First Snowshoe Race of the Year.

Finally, I am competing in my first snowshoe race of the season. The location is King Pine Ski Resort and the Pooh Hill SS Race in Madison, NH. I had been a bit banged up due to a knee problem suffered 3 weeks ago, but the pain has subsided and i felt a need to race.

I started the preparation for the race on Friday night with the best massage therapist in RI, Nikki Toth. She pummels the knots out of my legs like no one else and seems to enjoy it.

Saturday morning, Dave Principe, Jackie and Bob Jackman and me, headed out for the 3 hour drive to Pooh Hill. It is not too bad a drive, straight thru Boston and up to Rte. 16 in NH to Madison. When we left here in Warwick, the temp was about 25 and as we headed north, it kept dropping. By the time we reached Madison, the trucks thermometer read 13, but it was a dry 13 :) Oh yeah, the sun was out too.

Sign in and it was time for a 3 mile warm-up. I was surprised that my knee was feeling quite good, no aches or pains. Looks like the massage helped! I cruised thru that and felt pretty good about what was about to come. Now i just wondered how to dress, so i went for the thin polypro and Turtle tank top and no hat. It may have been cold, but the sun was warming things up just fine. This was just the second time this year that i was on snowshoes, so there was some trepidation heading into this race. So the gun goes off and unlike last year at this race, i hold back and keep it easy. As we run thru the early single track, i am actually feeling pretty good. No oxygen debt, no high heart rate, i like this. Thru the little ups and downs, everything seems to be working well and i actually manage to pass a few runners out there. Coming up to 30 minutes of running, i was starting to feel the lack of conditioning that you really need to run in snowshoes. I walked a short hill but was running within 20 seconds. Then came the zigzag across the lake thru a narrow trail with slow, soft snow that really seemed to sap my strength. So for the last 2 miles, i survived by running and quickly walking up a few of the inclines. Into the finish and a 47 minute 8 k, give or take a bit, and it was over. All in all, a good race. It surpassed my expectation so i was happy with it.

Bob Jackman finished up in 3rd place and Dave Principe took 10th place. Nice run guys!

I have to applaud Chris Dunn and  the Acidotic Racing Team for the job that they do. This is a very organized race, even going off right on time. The check in is easy and post race is a great time with lots of awards and a large raffle. Oh, by the way, i won the big prize...Kahtoola Snowshoes...in the raffle. Thanks Chris.

Now that the race was over, time to think about the task at hand. Turtle tradition says we have to hit a brewpub on the way home and today that choice is the Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, NH. After a race this grueling, you find yourself craving a good brew. Well, there aren't many better spots than this. The Bottle Rocket IPA was up first for me, quite tasty with a good hop bitterness but not overpowering. Bob, Jackie and Dave all went for the Stout and seemed to enjoy it. Food wise, i went for the salmon fillet sandwich with chipotle mayo and fries. I was a bit bummed out that they did not have sweet potato fries as i tend to judge these places by their IPA's and sweet potato fries. The fries were good none the less. I tried a barleywine ale also, it was good and malty with some good hop overtones, i recommend it if you find your way to Portsmouth. I do like my homebrewed IPA much better, for the record.

Next week it is the Sidehiller Snowshoe race in Center Sandwich, NH, which also means i get to go to Milly's Tavern in Manchester after the race. Nothing like good snowshoeing and good beer!!!!

Thanks to Steve Wolfe and Krissy Kosloski for suppling the photos above of  fat old me.

 It was funny how a few runners asked who was going to take pictures at the race, since i was running and Krissy Kosloski who shoots too was competing, but turns out that Krissy dropped out and grabbed her camera so see her photos here. For the record, i love shooting photos at the races but would much rather run. I will find my way to another SS race to shoot this year, but it is not a priority. Either way, i will support the sport!

If you would like to read some blogs of the fast guys up front, check out these:

Jim Johnson
Steve Wolfe
Acidotic Racing

Todays Results:

Go Here.

