First Snowshoe Double of the Season - Pooh Hill (Part 1)

Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble

On Saturday I headed up to King Pine Resort in Madison NH for the 3rd race of the Granite State Snowshoe Series (results). This race probably has one of the nicest locations for a snowshoe race anywhere in the Northeast. It's not often you get a scenic spot, a combination of groomed trails and snowshoe single track and most importantly indoor facilities (a real bonus in snowshoe racing). If you haven't done it you're definitely missing out on a beauty.

Last year this was the 1st race in the series and it was a doozy. 8.5k in length with a killer hill about 1/2 around the loop. A couple of things would make this years version a bit different. Pooh Hill was the 3rd race in the GSSS this year so most of us have worked out some of the kinks already (if that's possible in
snowshoeing). More importantly the infamous Pooh Hill was gone.

Beaver Brook Snowshoe Race

The first race of the 2010 Granite State Snowshoe Series took place today on the trails of Beaver Brook in Hollis NH (results). Snow on demand over the last 24 hrs provided just enough ground cover for the roughly 5k out and back course. It turned out to be an all out snowshoe sprint with fast conditions and faster runners.

A pretty good turnout considering the weather, with 87 finishers. It was good to see my teammates from acidotic RACING show up in force, all 18 strong, for our first team win of the season.

The course is probably the easiest in the series, and definitely the shortest. With a cross country like start, the race starts in a large field before funneling the runners down at a 180 degree turn. From there it's all double track, slightly downhill to start and pretty darn flat after that until the 180 degree turn around point. It does finish on a slight uphill but nothing too difficult. The hardest part of the race was just how fast it was.

photo credit - Scott Mason

Once we got the GO command I was immediately blinded by all the fresh powder being kicked up. It wasn't until we took the 180 degree turn that I could actually see where I was going. I  passed maybe 3 or 4 folks in the first few minutes and settled into the 5th spot. Jim Johnson and aR teammate Tim Cox were dueling up front, with Bob "I hope there's no dogs on this course" Jackman a short distance back, followed by Dave Dunham and finally myself. I tried desperately to stay with DD but more importantly stay ahead of Matt Westerlund and Chris Dunn who were just a few steps behind me the entire way.

I hit the turnaround in 8:40, probably 10 seconds behind DD and an equal amount ahead of Matt and Chris. Oh, and I was hurting...bad. I'm sure I scared a few of the local folks who were out on the trails xc skiing, sounding like a wounded moose with my breathing. I was doing everything I could to hold off Matt and Chris.
I could hear them behind me but I didn't know how close. In typical me fashion I wouldn't turn around to look, mostly afraid of what I might see (like two guys right on my heels). Finally, I could see the finish and made one last push, just in case they were close behind. I crossed the line in 17:22, 5th overall with nearly an identical split on the way back in 8:42. Man I hate short races!

Scott Mason took some great photos which can be viewed here.

Race video and additional pics can also be seen here.

Preliminary TOP 10:

Place Time    Pts  Name                   Team                      Age Sex Bib City St            
===== ======= ===== ==== ====================== ========================= === === === ================== 
    1   15:48  100 Jim Johnson            CMS POLAR BEARS            32 M    98 Salem NH           
    2   16:24   96 Tim Cox                ACIDOTIC RACING            36 M   191 Northwood NH       
    3   16:43   94 Robert Jackman         TUESDAY NIGHT TURTLES      27 M   178 Warwick RI         
    4   17:10   92 Dave Dunham            CMS POLAR BEARS            45 M    24 Ward Hill MA       
    5   17:22   90 Steve Wolfe            ACIDOTIC RACING            45 M    83 Merrimack NH       
    6   17:34   89 Matt Westerlund                                   37 M   197 Laconia NY         
    7   17:40   89 Chris Dunn             ACIDOTIC RACING            41 M    25 Strafford NH       
    8   18:12   86 Danny Ferreira         ACIDOTIC RACING            27 M   159 Concord NH         
    9   18:21   86 Sean Snow              GRANITE STATE RACING TEAM  43 M    99 Dunbarton NH       
   10   18:43   84 Christopher Smith      DUNGEON ROCK RACING        43 M    71 Woburn MA          

Kingman Farm Preview (maybe)

Chris Dunn has an update on the conditions at Kingman Farm on his blog, but that might change after tomorrow's potential snowstorm. Wait and see.
I marked up the local trail map with what I believe to be the course for Saturday night. As far as I know it's the same course as last year.

