Concord, NH
Saturday, February 27, 2021
A snowshoe race has been on my to-do list for several years now, probably since I bought my Atlas Run snowshoes a few years back. But a dearth of snow in recent years combined with no local snowshoe races made this a challenge for me. Or so my story goes. Fast forward to Winter 2021, where we have had snow on the ground in southern RI for a longer period (3+ weeks) since quite a few years back, the most snowshoe runs that I have ever done in a winter, and not much else going on, so let's give this a whirl.
My interest was renewed when I saw on my Strava feed that both Steve Brightman and Dave Dunham had just run a snowshoe race as part of a 3-race series in Concord, NH. Of course, just my luck that it was already sold out (to be fair, Steve said he had alerted me, and I had procrastinated or whined about a drive up to NH). Undaunted, I e-mailed the RD to see if any slots might open, and he let me in! I love these laid back, low key races. Since there was no way to sign up online anymore, I offered to mail a check, but no, the honor system would work. I'm in! Came up Friday night and combined a dinner visit with Matthew before spending the night in Manchester.
Woke up to snow coming down, snow covered roads, and 28°. That all works well for me, except that the short 15 mile ride to Concord featured several accidents due to the weather, so it was a bit of a slow white-knuckled ride.
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| Upon arrival, as I'm getting my gear ready. (Thanks to Jana for the pics.) There was no parking lot, and everyone was parking single-file parallel parking style on this otherwise seemingly closed road. |
I "checked in" and went to meet the RD and hand over the more than reasonable $20 fee. RD Tom had a good sense of humor, as did his timer, Michael. I surmised that Michael would be a funny guy when I saw that his e-mail address was "portugeejoe..." . I know that sounds politically incorrect, and don't get me wrong, I would never use that ethnic term on someone, but if use yourself in self-deprecating humor, it's both admirable and funny to me. It turns out Michael's Portuguese connection is pretty close to RI, as he has some New Bedford connections, and seeing my RI address in the registration, he had e-mailed me ahead of time asking me to bring up some Del's and clamcakes!
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| Self-service check-in. So what's in the bag? |
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| Bib, pins, toothbrush and dental floss (this is, afterall, sponsored by Delta Dental!), a metal, and a Run NH face mask, which is thin and super comfortable. |
I thought snowshoes would be a given, but you could use whatever traction devices you wanted, or none at all as well. I went out on the trails at first using my YaxTrak Run and didn't have issue as the microspikes grabbed onto the ice under the fresh powder, but three separate people advised that their traction devices were "clumping" with fresh snow and might be even more prone to clumping during the race due to the temps rising, so snowshoes it was for me. Steve was in the same predicament of choosing between snowshoes or microspikes and made the same choice. OK, a few words from the RD (which I could barely make out) and ready to go!
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| Milling around near the start. |
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| Getting impatient. |
1st lap: Lined up near the front. One runner (er... snowshoer?) asked me if I can keep up with him (pointing to Steve Brightman), and I said no, I'm lucky if I can see him for first mile, so he jumped in front of me. Off we go!
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| I'm in 5th place just after start, (in yellow hat behind this guy) coming off the road and entering the woods. |
Steve and the guy behind him were soon out of sight. I couldn't see them anymore after even 1/4 mile. The next three of us (a woman, the guy who jumped in front of me, and me) ran in a pretty close pack, until the lead woman pulled away. I decided to try to go with her, and once we got into an open field, I made a move to go around the guy right in front of me. Only problem is that we were in a packed snow path and once I jumped out of the path, I'm into deeper snow and have to work even harder to go around him. I remembered this problem at a snow-covered Ryan Park run years back when the guy I was trying to pass would just speed up and hold me off from passing. Fortunately, the guy I was passing today was a gentleman and fair sport and didn't try to prevent me from passing.
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| Here is a section of the trail early on, which I took during my warm-up. It was just beautiful out there in the woods. |
After passing, I pulled away from my sportsmanlike competitor and at a switchback about a mile in, I could see he was quite a ways back now. I continued on fairly close behind the lead woman. It was fun running in the snow with the snow coming down, but my breathing and heart rate were pretty high. This was work! I remember waiting for a big downhill that never came (it was a small and short downhill to me) and a number of sheer ice spots that my snowshoes just grabbed right into. No sliding at all.
2nd lap: I could see the lead woman as we started the 2nd lap, but then not again until after I finished. It wasn't that I slowed down (I had a rare negative split in the 2nd lap), but rather she sped up more than I did. I wasn't by myself for long, though, as a mile or so into the 2nd lap, I started to pass more snowshoers, who were still on their first lap. I think that's better than not seeing anyone at all and just lapsing into one of those dead zones running as an island. The second lap otherwise passed by quickly and I was "soon" passing through the finish chute.
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| Here I am in the woods, after just having started on my 2nd lap. |
Final results (unofficial): 33:06, 4th overall, 3th male.
As I crossed the finish line, the RD was there with something extended in his arm. I finally figured out he was trying to hand it to me, so I took it. Cooled down with Steve, Jim Boule (2nd place finisher whom I met that day), and Brady. We ran the same 2-mile or so loop, and surprisingly to me, we were passing people still finishing up their 2nd loop.
It was 28° when we arrived at the race, 31° when we left, and by the time we stopped for lunch at a rest area just south in Hooksett, it was above freezing and the snow changed over to rain. That made the ride home a lot easier.
Thoughts as I relaxed on the couch that evening back in RI:
- That was a really fun event! While I am happy to cross this off my "bucket list", I would definitely like to do this again.
- I did better than I thought. I believe the previous race in the series was more competitive, but I'm still pleased with my overall placement.
- Why do my ankles hurt so much? Did I get bitten repeatedly by one of those ankle-biting little dogs and just can't remember? No, I kept awkwardly bashing my aluminum snowshoes into the inside ankle of the opposing foot. Should I be adopting a wider stance? Probably a rookie mistake.
Pretty nice loot for finishing 3rd male.
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