Later

Scott

Feel Good Farm Snowshoe Race

Usually when we go to a snowshoe race, there are 2 or 3 Turtles competing, but Feel Good Farm was a major breakthrough for the club. We went up to New Hampshire with 6 runners, should have been 7 except for my gimpy knee. Regular shoers Bob Jackman and Ben Keefe were joined on the line with Dave Principe and son, DJ as well as John Peabody and Jenny Saunders. The latter 4 runners have never run a snowshoe race before and ended up choosing a race that might not be the best initiation to the sport. The course is between 4 and 5 miles, exact milage really doesn't matter as you can't compare race to race because the courses vary so much. Jim Pawlicki noted in his blog that his Garmin measured at 4.03 miles. Total climbing elevation was 2200 feet. I ran this race last year when the snow was much deeper, this year you had to deal with some icy, almost bare ground with a lot of rocks in a few spots. As i hiked up to the top of Moose Mountain with Jackie Jackman to find a spot to capture some good photos, i noted to her that there were some real treacherous downhill running and it made me happy that i decided not to run here.

It turned out to be quite the day for a snowshoe race. Temperatures were approaching 45 and the sun was shining brightly. There was some wind at the top of Moose Mt, but nothing to affect the run. The big question for the day was how to dress for the race. A few brave souls went with shorts, but many opted for tank tops and short sleeves with their tights.

I parked myself at the top of the second climb and waited. First up and over was Kevin Tilton with a sizable lead, first Turtle up was Bob Jackman in 5th place with newby Dave Principe running in the top 20. Next Turtles up were Ben, then DJ, John P and Jenny. By then i was shooting from the downhill where everyone looked great. I even got a few smiles as runners ran by the camera. As we moved back down the hill shooting as i went, Kevin came by for a second time looking somewhat out of control, but that is how you run downhill in snowshoes and you really are in control of your running. This section of trail had little snow, lots of ice and rock. This must have been the reason for a number of broken cleats on snowshoes, hopefully they were wearing Dions where replacing a cleat is a cinch. Once past here, there was plenty of snow for the rest of the downhill into the finish.

Bob finished up in 5th, Dave P was 19th, Ben came in 28th. John Peaboby was 49th followed by DJ Principe(11years old) in 64th and Jenny at 73rd place. There were 100 finishers, a bit of an improvement from the 12 finishers last year. I am not sure how the team awards go, but it looks like the Turtles did ok as we had 3 in the top 28. CMS Polarbears put 3 in the top 6 and Acidotic Racing put lots of runners in the top 30. Post race was a good time. There are no indoor facilities here at Feel Good  Farm, so the warm weather made it quite enjoyable. There was a big pot of portuguese kale soup, thanks to race director Mike Amorello. I heard Mike comment that the RI'ers should have brought up some quahogs. We will Mike, one of these races.

Next up is the Pooh Hill Snowshoe Race on the 23rd. I plan on running this one. It is really pissing me off that the knee isn't healing as fast as i want or like.

As is tradition after a snowshoe race, we hit a brewpub on the way home. This time it was Martha's Exchange in Nashua. We were joined by Dan Scotina, Chris Smith and Emily Trespas. The beer was good, i had a Belgian called Barrel of Apathy, very tasty. There was a lack of a real IPA which really bugs me since i am a hop head when it comes to beers. The chicken mozzarella panini was very good but i would not recommend the sweet potato fries, they were over cooked with no meat on them. I heard no complaints about other beers, so i assume that everyone liked what they had. I think Emily had the appropriately named "Blond Bombshell" A fun time was had by all. After next weeks race we get to hit Portsmouth Brewing, i can't wait, it is one of my favourites.

On a side note to Steve Wolfe, sorry to hear about your dog. It really hurts to lose a pet.

Want to see a bunch of photos from the race, see my site: ScottMasonPhoto

More photos to see here at Krissy Koslosky's site.

Race Blog Roll Call:  Dare Mighty Things - Chis Dunn
                                Breakheart Trail Running - Dan Scotina
                                   Good Clean Run - Jim Pawlicki
                                

Race Results here at Coolrunning

SeeYa Next Week

Scott
                      

Best shot of 2009??????

2009 is over. I shot many photos last year, 40 thousand plus over the course of the year. I was at a lot of races and i took many shots that i liked. What was the best one of the year, a very tough one to call....or was it. What exactly constitutes the best shot? I think that emotion has much to do with the best picture. If that is the case, then the shot of Scott Graham at the top of Mt Washington should be my best of the year. It is a case of "you had to be there", i was 400 meters from the finish, above the clouds and shooting runners coming up the mountain. I like to think that i got the real feeling of running up the mountain in this shot. The look on Scott's face says it all...this race sucks every last bit of energy out of your body and then you have to dig down even deeper to make the top. This is a feeling that i will get to endure this year, as i am already entered into the 50th Mount Washington Road Race. Gee, i can't wait!!