What I remember:

• The start is a short walk up the trail from the parking lot (town hall).
• The start is very narrow.
• The course runs clockwise.
  
• Most of the early stuff is on typical winter hiking trails, maybe snowmobile width.
• There is a sharp left turn maybe 1/4 mile in. I only remember it because I tripped on my own snowshoes making the turn and had visions of being trampled by 80+ pairs of snowshoes.
• Most of the course is fairly flat to gentle rolling terrain, all the way up to the composting shed (see map). My guess is it will be fairly fast, with plenty of room to pass if needed.
• Once you get past the Compost shed the trail is mostly single track if I recall. You really need to get position before heading back into the woods and begin ascending Hicks Hill.
• The climb is taxing but runnable if I remember correctly. There are some pretty long switchbacks on the way up AND the way down, allowing you to see runners in front and behind. If you can't see them I promise you'll hear them.
  
• I think we sort of summit Hicks Hill and descend for a while before slowly climbing again around the perimeter towards the summit again. This was a difficult section last year (icy), sort of like running on a side of a hill.
  
• Lots of sharp turns up and over Hicks Hill so pay attention. Sight range is limited at night and you might run into a tree.
• The course was very well marked with surveyor flags...as long as you pay attention.
  
• The last section towards the finish has some fairly steep sections with lots of turns before leveling off near the finish.
• The finish was within spitting distance of the start.
• My guess is this course will have the fastest times of any race in the GSSS.
• Don't be surprised if you get beat by a banana.

The owner of this blog is not responsible for any inaccuracies, falsehoods or outright lies associated with this race. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast.

Horse Hill 7k Snowshoe Race

Race #5 of the GSSS is in the books.
The Horse Hill 7k was only 3 miles from my home but I was still there 1 1/2 hrs before the start...and I wasn't even the first one there! I met up with Scotty G and John S and headed out for a warm up run and course preview. Scotty and I were in our running shoes, John on his new Dions. The conditions were great for racing thanks to cold temps over night. Most of the course was borderline icy conditions which made it a little tricky during the warm up, as we covered the last mile or so of the course.

A few more folks were milling around when we got back including my teammates at acidotic RACING, a car full from Dungeon Rock and even a handful of my Gate City Strider teammates, some making their snowshoe racing debut. I met up with Jim J and Mike W and headed out for my second warm up run of the day. I grabbed a couple more signs and planned to head out to about the 4.5k mark to place at least one more sign at a questionable corner. This time all of us were in our running shoes. After placing the signs we headed back, following the course to the finish, up and over Blodgett Hill. Blodgett was VERY icy on the decent as we stuck to the sides to avoid falling on our butts. We got back with about 15 minutes to spare and I quickly changed into race attire: a stealthy white short sleeve shirt.

After a short delay for some late arrivals we were off. Double-J was out of sight by the time I crested the first hill probably a 1/4 mile into the race. Chris Dunn was pushing the pace for us mortals trailing behind. Chris surprised me by going out really fast and had a decent lead on me by the time we reached the first hill just under 1k into the race. I gained a little back on the downhill single track but he was still pushing pretty hard, maintaining the same lead at the 2k point. I peeked over my shoulder a few times on the single track and saw Mike Wade and Scotty Graham not too far behind. What the heck did these guys have for breakfast?

As we headed up the 2nd, steeper hill I closed a bit on Chris and once again I peeked when we took the sharp turn at the top. This time I didn't see anyone. I finally caught up to Chris on the power lines and pulled in front to pull for a while (so I thought). I never looked back but I could tell Chris was tight on my heels as the icy conditions made it easy to hear him. I pushed hard for a while but was tiring as we crossed the power lines and headed back into the woods. I slowed a bit, and even moved to the side of the trail a few times but Chris seemed happy to stay right behind me. Did I mention I hate to be in front??

So now I start thinking about race strategy and whether Chris was just toying with me. He's been racing me really tight the last couple of races, improving each time. I felt like I gained some on the downhills so I decided to test this about the 4.5k point as the trail descended towards the last major brook crossing. I ran as hard and fast as I could down towards the bridge and the sound behind me changed a bit and I felt I may have increased my lead.

The next 1k was a steady climb off and on, slowly climbing back up to the summit of Blodgett Hill. I took a peek on the switchback and didn't see Chris (although I heard him) but was never comfortable. I didn't want to take any chances and ran the last 1k (all downhill) hard, taking one more peek as we turned back onto the main trail to the finish.

