New Hampshire Snowshoe Race Series: 1st Snowshoe Race Ever!

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.

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!

Self-service check-in.  So what's in the bag?

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!

Milling around near the start.

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!

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.  

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.  

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.

  
  

Weekly Log 22-Feb to 28-Feb-2021: Clinging on to Winter

Border Patrol Challenge miscalculation:

The duration of the challenge was quite clear in that it was from Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox, so I have only myself to blame for error in interpretation.  I was correct in that Spring Equinox will occur on Saturday, March 20th and thus assumed I would be able to run a final challenge that weekend, but here is where I erred:

Look at the time in snippet above.  Yeah, I won't be go for any runs that
day that finish before 5:37am.  I'll leave that to Shara and JV.  Which unfortunately means
that I only have three more weekends (not four) to get in seven more courses, including a 20-miler
and a 27.  Time to start planning and augmenting with weekday runs.

Monday:  5

I often take Mondays off from running.  But with great snow conditions coming to an end with forecasted rain and temps in the 40s nearly every day this week, I opted to get out there for what might be my last snow run for now.  Ran in Woody Hill with Brady on trails with snow mostly packed down by fat bikes and snowshoes.  YakTrax Run, with microspikes.

Tuesday:  4 run, 2 walk

After an evening of rain and subsequent freezing, I went to Burlingame to run closed roads.  Unfortunately, the roads at 31° were a sheet of ice, and after slipping all over, I came back to the car, put on Yak-Trax and ran on the icy but now manageable trails.  Not one of my better runs.

Followed that up directly with our first CCC work crew in many weeks, due to inclement weather and snow covered trails.  Worked in Wahaneeta on rerouting a section of orange trail that is subject to frequent flooding.  There was still snow on the trail, but it was manageable.

Wednesday:  0

Poor planning.  Lost my window, and eventually my enthusiasm, for a run.

Thursday:  12

Afternoon:  6 miles with Brady on the beach at low tide.  Sunny and 38°, but very breezy.  Ran from Weekapaug intentionally into the wind, so that when we turned around, oh so nice!  When I was almost all the way back to Weekapaug along the beach, a person pointed to me and said, "I thought that looked like you, Jeff.  I recognized your gait from a mile away" (or something like that).  The person was really bundled up, and I couldn't make an identification.  Asking "who are you?" seems so disenchanting; besides the person may have responded, "Do you not recognize your own mother, who nurtured you since birth?".  That would have been really embarrassing.  It turns out it wasn't my mother, but as I really had no idea who it was, I just went with an awkward half-hearted laugh and said "Good to see you [whoever you are]".

Evening:  6 miles at Brazen Hen Fun Run.  There were probably a dozen people there, but I opted to run with Bob Gralton, as he had a 5-mile route planned out on roads through Pawcatuck that I had never been on, including a decent hill incline on Asher Avenue.  Good catch up with Bob, with conversations focused on our kids at college (both of us have a child at UNH) and marathons past, present, and future.  Bob is signed up for Philadelphia Marathon, which was my first marathon.  Back at the ranch (in this case, the Brazen Hen for a beverage and oddly but very good french fries courtesy of Sharon), I was repeating the Philly Marathon story when another runner said, "Philly was my first marathon also.  I ran it in 1977.  How about you?"   1977, eh?  Um, no, I wasn't running too many marathons at age 13.  2003 it was.

Friday:  5

Morning local run with Brady.  Ran into Winnapaug Farm Preserve.  The middle trail down to the pond was wet, so we turned around, but the easternmost trail was dry enough not only to get out to the pond, but to continue to run along the shoreline all the way to Lathrop Wildlife Preserve without getting wet.  That was pretty neat.

Saturday:  6

New Hampshire Snowshoe Race, Concord, NH.  Separate write-up forthcoming.

Sunday:  10

As mentioned at start of this post, time is NOT on my side to complete the Border Patrol Challenge.  Some weekdays and a doubling up may be needed.  Accordingly, here was today's original plan:

• Run #1:  Run Buck Hill Tri-State relatively easy.
• Run #2:  Run West Thompson Dam relatively hard.  Although run #1 and #2 are in two different states, they're only ten miles apart and will lessen the BPC burden.

