Whitaker Woods snowshoe race

I headed up to North Conway this weekend for the 3rd annual Whitaker Woods 4 mile snowshoe race.  I got there a little early and it was snowing as I drove through N. Conway.  I met up with Kevin Tilton and he headed off to get things set up as I went out on the course with Double-J to finish marking the course.

KT in the snowy parking lot

We blocked off some trails that hadn't been closed off (they ski at night there) and it was a good chance to check out the course and catch up with JJ.  45 minutes later we'd finished and I switched into race gear.  I still had 30 minutes so I got in another 3 miles with some strides.  I bumped into a lot of familiar faces out on the course, it's great to see the same people come back every year.

Kevin gave some last minute instructions and we were off. He mentioned it'd be fast out there and he was right, the field sprinted out!  I was a bit surprised how fast everyone went off the line for a four mile race with plenty of room to pass.  It took me 200m to move up into third and I didn't catch Chris Dunn until nearly 3/4 of a mile.  Double-J was already 30-40 seconds up and disappeared from sight.  Chris hung tough and I didn't get a step on him until just after the mile.

I felt like I was working quite hard but at 3 miles there is an out/back type section and I could see that Chris and Danny Ferreira were close behind.  I gave all I had and hit the finish line more than two minutes after JJ in 29:10.  This years course was a little longer than last year I when I ran 28:40 (in 2011 I ran 29:39)...but it is always hard to compare snowshoe races.  The conditions were very fast!    I headed out for a very slow 2 mile warm-down and hit the road.   Kevin did a great job putting on a fantastic race, the indoor facilities are a major plus.

Place	Time	Name		Sex	Age	Club	Points
1	26:56	Jim	Johnson	M	35	BAA/Dion	100.00
2	29:10	Dave	Dunham	M	48	CMS/Atlas	92.34
3	29:57	Danny	Ferreira	M	36	acidotic	89.93
4	30:00	Chris	Dunn	M	44	acidotic	89.78
5	30:30	Ryan	Welts	M	32	acidotic	88.31
6	31:10	Phil	Erwin	M	45	acidotic	86.42
7	31:16	Humzu	Jafferji	M	24		86.14
8	31:48	Chuck	Hazzard	M	52	Trail Monster Running	84.70
9	31:56	Amber	Ferreira	F	30	acidotic	84.34
10	32:02	Jason	Massa	M	45	acidotic	84.08

Mount Ascutney

The Mount Ascutney hill climb was the final race in the USATF New England Mountain series again this year.  I headed up this Saturday for my ninth time taking on this “hill” which is very much like running half of Mt Washington.

I met up with CMS teammate Tim Mahoney and we both set up camp and then headed up the road for a nice easy preview run of the course.  We reached the parking lot (where the finish line is) in 42 minutes.  After a couple of minutes checking out the view we headed back down.  It seemed an easy decision to pass on the additional 7/10ths of a mile (trail) up to the summit tower.  We ran down as easily as possible and hit the start line 35 minutes later. 

After a nice dinner with JJ at the local brew-Pub we hung out with Paul Kirsch (the Mountain series director) and Frank Holmes.  It made for a nice relaxing day.

I hit Dunkin’s early on race morn and then went through the usual pre-race prep.  We headed out for an easy 3 mile warm-up and then I changed into racing flats and headed out for another mile with strides.  I felt a bit flat (maybe from 18 on Friday and 16 on Saturday?), tired and a lot more nervous than “usual”.  I figured I had a shot at my 40+ PR and had splits to run right around 31:00.

The gun went off and it seemed like an all-out sprint for the first half-mile.  I found myself in 8^th very early on and in 6^th by about ½ mile in.  Double-J was way out in front with Philip Kreycik who I had run back-forth with for a good stretch at Loon Mountain.  They were flying!  I settled in behind Tim Mahoney, Ross Krause, and Todd Callaghan.  The pace seemed to become a bit more realistic after ½ mile and by the mile (8:00) I was back in the group.  I moved ahead a little later after we passed Kreycik who was walking.

I tried to put the pressure on as I moved to the front and Ross responded and stayed with me.  We slowly gapped the other guys as JJ disappeared ahead of us.  Ross and I were dead even at 2 miles (8:43/16:43) which was a couple of seconds under the pace I’d hoped for.  I knew I’d need to gap Ross soon as there were some flatter and even FLAT stretches later in the race.  Ross put the pedal down on the flatter stuff and pulled away.  He had a couple of seconds on me at 3 miles (8:39/25:22) and I was definitely hurting.