My teammate pushes me waaaaaaaaay to hard, but I love the competition. I've never looked back so much in a race, ever. I finished 2nd (or as Scotty G likes to say, I was first loser) to Jim Johnson, who I think had already changed, eaten, and finished his cool down run by the time I got to the finish line. Chris finished 3rd, less than a minute behind me followed by Mike Wade (in his 1st snowshoe race every) in 4th and fellow acidotic teammate Ri Fahnestock in 5th.

Complete results can be found here.
I also took a few pictures after finishing and got about the top 30 or so before heading out for a cool down run with Jim J and Mike W.

Splits for the day:

1k 5:09
2k 4:39
3k 5:21
4k 5:09
5k 5:41
6k 5:40
7k 4:24

Now for a shameless plug. A few weeks before the race I was contacted by the Manchester Union Leader about a preview article they were writing about the race. The reporter asked if I would talk to him and do a photo shoot at HHNP. I agreed and the article was in Fridays paper (the Merrimack edition). Although the article seemed more about me and less about HHNP (sorry), it did give me a chance to promote the sport of snowshoe racing and the GSSS. If you're interested, you can read the article here.

Next up, the Kingman Farm Moonlight Snowshoe 5k, probably the 1st New England snowshoe race EVER to sell out.

Horse Hill Update: PLENTY of SNOW!

I just got back from running the Horse Hill 7k Snowshoe course with Bill Morse and the conditions were fine. Although the snow is much softer than earlier this week, there were no bare spots and most of the trail is pretty firm. A couple of cold nights over the next few days and conditions should be pretty good for Saturday.
There were a few more rocks and tree stumps exposed but nothing serious. I also took the liberty to mark the course with orange spray chalk along the edge of the trail and note roughly where the kilometer marks are. Hopefully they'll last a few more days. I believe Michael is going out tomorrow to officially mark the course with signs. The course is pretty darn close to 7k +/- a little.
The easy way to visualize the course is like a big lollipop. For those of you familiar with Motionbased, you can check out my GPS download of the course here, otherwise you can just look at the pictures below.

Overall Map:

















Elevation Profile:













See you Saturday.

Frosty's 5k Snowshoe Race

Note to self: next time I get sick for a week and run less than 30 miles in 2 weeks, don't sign up for back to back snowshoe races on the following week. Actually, all things considered, it wasn't that bad of a weekend. Yesterday I raced Sidehiller which at the time I thought had some of the toughest conditions to date to race in. Plenty of snow, nice fluffy powder in fact but not nearly firm enough to run comfortably.
Today was Frosty's 5k on the grounds of the Atkinson Country Club golf course. On paper this race should have been much easier. Nice, easy slopes, no real hills to speak of and temps pushing 50. Of course the wind was pushing 50mph as well but not much of a factor surprisingly. A freshly made snowmobile track was the course du jour. The snow would make Frosty proud. Perfect for making snowmen but less then ideal for racing. Technically, the snow was fine for running, it was the course that made it difficult. The snowmobile trail just wasn't firm enough to push off on and that sinking feeling was there throughout the day.
I opted for standard snowshoe race attire: shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I couldn't help myself...I mean how many times do you get the chance to comfortably race on snowshoes in shorts and a t-shirt??
A quick scan of the athletes on the line and I figured my chances were good for a decent showing. GSSS standout Jim Johnson was there with an unknown (at the time) CMS runner along with a boatload of DRR runners and too many acidotic RACING team mates to mention. Quick math would mean Jim would be 1st, unknown CMS runner would 2nd (ALL guys with CMS singlets are speed demons) and the rest of us would battle it out for 3rd and beyond. As usual Jim took off like a shot at the start and I slipped into 2nd after going out pretty fast. Jim was out of sight by about the 1/4 mile mark and left the rest of us in his snow wake. I felt like I should be fast but I just wasn't moving. The CMS guy passed me somewhere prior to the 1st mile and kept a comfortable lead on me the rest of the way. Not long after he passed I heard another shoer sneaking up on me, fellow team mate Chris Dunn. He was running strong and I was fading. Always the team mate, Chris encouraged me to work together and I quickly hopped on his heels (I think I actually ran on his snowshoe heels a few times in fact...sorry Chris). Unlike the 2 guys up front, Chris had a stride very similar to mine and I followed in his footsteps exactly. To be honest, I prefer to follow anyways so for the time being things were good. With probably less than a mile to go I pushed to the front on a short downhill. I was really hoping Chris would either fade like an old pair of jeans or bounce back and drop me like a rock, putting me out of my misery once and for all. Nope, he decides to push and race me to the finish. Gee, thanks Chris :-)
We crossed the line in a photo finish, and technically with the same times. This time I edged the old guy, although I think he could have passed if he wanted to. Excellent race.
Snowshoe races have turned out to be much more social than your typical road race for me. From the fastest to the slowest, all shoers are friendly and willing to share stories. We warm up and cool down together and listen to all kinds of stories. The unknown CMS guy turned out to be David Quintal, yet another fast masters runner. David reads my blog so I guess he must be a good guy. Fellow GCS track coaches Richie Blake and Keith Obrien were there, snowshoe racing for the first time and coming darn close to breaking into the top 10. Fellow team mate Scotty G beat fellow age-grouper Bob Dion to score an age-group win in the senior circuit (ok, 50-59 group). All in all a very good day but I'm not looking to do another double anytime soon.