And here's what actually happened.  Got to Buck Hill, found it too be all snow and sections with unavoidable ice, talked myself out of bailing multiple times, made three wrong turns, backtracked and corrected every one of them, and was glad that I was able to mentally finish the Buck Hill Run at all.  There was nothing remotely "relatively easy" about the run.  It took me much more time and effort than I had envisioned, I was beat up, tired, and done.  There would be no West Thompson run today.  Here is my pictorial write-up of the Buck Hill run.

This is how the run started (and ended), on sheer ice.  I only
brought along my YakTrax Run with microspikes as a fleeting
thought leaving home this morning.  Without them, I don't
think the run would have been possible.
---
Even Brady with his four legs was slipping through here. That was my
first thought to turn back, as it wasn't fair to him, but after about 1/2 mile, the ice
was much less, presumably because the farther away from the
parking lot we got, the less humans that ventured this far.

After we turned off a main dirt (or ice) road and onto the
North South Trail, the ice was replaced with soft snow.
But surely I've lost the trail here, right?  Nope.
You can see a very narrow track above from about 6 o'clock
up to 11 o'clock.  That was so narrow that the branches on
both sides were scraping up the old legs.

Now where?!  I figured for sure I was off the trail here.  But again, no.  There are no footprints here at
all, and the trail is quite technical, so I had to look around for clues.  If you look at the very top
of this photo, just left of center, you'll see a classic blue blaze on a solid gray tree (one of the few
not speckled).  Did you find it?  Unfortunately, in this rock garden, I banged the knee into one
of the rocks.  I didn't slide, but at places here the snow was calf-deep and hard to see what's underneath.

Headed further north on the NST, getting closer to the MA
border, we could once again pick up signs of human footprints,
which packed the trail down a bit and made it more manageable
to run on instead of constantly breaking through the snow.
OK, finally I have the confidence that I'll actually finish the run now.
(It also helped my confidence that I'm now about 4.5 miles in on a
9.5 mile run.)

Amazing how much snow is STILL here
after a week of rain and warm temps.

And finally we made it to the MA border.  Really neat sign!  This was not here just last May,
when Matthew, Brady, and I ran here.  Shall we go 92 miles to NH on the Midstate Trail,
or 78 miles to Atlantic Ocean (Charlestown) on the North South Trail?
Neither for today.  What remains is a very short jaunt into MA, then one mile to the MA/RI/CT
tri-state point and monument, and then two miles back to the parking lot.

Journey's end.  The legs are really scraped up, with many
nicks and small cuts, but that's the life of a trail runner.
Laying down in the snow actually felt quite good,
as I lamented whether this would be final adventure
run in the snow this season.  Tomorrow is March 1st
after all, and we've had a great run of snow in
RI this season already.

Weekly mileage:  42 run (21 on YakTrax Run/microspikes, 4 on snowshoes), 4 walk

Weekly synopsis:  After a few really low mileage weeks, the trajectory in mileage is finally swinging back up again.  This was a varied and interesting week, from packed snow runs to a run on the beach, a first Brazen Hen road run in some time, and finally a snowshoe race!

Weekly highlight:  The snowshoe race for sure.  After that, it would be the Buck Hill run, as it was awful and challenging at the same time with all the snow and ice.

Weekly lowlight:  The Burlingame run on all ice.  Not good for the hips with all the sliding.

Weekly Log 15-Feb to 21-Feb-2021: Another Winter Wonderland Week

Monday:  7 run, 2 walk

AM:  Every wake up in the morning and can't make up your mind about where you're going to run?  Preference was trails, but there was a lot of snow and everything was melting and wet and the temp was above freezing all night, so that's out.  How about a beach run?  Looked up the tide chart and found we're just coming up on high tide.  Ugh.  Ended up running local roads with Brady, doing my best to pick quiet back roads wherever possible.

