Recent history

Five years ago: January 2013 -  I ran three snowshoe races and got a win and two second place finish.  First up was Prospect Mountain 2.6 mile snowshoe race featured a fantastic mix of ups/downs, single-track/wide trail, and tracked/un-tracked.  There was a LOT of snow out there.  Not sure how but I got myself a win over a very good field.

Woodford, VT, January 6, 2013

1 22:10.5 Dave Dunham 48 M

2 22:51.5 Jeremy Drowne 35 M   

3 23:20.7 Josh Ferenc 31 M   

4 23:38.8 Steve Dowsett 22 M  

5 24:23.9 Nick Curelop 24 M   

6 25:01.0 Tim Van Orden 44 M  

A couple of weeks later I headed up to North Conway for the Whitaker Woods 4 mile snowshoe race which was very fast due to the lack of snow.  There was just enough snow out there to run in snowshoes (but traction devices would have made it easier and faster).  Jim Johnson competing for the Blue&Yellow Unicorns won by about a quarter mile.  I got second despite ankle, hip and back issues.

North Conway, NH, January 19, 2013

1 26:56 Jim  Johnson M 35 BAA/Dion  

2 29:10 Dave Dunham M 48 CMS/Atlas   

3 29:57 Danny Ferreira M 36 acidotic   

4 30:00 Chris Dunn M 44 acidotic  

5 30:30 Ryan  Welts M 32 acidotic   

The final weekend of the month had me traveling to Pittsfield for Curly’s record run had very fast conditions (although the 1,000’ of climb may have slowed things down).  From my blog post: About 5 minutes into the race all of us (the top 5) went straight when we should have gone right (at a nearly 180 degree turn).  I got us at a little over 2 minutes before we got back to the course…so we added on 4 minutes (Josh a little more and TiVO a little less).  We made our way through the entire field!  Luckily the snow was not deep and passing was very easy, some people even pulled off and let us through.  I gapped Dowsett as Ferenc pulled ahead.  Near the top of the climb we caught Ken Clark and I asked him how many in front and he told me he thought 2 or 3.  A half mile later, just as Ferenc was catching the leaders (Teal, Dengate, and maybe Northan?) they all went straight at another very sharp right.  I missed the turn as well but only went a minute long.  I hit the course again just as Dowsett and Mahoney came up on the intersection.  I got around them and only saw one set of prints on the ground.  Soon after Ferenc caught me and I told him “only one more in front of us”.  We caught Ken Clark (again!) just as we started the long descent.  Ferenc was off like a shot and I just tried to keep him in sight.  We hit the road and about 1.5 miles of crazy fast running to go.  I took a look back and could see Dowsett in the distance.  Even with the mess up (over 6 minutes) the race pretty much finished in the order I think it would have had we not gone off course. 

1 Josh Ferenc M 31 0:43:04 100

2 Dave Dunham M 48 0:43:45 98.63

3 Steve Dowsett M 24 0:43:50 97.26

4 Tim Vanorden M 44 0:44:26 95.89

5 Tim Mahoney M 33 0:44:32 94.52