Sunday, 17 February 2008
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Horse Hill 6K Snowshoe Race
I spent 4 hours yesterday checking out the course; discovering that the one unbridged brook had become uncrossable due to the heavy rains of the past week; working with Steve Wolfe on a modified course; and then marking the course with almost 40 directional signs. (No one gets lost at my races!!!) We did have to cut the 7K race down to 6K, but it is still quite a nice race course.
By 8 AM this morning I was out racing the course for my time as I would not be able to race with the rest of the field as I would be timing it with my lovely wife. I am a lucky man to have such a sweet woman in my life. She supports me in all my activities, no matter how crazy!
While our racing the course I discovered that one of my directional signs had disappeared. I looked in the area with no luck and realized I would have to come back out with a new sign. Of course the one missing sign would have to be on the complete opposite end of the course from race headquarters. Fortunately one of our helpers from the Merrimack Sno-Buds told me how to find one of the alternate entrances to the trail system so I was able to drive a couple miles, snowshoe a 1/4 mile and place the new sign in it's spot and still make it back to race headquarters before the first snowshoer arrived.
Twenty intrepid snowshoers showed up and enjoyed the beautiful and challening course (Hourse HILL - remember the name,) The snowshoers actually went up and over both Horse Hill and Blodgett Hill. Geoff Cunningham from Acidotic Racing (the sponsors of the Cobble Mountain Snowshoe Classic) came down south and ran away from the field, winning in a time of 26:45. My time of 42:26 put me in 7th place out of 15 racers. Terry Beauchamp won the ladies title in 42:38. We also had 4 snowshoers in the 4K Snowshoe Fitness Walk.
The Horse Hill Nature Preserve Committee has already asked me to put the race on again next year and has also asked about putting on trail races. While the snowshoe race is a definite, I'm not sure if the trails are safe enough for a trail race as many of the trails are rocky stream beds. We'll see...
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