PM:  Having the day off (Presidents' Day), I figured the three of us (Jana, Brady, me) could go for a walk at one of the local preserves.  We did, despite the drizzly weather, and wet sloppy snow.  It was near deserted at Barn Island, likely due to aforementioned conditions.  The downside to Presidents' Day is my next holiday off from work isn't for 3 1/2 months:  Memorial Day.  A VERY long stretch.

Tuesday:  7

Post-work mixer.  Roads out towards Watch Hill, and beach back.  A balmy 45° afternoon!  On the beach on the return part of the run, I could see something in his mouth and I feared it was a dead animal or something, but it was a tennis ball he found!  I figured that just like sticks, he'd end up dropping up pretty quickly and abandoning it.  I was wrong.  He carried it for the two miles or so of the rest of the run on beach and roads, all the way home.  So when did he finally drop the ball?  As soon as we got into the yard, as he was indicating to me he wanted to play catch.  Fair enough!  I guess he earned that ball.  

Wednesday:  3

Aborted my run after slipping awkwardly on an ice covered trail in Champlin Glacier Preserve.  Lower back felt it, and I just ran easily to get out of the woods and then head home.  In the hundreds of times I have run in Champlin, this was the first time ever that I saw people playing pond hockey on a kettle pond, so that was pretty cool!

Thursday:  7

3+ inches of fresh snow.  Got out late afternoon.  Stayed on roads today after yesterday's mishaps, and avoided snow plows by running mostly on back roads.  There was one road in Misquamicut where Brady and I had to run up on someone's yard to stay far away from a plow, but otherwise, it was all good.  Not a soul on the beach today.  Go figure.

Friday:  5

An additional 2" of fresh snow!  It's actually been snowing for about 36 hours, but just so light.  Snowshoe run in Champlin Glacier Preserve.  About 5" of fresh snow.

Saturday:  4 snowshoe hike, 1 walk

AM:  Westerly Land Trust snowshoe hike in Crandall Preserve.

Making fresh tracks in the snow.

Just beautiful out there with the all the fresh snow.

PM:  Avondale Preserve walk with Jana and Brady.  Snow packed down nicely there.

Sunday:  9

Off to George Washington Management Area in Glocester, RI to get in another Border Patrol Challenge.  Had no idea what to expect with conditions, but it turned out to be quite favorable.  Did a very short warmup just to get my bearings on where I would be starting, first trail turnoff, markers, and return trail, and then put on the YakTrax and got to work.

Not actually part of the course, but right near start/finish.
On the frozen Bowdish Reservoir.  Since snowmobiles
had been on recently, I figured it was safe for Brady and me.

So much snow in the woods here!  I estimate at least one foot.
This section was a little soft, but most of it was packed down
quite nicely.

A nice packed down section near the start.

Ran a cool-down on snowshoes on the road.
It was well packed down with vehicles, including snowmobiles.
I wish we had roads like this around my house!

What a great run!  It was 21° at start, but I was quickly sweating like a pig out there with my heart rate up working hard on the run.

Weekly mileage:   38 run (6 on snowshoes), 3 snowshoe hike, 3 walk

Weekly synopsis:  As I mentioned last week, I'm less concerned about not hitting my mileage in recent weeks, and have no desire to sacrifice winter snow runs just to achieve an arbitrary mileage goal with no road races in sight for me.  I'm really enjoying this extended winter snow cover here in RI, and lamenting the upcoming week's forecast of rain and temps up into the 50s.

Weekly highlight:  Today's George Washington snow run, for sure.  One of my best snow runs ever.  Deep snow out there, but overall well packed down.  Just beautiful!

Weekly lowlight:  Slipping awkwardly on ice covered trails midweek.