Full results can be found here.

Sidehiller Snowshoe Race

The 3rd race of the Granite State Snowshoe Series (Sidehiller 4-Miler)was in Center Sandwich, NH , a relatively short (in snowshoe racing terms) 1.5 hr drive north. Michael Amarello and I got an early start, arriving in this tiny town around 9:30am for the 11am race...and we weren't even the first ones there.
The weather report claimed a warm up was in store for today (supposedly 40+) but when I left my house it was 0 degrees and maybe 10 degrees at the race site. A whole lot of warming would have to take place to hit 40, that's for sure.
Michael and I chatted with fellow acidotic RACING teammates Chris, Steve and Scott for a few minutes and then Scott and I went for a warm up run on the course (in running shoes). We heard there was a hill and we wanted to see it for ourselves. Running Pooh Hill and Cobble Mt tends to make racers a little hill-phobic. The first mile or so was on a nicely groomed cross-country ski trail before crossing Squam Lake Rd and heading into a 2 1/2 mile loop on mostly single track snowshoe trails. We found the hill (Ha, you call this a hill????), thought 'this isn't so bad' and then looped back down to the road and onto the cross country trails to the finish. At the time the trails didn't seem that bad.
Weather be damned, I went with the short sleeve shirt. Surprisingly I was the only one. Come on people, the weatherman said it would be 40 degrees today, act like it!! Ok, so I was a little cold, but in a snowshoe race it's probably better than being a little warm.
Not only was Sidehiller a GSSS race, it was also a WMAC Dion Snowshoe series race AND it was also a regional qualifier for the USSSA (whatever that means). A major acronym race no doubt.
It was also stacked up front with Jim Johnson, Kevin Tilton, Dave Dunham, Tim Van Orden, Bob Jackman and a few other CMS guys I didn't know well. A top 10 finish would be a challenge.
At 11am a field of about 70 took off in a cloud of snow dust and you could tell immediately this would not be a fast day. Even the nicely groomed xc trails were slow. They 'looked' like they should be fast but your shoe would sink in the snow on nearly every step. Unfortunately this was the fast section...it would get much harder and much slower. With firm snow conditions (which we did not have) this would be a relatively fast course, no big hills, nice rolling terrain, decent single track and some snowmobile trails...a really nice course. But for whatever reason, today was not a fast day. The single tracks were more like running in sand. You just couldn't get any grip, sinking into the soft powdered snow on nearly every step. My position in the race was set early, around the 1/2 mile mark. After that point I passed no additional runners and nobody passed me. I followed Danny Ferreria (acidotic RACING) from a distance for most of the remainder but never really gained on him until the last 200 meters but not enough to actually catch him. In the end I finish just under 40 minutes in 9th place overall. I haven't seen any official results but will post a link once they become available. Another good team showing from acidotic RACING and Dungeon Rock Racing, this rivalry thing is pretty cool, especially when we beat them :-)
They may have spanky new DDR singlets but we've been getting the team wins (and now we have our own stylying acidotic RACING skully's).
The next race of the GSSS is tomorrow. I hope the legs recover in time.

Complete results can be found here.

Pooh Hill?

You'd think a snowshoe race with 'Pooh' in the name (Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble) would be a little different then what it was. Sort of like the bunny slopes of snowshoe courses. Awh, what a cute name for a 'hill'. How tough can it be???

Now....the rest of the story.

