Beaver Brook Non-Snowshoe Race

Hi everyone, Happy New Year!! I know, i haven't updated my blog in 3 months, but with the new year and all, it is time to get it going again.

Today was to be the start of the Granite State Snowshoe Series at Beaver Brook in Hollis NH. With last weekends storm dumping 12-16 inches of snow over the area we shoers were excited for a start to the race season. I had managed to get in 3 SS runs during the week, including our first Tuesday Night Turtle Snowshoe Team group run on a frigid Monday night and a shorter run with Martin Tighe on Thursday. Getting in some snowshoe runs was great, but looking at the extended forecast was really depressing knowing that the snow might be gone before Sunday. Sure enough, word came out on Saturday that the race was postponed until February 19th as a day/night double header with the Kingman Farm night race.

Even with the postponement, RD Mike Amarello was still going to hold a trail run and include entry to the rescheduled SS run. With nothing better to do, some of us Turtles decided to go anyway.We pulled into the lot about an hour and a half before race time, we being Jackie and Bob Jackman, Dave Principe and me, greeted by Mike A, who was a bit surprised to see us there. I think the only others there were a couple from Huntsville, Al. that were up on vacation and wanted to do a snowshoe race. We ran a few mile warmup on the local trails and then were joined by other Turtle snowshoers, Vicki and Chris Jasparro and Warren Angell.

At race time, there were 17 of us taking the line, 7 Turtles, 2 from Alabama, Richie Blake and 7 others. As Mike said GO! We took off down the muddy then snow, slush covered dirt road. The race is about 2.5-2.6 miles, downhill, then flat, then uphill. Footing sucked, i was a bit better off than most wearing INOV8 X-Talon 212's that are almost like wearing spikes, still, it was tough going on the uphill to the finish. I felt ok out there, but backed off on the final stretch of the hill as i had no one close to me and really just wanted mileage today. Finishing first was Bob Jackman, followed by Dave Principe, Warren Angell, Chris Jasparro and me. For the women, it was Vicki Jasparro taking first followed by Jackie Jackman. So Turtle men took top 5 and women the top 2. Not that it really means anything seeing the field was very sparse, still it was a good hard workout. We warmed down with a few more trail miles around Beaver Brook followed by some kale soup that Mike had made for the race. He had enough for an army, needless to say, he took a lot home.

Time for the ride home, but first a stop at Watch City Brewing for lunch and a beer. In the last 2 years of snowshoe racing, it has become a Turtle tradition that we hit a brewpub after the race. There were many to choose from, but with Watch City being right off the highway in Waltham Ma., it was perfect. I started with a Hops Explosion IPA as did Dave and Chris. Funny, i did not taste any hops exploding. They say it has a "powerful conflagration of hop flavor", could be if you were a Bud drinker, I did not notice it. I'll call it a good pale ale. I ordered the pesto provolone chicken sandwich, it was tasty and we had a bucket of sweet potato fries. Yes, they bring them out in a bucket. As sweet potato fries go, these were quite good, crisp and meaty. Second beer was Titan Ale, a brown ale that was good for the style. We also sampled an IPA that had spearmint added to it, very subtle taste, but i don't think i would want a pint of it. All in all, this a good brewpub, i return when i get the chance.

Next weeks snowshoe race is the Bear Paw Classic in Northwood, NH. I hope there is snow on the ground, but the extended forecast isn't great at this point. They are calling for snow on Friday and Saturday, how much? Who knows?