Weekly Log 8-Feb to 14-Feb-2021: More Fun in the Snow

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• I feel like I'm in a rut with really mundane office work.  Spent many hours recently on a lengthy annual report submission of compliance of Sarbanes-Oxley controls, with references out to four places  (e.g., 15f.2.4.1), and got it returned to me for reworking.  What am I doing?  It was as if I had forgotten to include a cover page with my TPS report (Office Space reference).
• Midway through a recent meeting where about ten of us were delving into some inane minutae of management fees and what methodology we should use to calculate, an e-mail came across from the head of our division stating that the wife of one of our colleagues had just passed away today at age 53 from cancer.  An SVP reached out to me in a chat immediately and said that she feels none of these project details matter anymore.  Bingo.
• I received a video call from HR this week that started out with "Jeff, I'm afraid we have some bad news for you.".  Sounds ominous!  No, I didn't get let go, but it turns out I'm a victim of identity theft and someone filed a fraudulent unemployment claim with the state using my name and info.  What a pain to file state police reports, put freezes on your credit, etc.  Apparently RI unemployment fraud is sharply up recently, as for compassionate reasons, the RI Dept of Labor changed their unemployment process during COVID to immediately pay out unemployment funds once a claimant submits a request, instead of waiting for their employer (former employer) to confirm, so there's a much higher chance of scumbag fraudulent claimants receiving money.  I hope the illegitimate claimant on my account was at least forced to submit a cover page with his/her claim.
• For the third time in two months, a graduate of my high school class has died.  We had 318 in my graduating class, so the percentage isn't huge, but what's going on?  I'm in my mid-50s, not mid-80s.  Life is short indeed.

Monday:  6

Snowshoe run in 5" of new powder!  After last week's debacle of getting the car stuck in an unplowed DEM dirt road, I needed to be smarter about where to park.  Ended up parking on street at the end of a plowed road (Fern Drive) just before the gate going into Woody Hill.  This worked well.  Our entire run was all virgin snow; tough going but beautiful!

Just gorgeous out in Woody Hill today!

Tuesday:  3 snowshoe hike

Yesterday was 18° at start and today was 21°, so I dressed the same.  But yesterday I felt fine and today I just got so cold out there.  My toes and fingertips were just frozen the whole time.  What gives?  Ah yes, yesterday I ran and I today I walked at a very easy pace, and with a group of ten, there were a number of stops as well.  What a difference.   I enjoyed my time out there with the Land Trust, but I sure learned a lesson of dressing not only for the weather, but also for the activity.  Makes complete sense, but it didn't dawn on me until after.  I felt cold for most of the rest of the day.

Wednesday:  5

Avondale Preserve late afternoon with Brady.  Mix of roads and hardpack snow trails.

Uh-oh.  This isn't looking good.

Fortunately, some tactical surgery,
with crude implements of a bowsaw and shovel, gave him a new lease
on life and kept him going for the rest of the
week plus.

Thursday:  6

Another snowshoe run in Woody Hill.  This time parked at Bradford Citizens Club and ran in.  Just another gorgeous morning out there in the solitude of the woods.

Friday:  1 walk

Lost my window for running with stupid work stuff, and then lost interest.  Took a post-work walk with Brady and Jana in Avondale Farm Preserve.  On the plus side, it's still light out until about 5:20pm.

Saturday:  7 run, 3 hike

With a lot of snow still on the ground, especially on the trails in the woods, for more than two weeks now, it was time to resume the Border Patrol Challenge.  My last BPC was just over two weeks ago in the snow at Tillinghast, and my last BPC run on bare ground was three weeks ago at Tri Town Preserve.  Obviously my times are going to be much slower in the snow, but as I mentioned in last week's blog, I'm also running out of time with 6 weekends remaining to get 9 challenges completed.

So which course should I run, knowing what I know will be a slower comparative time to others running it on dry ground?  Mathematically the longer courses would make sense, as their formulas (using exponentiation) penalize runners-up less than the points separation on the shorter courses.  Example:

Very little points spread on the long courses.

I probably overthink these things, as the obvious flip side to Tippecansett today is having to run 20 miles in the snow with who knows what conditions.  After bantering about different options, I ended up deciding that with unknown snow conditions, I would err on the side of choosing a shorter distance and set my sights for the 5.5 mile course at Old Furnace State Park (Killingly, CT).

