10 Years ago – January 2009
I only logged 288 miles during this month but raced eight
times. My goal was to do a lot of snowshoe races and the weather
cooperated. I kicked off the year at the Hangover classic, running
the JV race (5k) where I took 2nd place on a brutal
day. It was 15 degrees the roads were covered with snow, and the
wind was howling at over 30 mph. I
nearly drowned doing the ocean plunge! Two days later I
headed to Tewksbury since it was an “open” weekend (no snowshoe
races). Conditions were good but I ended up alone in 2nd place
right from the start. Jim Johnson took the win in 16:23 and I rolled
in 1:37 later. The next weekend I made the LONG drive to Pittsfield
for the Turner trail snowshoe race. This is a great course with a
tough climb and a fast descent. I hit the top in 2nd but
got my doors blown off during the descent and ended up finishing in 5th place
15 seconds behind teammate and top 40+ finisher Tim Van Orden.
A week later I completed my first double-race weekend of the
year. Jim Johnson and I headed west and stayed out there for the
weekend. I felt pretty lousy at both races finishing in 5th place
at Greylock Glen and 4th place at the Brave the
Blizzard. The following weekend I doubled again, this
time in Readsboro VT and back to Pittsfield. At Readsboro I took
third place just barely holding off long-time WMAC series ace Ken Clark. On
Sunday I had a decent run at the Curly’s record run. I love the
climb at this race and decided near the top that I wanted to see if I could be
the “king of the mountain”, I somehow got around Ben Nephew just before the top
and sprinted ahead. Soon after I lost the lead and ended up in
finishing in third place 58 seconds behind Ben.
My final race of the month was one I directed at Northfield
Mountain. A decent field of 77 showed up and I was surprised when
partway through I recognized Leigh Schmitt who hadn’t run a WMAC race in
years. He buried me on the descent and I ended up in fourth place
just over two minutes behind Josh Ferenc.
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