Looking back - Feb 2008

 15 years ago:  I ran four races in February of 2008.  I started the month (02/02) at Northfield Mountain winning my own race.  I got into the lead early and put almost a minute on Ethan Nedeau over the 3.7 mile snowshoe course up to the summit and back down.  CMS took four of the top five spots.

                           
1 34:52 Dave Dunham      M 43 Bradford MA CMS
2 35:43 Ethan Nedeau      M 34 Amherst MA 
3 36:02 Tim Mahoney       M 28 Northampton MA CMS 
4 36:27 Rob Smith           M 40 Charlestown MA CMS
5 36:53 Steve Peterson     M 41 Chelmsford MA CMS                                                 
                                                                                                                                               
The following weekend I doubled up with Sidehiller (02/09) and Frosty’s Dash (02/10) snowshoe races on back-to-back days.  Sidehiller was a qualifier for the USA snowshoe championships but that didn’t seem to attract numbers like it had in the past.  Only 37 finished.  Teammate Kevin Tilton took it out hard and gapped me by as much as 15 seconds, I closed on him and was a scant couple of seconds back as we hit the last ½ mile on the parade grounds.  Kevin really hauled over that part, and I was off the back, we finished about 4 minutes ahead of Chris Dunn (acidotic). Bob Dion (of the “Dion Snowshoes”) took fourth place and top 50+.                                                                                                                                                
1 KEVIN TILTON M 26 CONWAY NH CMS  33:17
2 DAVE DUNHAM M 43 BRADFORD MA CMS  33:23
3 CHRIS DUNN M 39 STRAFFORD NH ACIDOTIC  37:11
4 BOB DION M 52 READSBORO VT WMAC-DION  38:00
5 JACK CASEY M 54 CONCORD MA  38:23
 
The next morning 111 showed up for the Frosty’s Dash snowshoe race in Atkinson NH.  The race directors didn’t seem to understand snowshoe racing all that well and allowed some to race in traction devices (much faster than snowshoes).  The 2.9 mile course had fast footing despite the rolling nature.  Pat Ard and Todd Lagimonier took off at the mile and I was left standing.

1 Patrick Ard       18:25 23 M
2 Todd Lagimonier19:00 42 M
3 Dave Dunham   19:38 43 M
4 Dave Hannon    20:22 36 M
5 Ken Clark         20:54 45 M
6 Bob Dion         21:48 52 M
7 Janos Mako      21:56 47 M
8 Scott Graham   22:09 49 M 
 
The following weekend (02/16/08) I headed down to Martha’s Vineyard with teammate Ken Tripp.  We had a lot of fun visiting some of the island tourist destinations (and the island high point) the day before the race.  The race was okay, but I ended up alone after 4 miles and stayed that way the entire race.  The course rolled quite a bit on the bike path and after 10 miles I didn’t feel great.  I ran out of gas at the end but was 2 minutes behind the nearest guy and had a minute plus on the next guy.  Tripp had a solid race just missing the 2-hour mark and finished in fourth place overall.

    1   1/11   M2529 1:52:00  5:36 Kevin Gray             29 M   397 Roslindale MA          
    2   1/28   M3539 1:53:57  5:42 Joseph Navas           37 M     1 No Eastham MA          
    3   1/42   M4044 1:59:13  5:58 Joe O’Leary             40 M   242 Medford MA             
    4   2/28   M3539 2:00:31  6:02 Kenny Tripp            38 M   321 Amesbury MA            
    5   2/42   M4044 2:00:43  6:03 Sean Doherty           43 M    74 Osterville MA          
    6   1/18   M3034 2:00:47  6:03 William Muccifori      30 M   379 Brookline MA           
    7   3/42   M4044 2:02:51  6:09 Dave Dunam             43 M    88 Bradford MA