Drove for 50 minutes to get there, as I'm just pulling into the parking lot, I see two runners in the snow about to set off.  Wait a minute - I know those two runners.  Against implausible odds, I'm pulling into this relatively obscure state park an hour away exactly as Bob Jackman and Zack (Zach?  Zak?) Kudlak are starting their run.  I rolled the window down and yelled out.  No, of course I didn't "roll" the window down, but I'm so old that that's the way we used to do it before power windows.  But I digress ..

The two were nice enough to wait up for me, and this was a huge win for me.  Probably a drag for them, as they were just starting.  Beyond the coincidence of meeting up just at the start of their run, this was the the run that I needed some guidance and companionship the most, as it was confusing labyrinth of a course on a property that I'm not at all familiar with.  Bob and Zach had actually marked a number of the intersections!!  

So off we went.  Bob was in the lead.  Well, except when Brady would sprint past him, and then drop back for me, and then sprint past him again.  The snow was deep but well packed, but I could only see Bob in sight for a mile.  There was one intersection where there was no flag (how dare they!) and I paused for a bit, hoping Zach would catch up and point me the way, but then just acquiesced to the way Brady chose, hoping that he was doing that based off Bob's scent.  After a while, I saw a flag at a hard right turn, which Brady, leading the whole way, took correctly, so I'm assuming he had picked up Bob's scent.  Good.

There was some deep, soft snow out there!
At this point of the course, I slipped backwards (even with YakTrax)
before eventually getting a grip and making my way forward again.

Packed down sections like this were much quicker to 
run on

Was doing well following the course until we came to a wide open area (a closed parking lot covered in snow) and trails diverged in many directions.  Brady didn't know where to go, and I certainly had no clue at all.  I probably lost two minutes trying to figure it out until I remembered I had loaded the route onto my Strava account and brought my phone FOR THAT VERY PURPOSE.  Took out my phone and quickly figured the direction, and then validated I was on course.  I had to do that phone based reconnaissance probably four more times during the run, but that and Bob's occasional flag kept me on course for a less than intuitive route.

Hike later in the day, with Jana and Brady, back in Westerly (Woody Hill).
The snow was in such great shape that I wanted to get out there
again, as who knows how long it'll last.

Sunday:  7

Every wake up in the morning and can't make up your mind about where you're going to run?  Preference was trails, but there was a lot of snow and everything was melting and wet and the temp was above freezing all night, so that's out.  How about a beach run?  Looked up the tide chart and found we're just coming up on high tide.  Ugh.  Ended up running local roads with Brady, doing my best to pick quiet back roads wherever possible.

Weekly mileage:  32 run (of which 11 on snowshoes, 7 on YakTrax), 2 snowshoe hike, 3 hike

Weekly synopsis:  My weekly running goals are out the window as long as the snow is on the ground.  Not that I am complaining at all, and I could easily change up to all roads and get more mileage in, but what's the point?  Winter is short, I'm enjoying my snow runs, and it's not like I have a spring marathon I need to train for or anything.

Weekly highlight:  Truly so many fun snowy runs this week, but I'm going with the Old Furnace Border Patrol Challenge run.  It felt more like a race with Bob and Zach out there at the same time, and was reminiscent of past Snowy Sufferfest races in the Galoob era.  Good stuff!

Weekly lowlight:  Work stuff, but no running complaints.

Weekly Log 1-Feb to 7-Feb-2021: Snow!

Monday:  4

Normally I take Mondays off from running, but with a snowstorm today, I couldn't resist getting outside to play.  Set my work status to "Out Shoveling", which had truth to it, but when finished shoveling, I switched into trail shoes and got Brady to come out with me.  Since the roads hadn't been plowed in a few hours, I put on my snowshoes and snowshoed down the middle of our road!  Snowshoed around Winnapaug Farm Preserve and Champlin Glacier Preserve before returning home.

The snow was coming down!

Winnapaug Farm Preserve trail to the pond 
("middle trail").  Awesome!

Back at the ranch, since the snow was heavy and
sticky, might as well put together a snowman.