The last half-mile of the race has a couple of tough climbs and I focused on reeling Ross in.  With about 2 minutes to go I passed him and pushed for all I was worth.  I was more interested in the time than beating Ross but I’ll take any opportunity to move up a place.  I ended up crossing with my fastest last .7 and masters best of 31:04.  Double-J finished exactly one minute ahead of me and Ross rolled in 9 seconds behind me. 

CMS had a fine day with four in the top six and 6 in the top 13.

1  30:04 Jim Johnson       M3039   35         Madison, NH       CMS

2  31:04 Dave Dunham     M4049   48         Bradford, MA      CMS

3  31:13 Ross Krause       M3039   32         Easthampton,MA CMS

4  31:43 Todd Callaghan   M4049   42         Beverly, MA        GCS

5  32:33 Tim Mahoney     M3039   32         Holyoke, MA       CMS

6  32:55 Robert Hult        M4049   42         Harvard, MA       

7  33:16 Philip Kreycik      M2029   28         Cambridge, MA   

8  33:44 Erik Vandendries M4049   47         Chestnut Hill, MA

9  34:10 Matthew Zanchi M2029   22         Natick, MA         

10 34:52 Quincy Schmidt  M2029   21         Vienna, VA        

11 35:10 Jonathan Rice    M3039   33         Lunenburg, MA  

12 35:23 Tim Van Orden  M4049   44         Bennington, VT  CMS

13 35:26 Martin Tighe      M5059   54         Providence, RI    CMS

Pack Monadnock

It has been a couple of years since I've run Pack Monadnock due to it conflicting with the USATF New England 5k road championships.  This year there was no conflict so I was off to New Hampshire for the 10 mile romp from Wilton to the summit of Pack Monadnock.  This would be the 14th time I've made the trek so I've got a pretty good mental image of the course and a decent feel for how I should run it.

I checked my old results and worked out the approximate splits to run 1:06 flat.  That would put me 39 seconds under my masters PR.  I felt that I was in pretty decent shape, but I also did NOT drop down this week (I ended up with 98 miles for the week).  I definitely did not feel "up" as we headed out to Wilton.

Dave La, his daughter Danielle, JJ, and Kevin T joined me for a warm-up.  We checked out the first mile of the course which is the toughest mile until probably the 7th mile.  Conditions were good with temps in the upper 50's and a little bit of drizzle.  The field looked strong with Whirlaway's Brandon Newbould and Team RUN's Justin Freeman the likely guys to give Kevin a race.  My hope was to keep top 40+ runners Todd Callaghan and Tim Van Orden in sight and maybe reel them in over the last two miles (which are the only part of the course that are truly "mountain" running).

Right away I found myself in 12th/13th place on the initial climb to the mile.  I was right on pace at the mile and tried to be agressive on the downhills after that.  I slowly moved up in the field and teammate Tim Mahoney and I were side by side as we hit 2 miles still right on pace.  During the thrid mile we began to reel in teammate Ross Krause (who was probably a bit tired after his 50k victory last weekend).  We caught Ross just before the 3 mile mark which again was right on the pace I'd hoped for.  I could see Ryan Aschbrenner up ahead with Todd Callaghan and Tim Van Orden, they had 45 seconds on us at three miles.  I tried to relax knowing there was a LONG way to go.

Ross, Tim and I ran together from 3 miles 'til 8 miles with each of us taking up the slack whenever the pace slowed.  It was great having teammates to work with and we definitely gave no quarter.  We caught Jim Johnson, who was suffering from stomach ailments, just after five miles.  I hit 5m in 30:23 which was 7 seconds ahead of what I'd hoped for.  Things were going well!

I kept telling myself "get to 8 then make a move" and that was much better than the damn Hootie and the Blowfish tune that was stuck in my head!  We pounded down the final drop to Route 101 and Ross said "here we go" as he sprinted away.  I tried to cover his move and pulled ahead of Tim.  We could see Callaghan, TiVO and Aschbrenner up in the distance.  I still thought all three might be catchable.

