10k - 58:03- 67th/114
Garmin Tracking here.
5k (6k?)- 34:44 - 2nd/49
Garmin Tracking here.
This weekend I went to the United States Snowshoe National Championships for the 5th time. The previous events I went to were in Minnesota, Utah, Oregon, and New York. This year the site selected was Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. Cable isn’t easy to get to. The nearest airports are Duluth, MN which is 2.5 hours away and Minneapolis, MN which is a little more than 3 hours away. Flights from SFO to MSP were more than $700 so I used my Delta Frequent Flyer Miles for the flight. I arrived in Minneapolis around noon and immediately went to the Mall of America to eat lunch. The mall is by far the largest mall in the county, by number of stores. There are 2 food courts both on the 3rd floor and I got a Texas wrap from Healthy Express.Then I left for Cable. I arrived after 7PM without a hotel reservation. I read some negative comments about the host resort online so I figured if it was nice I’d stay there and if not there were some cheap options a half hour away. After leaving Minneapolis there is a whole lot of nothing. The drive was mostly on a 2 lane road and was kind of tiring so I stopped for a 20 minute nap. I got there a little past 7PM, after the athlete reception had finished although I wasn’t especially looking forward to attending.
I immediately went to the registration table which was open until 8PM where I reacquainted with Mark Elmore. Mark is the president of the United States Snowshoe Association (USSSA) and even more importantly he is the guy who puts in (by far) the most work to keep the whole thing going. To say he does a lot of work is an understatement. Without him I don’t know if the Regional Qualifier system and Championship would keep going. Registering right after me was Tim van Orden. He looked familiar and I’d heard his name from keeping on top of the New England snowshoe races but I had definitely never met him. Tim was very friendly.
I went to the registration desk to ask about room and they offered me a condo onsite next to the main lodge for $125 a night. It was a little more than I wanted to spend but the resort looked decent and I didn’t want to drive any more. I was also disappointed that the quoted price was before taxes but didn’t’ care enough to get out of it. Tim was lingering around the area and introduced me to a couple of his friends – Jim Johnson and Kevin Tilton. I had read a bit about Jim I think from Dave Dunham’s blog and I’d heard of Kevin as well. All 3 are clearly out of my league but they were welcomed me into their New England group, which worked out because it turned out there were only 3 west coasters at the event and I didn’t know the other 2. They were all staying about a half hour down the road.
After chatting a while about some people we know (Jim knew Chris Mahoney who I knew from UMASS and had met Scott Dunlap who I know from SF Bay California) I went to the room I rented. It turned out to be a 2 bedroom condo with a double bed and a pair of twins, full kitchen and bath. Too bad it was just me there. The room was clean and decent – it had an automatic fireplace which turned itself on and off but I thought it weird that the TV had only 10 or so channels, some staticky, and was a small TV/VCR combo. It was good enough to be comfortable in.
I was awake and ready very early. The youth race started at 9AM followed by the men’s race at 10AM and the women’s race at 11:30AM. This was the first time I remember the men going first. The weather was colder than yesterday, low 30s. It was overcast and snow was blowing in the air but it didn’t look like any real precipitation. In fact it appeared several inches had fallen overnight and there were flurries in the air. The start/finish line was about 100 yards from where I was staying so I kept warm in my room.
At the start I tried to get to around the 3rd row. I wanted to start a little fast because the course looked easier than I had been running in California. It was a little tight at the beginning since everyone took off like it was a road 5k and it was downhill with some turns at the bottom. I heard after the race that Bob Dion, owner of Dion Snowshoes took a tumble. Dion Snowshoes is not only one of the major brands, but was also the title sponsor of the Championship. One great thing about his company is Bob’s (and wife Denise’s) participation in the sport. When something goes wrong or I have questions about products I use like New Balance shoes or my Ford car I have to go out of my way to get support. But I have seen Bob many times helping people with their snowshoes at races, answering questions, etc. At last year’s nationals I saw Bob giving advice mid-race to a runner who obviously did not strap his feet in tight enough.
Anyway, the course was two loops, a 6k outer loop and a 4k inner loop. The outer loop crossed under the road so this was the first snowshoe race I’ve ever done with a tunnel. I ran hard for a mile or two but settled in what in hindsight I think was too slow. I wasn’t sure which loop was first but I figured it out after 5-6k when we were nowhere near the start. I came through the start/finish at the 6k mark in about 36:27. From there I pushed again and caught a few people on the smaller loop. We were very strung out so there wasn’t much back and forth. I didn’t know anyone around me so I don’t have any idea how I was doing really. I finished strong in 58:03 feeling as I normally do, like I could have run farther but not faster.
After the race they had doughnut holes and bananas. I was disappointed to see the “real” food cost money. I didn’t buy any. Instead I decided to run the Citizens 5k. Actually I had a difficult time deciding on 5k or 10 but I figured I had already done the 10k course, although I considered the possibility the 5k might be part of that. I also thought I might have a better shot at placing well in the 5k. I thought about this as I waited for my friend Richard Busa, known as Mr. Snowshoe, to finish. Richard is a young 82 years old. Coming to watch him race is about half the reason anyone would need to come to the event. I just missed him finishing as it was getting so cold I needed to go back to my room for more clothes and in the 2 minutes I took to do that he came in. He graciously accepted a picture request (left), after all we’ve know each other for years, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who come up asking for a hug and a photo op. 
The women’s race happened as scheduled, they actually started before Richard came in. I took photos of the top 4 finishers but I didn’t know any of them. Eventually it became time for the Citizens race. I decided on the 5k because I’ve never run a snowshoe race under 4 miles. I wanted to go out very aggressively and see if I could hold it. The 5k turned out to be the 6k loop with a couple of the biggest hills removed, well we ran around them. I started in 1st but got caught less than half way in. He was pulling away and 3rd was gaining on me. 3rd turned out to be Peter Feeney from Bar Harbor (pronounced Bah Hahbah), Maine. Peter gained on me on the ups and I opened up on the downs. Near the end we came to one of the very steep hills and following race instructions I followed the flags around it. Some guys were on the course yelling “You can go up the hill if you want” so he did. I’m not sure if that was OK but he didn’t end up catching me. The guy in front of me, then me, then Peter all stopped at the 5k finish so I likely would have won the 10k if I had entered it (still waiting for my 1st snowshoe win, which will probably never happen).There was an awards ceremony at 3:30PM. The awards were generally for the Championship race but I got an age group medal for the Citizens race without any fanfare after. I also won a raffle prize of a pair of hiking poles. Then at 6PM all athletes were welcome to dinner. At my table were Tim, Jim and Kevin, and they invited Peter over, and we also had Richard and a few older guys there I didn’t know. There were 3 choices of soups – I had cream of mushroom – and spaghetti with chicken and a brownie cake thing for dessert. I felt this made up for the charged food earlier. We ate there and went through another series of raffles. When the dinner was done the crowd dispersed, with half of our table going upstairs to the bar. There I learned that Jim Johnson knows more about music, specifically classic rock than anyone I know. I remember stuff really well but this guy is off the chart. Also, Richard told me he might have a spot on a relay team tomorrow if I wanted to run. So as I went back to my room I started planning my race and checkout schedule for Sunday.
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