Woodford Snowshoe

Yesterday the WMAC snowshoe series kicked off in Woodford Vermont.  I headed out a bit early for the 3 hour drive and met up with JJ to mark the course.  We headed out 1:15 before the race start in order to have ample time to mark the course and get back into (dry) racing gear.

The snow was very well packed (fast) and we were able to run the 3.5 mile course in 33 minutes.  We went so quickly I was a little unsure that we had done the course correctly.  Neither of us remembered climbing the "big hill" (we did).  We switched over to race gear and headed out for some more running.

At the start JJ took it out very fast.  TiVO went out quickly as well but was not able to go with Jim.  I felt like I was going all-out and was in 5th by the bottom of the first climb.  I felt a bit better on the climb and moved into 4th just before we got onto the single-track.  That was the last time I could see JJ.  I moved into third a little after that and pressed hoping I could close on Tim.  Somewhere near 1/2 way was the last time I could see TiVO off in the distance.  I ran alone the second half of the race trying to press as hard as possible.

JJ ended up winning in a new course record (low 20), TiVO was 2nd and top 40+ in low 21 and I took third in 22:14.  This was the sixth time I'd run Woodford and by far my fastest time.  Conditions were just unbelievably fast.  We watched the top 10 finishers then JJ and I headed out to loop the course again as a warm-down.  We did that loop in 28:03!

I wasn't all that pleased with my race, I'd only finished 35 seconds behind JJ and TiVO last year, but I wasn't feeling race ready.  Some of it had to do with post-XC let down and part was just not having my head in it for a short and fast race.  I'm looking forward to Turner Trail in a couple of weeks, hopefully the snow will be deep and the running SLOW.

Series sponsor Dion Snowshoes

 

First time racing in snowshoes this season, hoping for many more