Ross and I hit the 9 mile mark in stride and I was sitll thinking a PR might be in the works.  I was also thinking that I really wanted to catch the guys in front of me.  Ross was tough as nails on the climb and I just couldn't shake him.  We caught TiVO with a 1/4 mile to go and he offered encouragement as we went by.  With about 200 meters to go we hit the steepest pitch and Ross just floated away.  At the same time I was able to get around Aschbrenner and struggled up the final pitch to the line.  I hit my watch AFTER passing the SECOND timing mat and came up with 1:06:37 a new 40+ PR.  Somehow in the results I was given 1:06:39...I'll have to talk ($$$$) to John Mortimer about that :-)

Pl	Time	Name		Age	Gend	City	St	Team	No	Pace
1	1:02:03	BRANDON	NEWBOULD	30	M	NOTTINGHAM	NH	WRT	194	6:13
2	1:02:29	JUSTIN	FREEMAN	35	M	NEW HAMPTON	NH	Team RUN	129	6:15
3	1:02:45	KEVIN	TILTON	30	M	N. CONWAY	NH	CMS	189	6:17
4	1:05:44	TODD	CALLAGHAN	42	M	BEVERLEY	MA	Gate City	109	6:35
5	1:06:37	ROSS	KRAUSE	32	M	EASTHAMPTON	MA	CMS	138	6:40
6	1:06:39	DAVE	DUNHAM	48	M	BRADFORD	MA	CMS	17	6:40
7	1:06:43	RYAN	ASCHBRENNER	34	M	NASHUA	NH	GBTC	50	6:41
8	1:06:58	TIM	Van Orden	44	M	BENNINGTON	VT	CMS	193	6:42
9	1:07:16	TIM	MAHONEY	32	M	HOLYOKE	MA	CMS	73	6:44
10	1:08:47	JIM	JOHNSON	35	M	MADISON	NH	CMS	182	6:53
11	1:09:20	BRIAN	RUHM	47	M	NASHUA	NH	Gate City	160	6:57
12	1:10:27	MARTIN	TIGHE	54	M	PROVIDENCE	RI	CMS	178	7:03
63	1:26:50	DAVID	LAPIERRE	48	M	CHELMSFORD	MA	CMS	3	8:41
80	1:31:38	DAVID	KROM	53	M	WORCESTER	MA	CMS	81	9:10
94	1:33:45	ROBERT	THOMAS	52	M	CHARLTON	MA	CMS	123	9:23
115	1:38:13	WALTER	KUKLINSKI	63	M	PRINCETON	MA	CMS	7	9:50
117	1:38:32	RAYMOND	ANAIR	43	M	ROYALSTON	MA	CMS	155	9:52

Splits:
1 = 6:27
2 = 12:26 (5:59)
3 = 18:08 (5:42)
4 = 24:27 (6:19)
5 = 30:23 (5:56)
6 = 36:48 (6:24)
7 = 42:54 (6:06)
8 = 49:52 (6:58)
9 = 56:58 (7:06)
10=66:37 (9:39)

Granite State Snowshoe Series - Final results

It was a tough year for snowshoe racing, but a great winter for training on the roads and trails.  I competed in all three of the Granite State series races taking 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd.  In the "best 2 of 3" scoring I finished 2nd overall to teammate Jim Johnson and edged out Acidotic Racing team leader Chris Dunn in the masters competition.

 

				Best 2			1/21/2012	3/3/2012	3/11/2012
Rank	First Name	Last Name	Club	of 3	Total	# raced	Whittaker	Horse hill	NH champs
1	Jim	Johnson	CMS	200.00	200.00	2	100.00	0.00	100.00
2	Dave	Dunham	CMS	188.05	279.92	3	95.76	91.87	92.29
3	Chris	Dunn	Acidotic	175.60	262.39	3	88.26	86.79	87.34
4	Jason	Massa	Acidotic	162.14	162.14	2	79.87	0.00	82.27
5	Don	Fredrikson		155.58	155.58	2	76.60	0.00	78.98
6	Sal	Genovese	DRR	147.65	147.65	2	76.96	0.00	70.69
7	David	Hippert		146.53	146.53	2	72.94	73.59	0.00
8	Richie	Blake	Acidotic	146.23	218.58	3	73.53	72.35	72.70
9	Chris	Peter		141.76	141.76	2	0.00	72.19	69.57
10	Tim	Lindsey	Acidotic	139.90	209.33	3	70.09	69.43	69.81
11	Michael	Rivet	Acidotic	139.28	139.28	2	66.82	0.00	72.46
12	Brian	Gallagher	RR	129.89	129.89	2	65.57	0.00	64.32
13	Mariano	Santangelo	Acidotic	124.20	184.18	3	59.98	63.81	60.39
14	Gary	Reuter	Acidotic	123.40	123.40	2	63.01	0.00	60.39
15	Kevin	Tilton	CMS	100.00	100.00	1	0.00	100.00	0.00

 

Great picture by Scott Mason - JJ leading the chase group at the NH champs