Here is a bonus slideshow that never made it out this past summer. It never made it to YouTube because of the music choices i wanted to use on it. Recently, i uploaded it to Facebook and linked it to my blog. Hopefully you will like going back to last summer and the warm weather of July to enjoy this slideshow. It is also on my Facebook site if you belong and can watch it in a higher quality than here.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1193893843954

A New Year

A New Year and what is my resolution......that's easy......RUN MORE! I just totaled last years miles and had to cringe, it came up to a paltry 866 miles. That used to be a nice 2 month total! Wanna run better, run more miles. Like the Nike ad used to say, Just Do It. Lets see if i can.

I headed up to Hollis, NH January 2nd for the Beaver brook Snowshoe Race. I was supposed to run it, but ended up just taking pictures. Seems i screwed up my knee the other day while photographing the RI Classic High School Indoor Track Meet in Providence. I had tripped over the inside lane curbing, planted my foot and then the body twisted but the foot did not move, thus, a twisted sore swollen knee. Damn good grip on those INOV8 shoes :)  I had really looked forward to running this race, it was a wicked fast course. I still got to touch base with a bunch of the NH regulars and fellow bloggers, Jim Johnson, Dave Dunham, Steve Wolfe, Scott Graham and a few i didn't get a chance to talk to like Jim Hansen, Chris Dunn.
Hope to run in 2 weeks at Feel Good Farm, which i did last year. Up and over the mountain twice, what fun.


                                  Click here for Beaver Brook Snowshoe Race Photos 

Speaking of the RI Classic Indoor Meet here in Providence. Here is my niece, Lindsey Kopech, ripping it up in the 4x200 relay for Classical High School. 

Best of the Year??

Here are some of my favourite images that i took this year. There were many more, but going through 40,000+ photos wasn't something i really wanted to do. I hope you enjoy these.

The slideshow is from Facebook, as Youtube would not approve the audio that went along with the images.  Turn up the volume and set the show to full screen.  Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1184526329772&ref=mf

First Shoes

Yes, these are the first real running shoes i ever had, bought in early 1979. How many of you out there still have you first real pair of running shoes?  I ran before i bought these, first starting on the cinder track at Lockwood Jr. High wearing leather Nike shoes, the Cortez. After realizing that i like doing this, it was time to get into real hardcore running shoes and the New Balance 320 was the choice for me. I bough these shoes at Lightning Sports on Thayer Street in Providence. At the time, these were top of the line and cost a whopping $29.99. Choices back then weren't anything like today, i could have gone with Brooks, Adidas or Tigers, which seemed to be the choice of many top runners, now known as Asics. The NB 320's weren't the most attractive shoes out there, but they were comfortable. They had a gum rubber herringbone outer sole, not very long lasting. I used to build them up with ShoeGoo to get extra mileage out of them. Funny thing, they were a 9 1/2, i now were 11 but these shoes still fit. It seems the lasts that shoes are built on changed, not my feet. I would beat the crap out of my shoes, lots of miles and running sockless would do that and they would stink to high heaven. Why did i keep these, i don't know, maybe i thought it would be cool to see them 30 years later and compare. Obviously, they don't compare to anything now, not even remotely, but i could probably sell them on EBAY for more than i bought them for in 1979.

Later

Scott

Rhode Island 6 Hour

I woke up Sunday morning to a light mist and darkness, time to roll out of bed and get over to the Warwick City Park for the RI 6 Hour Race.  The weathermen in all their infinite wisdom are saying that it will be a nice day, temps in the low sixties and no rain. I can't imagine that there is anymore rain to fall after Saturday, how much can the clouds hold? 6:30am and here comes Mark Mitsmenn down the street for a ride over with USATF-NE Ultra Chairman Paul Kirsch following behind us. There is a steady stream of cars heading into the park and the locals must be wondering what is going on. We head on down to the beach and start area, the lot is filling fast. Tents are popping up all over, this place doesn't see this much action even in the summer. On a clear day, there is a view all the way down Narragansett Bay towards Newport, it is a very nice spot for a race. The course here is a 2.7 mile paved bike path that meanders through the woods and ball fields of the park. Much of the path is flat, but there is a rolling section that lasts for less than a half mile which could wear on the legs over the course of 6 hours. So let the fun begin.