The 1st race of the Granite State Snowshoe Series took place at King Pine Resort in East Madison, NH. It was an absolute beautiful day: sunny, not a cloud in the sky, no wind and temps near 5 degrees. I arrived just before 9am after a 2hr-100mile drive from Merrimack. Compared to some of the WMAC races, a 2hr drive was a breeze. Lots of familiar faces (Jim Johnson & Kristin, Scott Graham, Bill Morse and crew) and even a few new ones. Kristin was nice enough to take some great photos of the race which can be seen here, and is credited with the one of me to the left taken around the 8.5k point.
As I was getting ready near my car a guy came up to me (after seeing my license plate HAV2RUN) and introduced himself....by his blog name "NikonRunner". The funny thing is I recognized his blog and thus the person, Scott Mason. Too funny!
I headed out to check the end of the course prior to the race. I like to check out the last mile or so of a snowshoe race to know how much longer I need to suck wind. The end of the race was all on freshly groomed crosss country ski trails and I easily ran the last 2k or so with just my trail shoes. I did note two things: 1) there's a killer (but short) hill about 100yds from the finish and 2) the 8k marker was at least 1/2k or more from the finish line which was surprising considering I thought this was an 8k race :-)
Jim Johnson has a nice write up on the course on his blog. It was an awesome course and thankfully most was on nicely groomed trails but Pooh Hill was a killer. It should have been called Satan's Summit or something more intimidating than 'Pooh'. It was definitely a climb but it went on for EVER. Kevin Tilton and Chris Dunn's dad were at the top and you could hear them talking so at least you knew when you were close. The uncontrolled bushwhack back down was a blast with gravity taking charge then it was back to the groomed trails for the remainder of the race.
I was trying to figure out if this hill was worse than the hill at the Cobble Mountain Snowshoe race last year (and the next race in the Granite State Series). In my mind I think Cobble was a tougher climb but that might be because Cobble was my 1st snowshoe race ever. I guess I'll find out for sure in a few weeks.
Somehow I managed a 2nd place overall with a time of 47:27 and results can be found here. I gave Jim Johnson a run for his money for the first 5 yards but he managed pull ahead in the next 8.499k to squeeze out a win with a time of 44:04. It was the longest I've snowshoed so far and I was definitely hurting at the end. I need to work on pacing a bit more or more importantly, effort. I feel like I go out at 5k effort and I really need to scale it back to a more manageable 10k or 1/2 marathon effort at the start. It is very hard to do since the pace seems so slow but I'm running out of gas near the end.
On a side note I wanted to mention what should be an excellent rivalry in the team competition of this series. The newly formed Dungeon Rock Racing team had a strong showing with 10 racers and was only outdone by the host team of acidotic RACING (which I am a member of) with 16 racers. The winning team takes home a case of Redhook. DRR's motives are clear: they are a drinking team with a snowshoeing problem. They did have nice racing singlets and a scary skull and crossbones team flag though :-)

Granite State Snowshoe Series

I know it's a little early to start thinking about snowshoeing in New Hampshire but I have to say I'm pretty excited about it already. I started snowshoe racing last year as a way to recover from nearly a year of injuries. My very first race was the Cobble Mountain Snowshoe Classic in Gilford, NH. It was directed by a relative 'new' face in race directing, Chris Dunn at Acidotic Racing. Chris and the folks at Acidotic Racing did such a great job putting on an outstanding event they got me hooked on snowshoe racing, and particularly on their races (I raced all three of their events this past season). I have to admit I'm not sad to see the Biddeford Race left off the schedule this year... that was probably the single hardest (effort-wise) race I've ever done (road, trail, snow, long or short). It was 100% max HR for the entire race due to the snow conditions. Yikes.

If you live in NH and you want to race snowshoes, you typically would have to travel to Western Mass and race in the WMAC Snowshoe Series. Not anymore!

Welcome to the Granite State Snowshoe Series !
Our own little snowshoe series right in our backyard. Various race directors got together and formed this awesome series. Right now they have 6 races in the series and it may expand to 8. The races are:

1. Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble (Jan 10, 2009)
2. Cobble Mountain Snowshoe Classic (Jan 31, 2009)
3. Sidehiller 4 Mile Snowshoe Race (Feb 7, 2009)
4. Frosty's Dash for a Cure (Feb 8, 2009)
5. Horse Hill 7k Snowshoe Race (Feb 15, 2009)
   
6. Kingman Farm Moonlight 5k Race (Feb 21, 2009)

Bring on the snow! (I can't believe I just said that??)