
49 M Bradford, MA CMS
4 34:11
Chad Carr 38 M Cambridge, MA CRC
5 35:45
Kristina Folcik 36 F Northwood, NH La Sportiva
6 35:47
Quinn Parker 20 M Hampton, NH Sweetie Pies
7 35:48
Ned Kennedy 55 M Bolton, CT Shenipsit Striders
8 35:54
Phil Erwin 46 M Wading River, NY aR
9 36:01
Marek Telus 38 M Hopkinton, NH aR
10 36:05
Chris Dunn 45 M Strafford, NH aR
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