I wondered if it was odd for a old man in his mid-50s,
with no kids remaining at home, to be building
a snowman, until my Mom sent me a picture
of the snowman she made at her house!  The moral to me is
you're never to old to get outside and build a snowman!

Someone bit off part of the snowman's "arm"
(a stick) and was very happy to lie down in
the snow (8" we got!) and chew on it.

Tuesday:  2 snowshoe, 1 walk

Snowshoe hike at Grills with three other Westerly Land Trust guys.  Since CCC was cancelled with the snow and I had already had the time blocked on my work calendar, when I saw the invite go out for snowshoeing, I quickly opted in.  We snowshoed for about an hour in the wet snow, and then went out for coffee, scones, and conversation at Fresh Cup Cafe, where they are open for indoor socially distanced seating.  The other three guys are all retired; I'm just jealous but also glad I was able to make this work for me.  I'm fortunate that my employment is so flexible with hours, especially in the COVID era when the entire company is working from home indefinitely.

Sloppy, wet conditions on our snowshoe hike today.
(I'm farthest back on bridge.)

Groundhog Day today. 
Above caption seems plausible, but let's hope not.

Wednesday:  4

Late afternoon soft snow "mashed potatoes" run.  It didn't start out well when I got my car stuck not once, but twice, on a failed attempt to reach the Fallon Trail trailhead.  I got to the start of the dirt DEM road, and while I saw it was unplowed, I also saw that there were vehicle tracks down the road and foolishly thought I could do the same (in hindsight, presumably the vehicle was a truck or at least an AWD, whereas my car is merely FWD).  

Got quite a way down the road when my car just came to a stop.  Ugh.  Was able to rock it back and forth until I got it going in reverse and just backed my way up.  Until it stopped again.  This time the wheels just spun no matter which direction I tried.  I'm a good 100 meters to the paved road, and don't have a snow shovel.  Not good.  Got out of the car.  Hmm.  No ice; just snow behind and in front of the wheel.  OK, good, kicked it as best I could with my feet.  Tried again, but the car still just spun its wheels.  Got out again, looked under the car, and then I saw the problem.  The problem wasn't with the tires or traction; it was with the clearance.  The snow was too deep and that cheap plastic engine splash guard started to pull off with all the heavy snow I was dragging backwards and was stuck.  Ripped the rest of it off; put it in the trunk, and this time I was able to back up the rest of the way and onto paved asphalt.  Hopefully I can put it back on myself; otherwise it looks like I can buy another one for $18.  I lucked out.  What a moron.  Two things came to mind (besides getting a new brain):  1) bring a snowshovel with me next time, and 2) since so many trailheads are not plowed, the next car needs to be an AWD (which is tough when I marry with my other requirement of manual transmission).

Now in a foul mood, I drove to Wahaneeta, found the same situation (unplowed, but vehicle tracks and ruts), but didn't take the bait this time.  I did find somewhere I could park on the deserted road, and went for a short run in Wahaneeta before I ran out of daylight.  Good thing; the mashed potatoes run was just long enough to drain the frustration and ugly mood out of me.

Thursday:  5

With the temps below freezing and snow crusty, trail running didn't seem an attractive option for me.  Ran roads and even regretted that with snowbank-narrowed shoulders and busy traffic on Shore Road.  Ugh, can't win.

Friday:  5

Course marking for our inaugural monthly group run.

Our intrepid course marking team today at Grills;
looking out from Big Hill.

Snow is still deep in places!
I'll take this over ice any day, though.
It was much easier putting the flags into snow than it was
into the frozen ground.

Saturday:  8 (1 warm-up, 5 group run, 2 cool-down)

Inaugural WTAC monthly group run.  This is something the club has proposed on and off again for the past several years.  It has its challenges with logistics, but this time it was finally a go.  The idea is that this will generally be the first Saturday morning of each month, and we will rotate different board members (or WTAC members) choosing and organizing a run of their choice of route and terrain.  Paul was up first and chose the Grills Preserve similar to what we did last February.  Now that we've had a group run at Grills two Februarys in a row, it seems a pattern is set for the annual February group run?

