Sleepy Hollow Mountain race – The 23rd annual USATF NE
mountain series kicked-off in Huntington VT on a 39-degree rainy day.
With how my ankles have been feeling I was not exactly looking forward to this
race with its three significant climbs and (worse for me) descents. I was
sort of looking forward to it since I knew this would be my last realistic
opportunity to get a win in the 50+ age group as teammate Tim Van Orden is just
a few days away from entering the Senior category.
I met up with TiVo and Erik V and we
headed out for a warm-up. We ran out on the course and viewed the final
stretch (1.3 miles) of XC ski trail. The course was wet and would be
muddy and slick. We also checked out part of the first descent which
would also feature a couple of ice patches to navigate. My biggest fear
was the potholes that were not visible until you stepped in and the ground
disappeared. If nothing else this race would be interesting. I
wanted to keep Erik V in sight on the first climb and hopefully pull away on
the downhill. I figured Jim Boule (acidotic racing) would be the guy I’d
need to beat to win in the 50+. He is a solid climber and descender and
we were closely matched last year.
Nearly 300 took off at the start and I
quickly counted 30 in front of me as we started the initial big climb. I
slowly worked my way up (.7 mile with 370’ of climb). I saw a lot of
people trying to cut tangents, which I’d usually be the biggest support of, but
on this day you were better off sticking to one side of the trail (even
slightly off the trail) where the footing was a bit more solid. Any gains
you got by cutting distance on a tangent were lost slipping around in the
mud. By the top of the first climb I’d got into about 15th place.
I held my ground on the steepest part of the downhill, only Dan Princic went
sprinting by on the lower part of the descent. In .9 mile we dropped
500’. I had Cassandra Marin and Jim Boule right on my tail keeping me
honest. Cassandra went by on the XC trail but I passed her soon after as
we started the second climb. I got Dan P a little further up the climb
and started to close on Peter Gurney and Steve Brightman. We had nearly 2
miles before we’d hit the top again and that was broken up into two climbs.
The footing was very good on this part and I’d make up ground on the climbs
then lose it on the downs and flats. I could also hear Cassandra close
and fall back depending on the whether we were up or flat.
We hit the switchback section and I
could see Gurney and Brightman 5 and 15 seconds ahead and could also see that
Marin and Boule were about the same behind me. There was still a lot of
racing left. Gurney almost took a dangerous spill on the Darth Vader
trail which was very slick, he recovered without plummeting off the side.
Those guys hammered the downhill to the finishing field. I kept them in
sight and slowly pulled away from my pursuers. I love the final climb of
the day, it is a bit nasty with single-track, roots, and rocks. If you don’t
know the course it can be hard to figure out how hard you can push. The
half-mile climb of 300’ is a real kick to the gut. I closed on Brightman
(who turns 50 at the end of this year) and got to within a couple of seconds as
we exited the single-track. Steve started going straight instead of
taking a sharp left. I yelled for him to come back and saw that Gurney
had already gone that way as well and he contoured back over onto the XC
trail. With about a mile to go we were within seconds of each other.
That wouldn’t last as they motored on their way and I did all I could to just
stay upright.
I crossed the line in 8th
place in 50:54 taking the top spot in the 50+. My main goal of not
getting hurt was met, as was my goal of taking the Senior age group. TiVo
and I headed right out for a 2 mile warm-down before we got too cold to
run! We got to see some of the action on the course as we headed out over
the last part of the race. It was great to see so many familiar faces
gutting it out on a tough course and a tough day. Among the top guys the
course ran about 3-4 minutes slower than last year, so I’ll take solace in my
time that was 2:43 slower than last year.
1 45:43 Brandon Newbould Mopen WRT
2 46:37 Eric Blake
Mopen Woodbridge RC
3 47:14 Kurt Hackler
M40+
4 47:56 Eli
Enman
M40+ GMAA
5 49:30 Tim Van
Orden M40+ CMS
6 50:22 Peter
Gurney Mopen GMAA
7 50:31 Steve Brightman
M40+ CMS
8 50:54 Dave
Dunham M50+ CMS
9 51:06 Eric Darling
M40+
10 51:24 Cassandra Marin Fopen acidotic
M50+
1 50:54 Dave
Dunham CMS
2 51:40 Jim
Boule
acidotic
3 53:23 Erik Vandendries
CMS
4 54:20 Chris
Smith
SRR
5 57:16 Bruce Chirstensen
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