8am is here and the start of the race goes off right on time. The players here are Ben Nephew and Martin Tighe, Ben is 34, Martin is 17 years older than that at 51. Both have impressive running resumes. Both are looking for more than 50 miles in the alloted 6 hours. They take off together and plan on running together for a while. At the same time as the ultra run, there is also a relay going on. Twenty Eight teams
with anywhere from 2 to 6 runners doing anywhere from 1 to 3 laps an individual stint. This is not a strictly regulated relay like some, you can set it up anyway that suits your team. My team, the Tuesday Night Turtle "C" team is handing off every lap, figuring that will keep us better rested and able to kick the ass of the Turtle "B" team. All our best runners were on the "A" team which was going for the overall win, but we weren't concerned with them, only the B's. Team FuelBelt came in with 5 teams, there were teams from the Wild Colonial Running Club, Shamrock Running Club, Inskip Auto Dealership and many more. Oddly though, no other big RI running clubs showed, oh well, maybe next year.

Meanwhile, Martin and Ben are going at it on the bikepath. Two laps in and Ben has already shed his shirt, a few laps later Martin does the same. They are lapping at around 6.30 pace which comes out to about a 5:25 50 mile time. Seems a bit rich. Two hours in and Martin is off the front just hammering the shit out of the course, i guess he did not want anymore company. Did he go too early, time will tell. Ben seemed to just settle in and run a fairly even pace. Martin was adding time every lap, building up to a 7 minute lead, but things were closing in. Cramping was starting to be an issue. Both runners slowed over time, that was a given considering the early pace. With a few laps to go, it hit. Martin was lying down on the path with someone trying to massage the cramps out of his legs, this cost a good 5 minutes of his time as Ben closed in. Now Martin's pace was off, he was hurting but still able to push on. One thing i know about Martin is he is a tough runner and will do all he can to hold on. But when you are being pursued by someone like Ben Nephew, the writing was on the wall. With a lap to go, Ben came around side by side with Martin and that was it, Ben put 1 1/2 minutes on Martin on the last lap. In the end, both runners covered 51.3 miles, but Ben did it quicker. Both runners ran sub 5:50 for 50 miles, an amazing feat. Martin ran a PR by 10 minutes, i do not know what Ben has previously run for a 50.  Separated by a minute and a half after 6 hours, what an exciting race! Congratulations to both. In the womens race, Daniele Cherniak of New York, a long time excellent ultra runner won by about 2 minutes over Allison Lassoe. Daniele covered 41.4 miles.

Meanwhile, back at the relay. The TNT "A" was out front by over a lap and the rest of us were left to shoot it out. My "C" team was led by Captain Jodi Hall as she led myself, George, Jim, Vicki and Pieter to a third place finish, way above expectations. I managed to run better than i thought i would, averaging 7 min. pace for 3 legs. I'll take it for now. My knees felt good, that is a good thing. I even wore racing shoes, probably not the best thing for a fat, starting to get back in shape runner, but it is a relay and i don't want to let the team down. With the relay going on with the ultra, there were many more runner/ spectators here, and a very boisterous crowd. This had to help the ultra runners and added a certain electricity to the race. The one thing i would like to see next year is an updated leader board for the relay so that we know who we are close to. I was surprised to find we were in the top 3, but in the end, the 2-8 teams were separated by only 4 minutes. It would be good to know who you have to go after or hold off.

I did get to hang out some with old friend and racing foe, Jon Barnes, who was running on one of the Fuel Belt teams. Back in the eighties, Jon ran for the Belle Watling A.C., anyone out there know where that name came from without googling it? Buy you a beer if you get it right.

Want to see many photos from the race, go HERE.

By the way, that is the lovely captain of our relay team, Jodi Hall who is interviewing Ben Nephew after the race.

A big shout out goes to the other Turtle in the 6 Hour, Jake Schieffelin who covered 37.8 miles and took 3rd place in the USATF-NE masters championship.

Way to go Jake!!!

New York City Marathon

How great is it to see an American win the NYC Marathon? In a USA shirt to boot.

 I get a kick out of how they played up Ryan Hall for much of the race and Meb comes through with the win.  Of course, that has to do with some of the non-running broadcasters. Everything has to be a cliche or witty remark. Why not put Toni Reavis alone in the booth and keep the others out on the remotes? They did a good job. They just had to put up with stupid questions or idiotic observances from the play by play guy. Just my opinion, of course.

Oh well, aside from that. Great to see Americans finish 1st and 4th.

Photo at right is from Boston in 2006 at 15 miles. Meb finished in 2:09.56, 2.42 behind Robert Cheruiyot. Not sure who #19 is, he was a dnf.