Had no idea what to expect with the snow conditions, and was
pleasantly surprised that got 15 people (and 2 dogs!)

Three of us ran together for the first two miles:  Steve B, Nick A, and me.  Steve put some distance on me on the steep (20 - 25% grade) but short 120' climb up Big Hill in the snow, and the three of us spread out a bit.  The conditions nearest the start/finish were the worst with many frozen footprints in the snow, but the farther we got from the start, the conditions got "better" as there were less or even no footprints in the snow to contend with.  I was nervous for participants not knowing what they got themselves into with conditions, but everyone did fine, no one fell, and everyone seemed to have a good time despite less than optimal conditions.

Cooled down with a 2-mile snowshoe run with Steve.

Sunday:  11

With another forecasted snowstorm for today, I opted not to drive anywhere and just run from the house instead.  Ran with Brady and joined up with the "Run While You Can" private group run for 3 of the miles, and the rest were on our own.  Mostly on roads, but two miles on the beach.  In Misquamicut as we approached two women walking, one started clapping (she made it clear it was for Brady, not me!) and saying what great shape Brady was in.  In the final mile, we encountered two women running, and one called out, "Is that the famous Brady out for a run?!".  (Jenn Lutz)

We got home just before the snow started,
and then we got another 5" of heavy snow.
My only other activity of the day was shoveling, but I can't
wait to get out there tomorrow and hopefully get some fresh tracks!

The snowbanks are getting higher!  Finished
shoveling the driveway before it all froze up.

And reconstructed the snowman,
of course.  He's 6' tall now.

Weekly mileage:  [a paltry] 36 run, 2 snowshoe hike

Weekly synopsis:  While I love snow, the heavy deep snow that we got Monday followed by rain just didn't make it conducive to getting a lot of mileage in.  Yes, excuses are easy to come by, but that's mine.  At this point, I'm less worried about getting my mileage back up than I am in being able to complete the Border Patrol Challenge.  This is the first week of the challenge that I haven't gotten any done, and I'll have to weigh getting in a very slow BCP run completed next week, versus missing a second week in a row.  I have nine challenges left, but only six weeks now in which to get them done.  So at least three weeks of doubles.  The ones I have left are either farther way (Burrillville, West Thompson, etc), longer in distance (20 miles, 27 miles), or both, so some planning is in order.

Weekly highlight:  Despite the frozen snow conditions, the inaugural group run at Grills Preserve in the snow.

Weekly lowlight:  Lowest mileage week YTD.

Weekly Log 25-Jan to 31-Jan-2021: Cold Snap

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• Received my notification from BAA that the 2021 Boston Marathon will be held October 11 (Columbus Day holiday), if MA is in Phase IV of COVID reopening and allowing road races at that time.  The thought of running Boston in the fall is kind of interesting, but I also fear the scenario I had last year of being signed up, in the middle of training, and then having it cancelled.  Something to think about.
• So not sorry to hear that the NRA is filing for bankruptcy.  Years of mismanagement, diversion of funds, and misleading American voters.
• I'm pretty excited for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  I'm rather paranoid of needles and blood draws, so one injection takes a lot of the fear out of it for me.  (Not really sure if we'll get to choose which vaccine you get, but that's my hope.)
• Thus far in 2021, I'm signed up for Mt Washington only.  I'm itching to get some other races on the calendar, especially the trail variety, but it's understandably slim pickings amidst COVID uncertainties.

Monday:  1 walk

Late afternoon walk at Avondale just as getting dark.

Tuesday:  6, 1 walk

Late after run in the falling snow, with Brady.  Winnapaug Farm Preserve, roads, and attempted to go on the beach, but it was high tide.

Even this small amount of snow looks
beautiful in Winnapaug Farm Preserve.

New signage on the trails going down to the pond

... and to help people from straying onto an
angry neighbor's adjacent property.

Note the neat cairn that someone put atop the 
staircase at the west end of Atlantic Ave

And a new coat of paint!  I supposed it's
nothing more than graffiti, but I approve.

Wednesday:  5

We picked up a little more snow overnight, and it was beautiful out in the woods.

Virgin snow on the path to the pond at Lathrop Preserve

And the contrast of Brady to the Winter Wonderland 
around him in Champlin Glacier Preserve

Thursday:   7

Finished work a little early and headed all the way up to West Greenwich to run Tillinghast / Wickaboxet "Sampler" route of the Border Patrol Challenge.  Why would I run the BPC on a Thursday evening in the snow and ending in the dark?  Yes, both would necessarily contribute to a slower than usual time.  

However, there was actually a method to the madness and it goes sort of like this:  I "need" to keep up a cadence of at least one BPC per week, as prior to today's BPC run, I had ten remaining routes and only seven weeks left in the challenge.  Given that "need", I knew going in that snow would be a factor, but wanted to avoid "racing" in the upcoming deep freeze of single digits over the next few days, which obviously all means the snow is here to stay for at least a little while.  So there you have it.

Today's gear:  GoreTex waterproof trail shoes, YakTrak Run, and my Black Diamond headlamp

As to the run itself, the Strava label of "Workout" would have been more appropriate than "Race".  My heart rate was high and racing the entire time trudging through the snow.  I was a little nervous of missing turns, as I had on the "blue" Wickaboxet trail a few months ago, but fortunately I could focus on my footfalls and didn't need to watch for trail intersections at all.  How so?  Well, Brady led the entire way today, and at each intersection, he would stop or slow enough for me to almost catch up, and then he would turn instinctively onto the correct trail.  I wasted time second-guessing his decision at one intersection, and then when I found he was right and I was wrong, I just followed him blindly for the rest of the run, especially when it got dark.  Yep, sure enough, he followed the entire course correctly, even taking the hard right unmarked turn that I missed the last time and had to double back for.  Obviously I'm biased, but he's more clever and has much more "trail smarts" than I give him credit for.

Finishing time was 1:04:42.  I knew it would be slow, but that's more than 11 minutes slower than the leader (Bob Jackman) thus far.  Ouch.  Oh well, like my run in the snow at Canonchet, if  (and that's a BIG if) I finish up the series with time to spare, I can always come back.  If not, then I had a fun adventure in the snow at Tillinghast.  Things could be worse!

It got a little harder to follow once it got dark.

But I just followed the guy in the orange bandana,
and pulsating neon-green light around his neck,
and all was good.

Friday:  6

Today's high was 18°!  Ran at Burlingame with Brady, who actually seems to thrive in the cold.  Campground run from Kettle Pond visitor center, finishing just before it got dark.

Saturday:  11

Planned meetup with Justin P and Kevin M for a preview of Kevin's planned club run on March 6.  It was 7° when I left the house and only 9° when I arrived for a few warmup miles with Brady.  I WAY overdressed in a balaclava and ski gloves.  Good thing we returned to the car just 3+ miles later to rendezvous with the guys, as sweat was just pouring down my neck by then.  Swapped out the balaclava and ski gloves for a regular running hat and medium thickness running gloves, and we were good.

It's a decent loop with a mix of fire roads and single-track and a very small amount of asphalt.

Sunday:  12

12° at start; 17° at finish.  Final day of a 3-day cold snap with lows in single digits each night.  (It was 6° when I got up, and being a Sunday morning, I dallied a bit until the temps rose.)

Headed to Haley Farm and ran almost all single-track at both Haley and adjacent Bluff Point State Park.  One advantage of the cold and snow on the ground was that both state parks were almost deserted, a rare oddity on a weekend morning.  As with the past few days, it was fairly snow going with the snow cover, but the extra work almost meant I warmed up quicker.

Weekly mileage:  47 run, 2 walk

Weekly synopsis:  A bit under my arbitrary target of 55 mpw, but now by much, and given the cold and snow, I'm fine with it.  With a snowstorm coming in tomorrow, I'll certainly get out there but the distances might be iffy this coming week as well.

Weekly highlight:  Wednesday's fresh powder local run.

Weekly lowlight:  None.