the Way of the Turtle

HARD-TRAVELLIN' TURTLE
1 WEEKEND, 4 STATES, 3 RACES
PART 4:
Season of the SnōShū 2008 - Race #9
Kingman Farm Moonlight 5k Snowshoe Race
Saturday, February 23, 2008

2008 Kingman Farm photo slideshow

I knew we were getting close when the RD walked through the parking lot hollering "15 minutes until the pre-race meeting"... and then "10 minutes" and then "5 minutes". At the five minute call I pulled my gear together and headed over to where a lot of the competitors were gathered pulling on their snowshoes. We all stood around shivering while the RD gave us some info about the race and the course, and then I got the answer to a question that had been on my mind since I'd arrived at the Madbury Town Hall parking lot - namely, where exactly was this race starting and finishing? (Of course, if I'd printed the course map that the RD sent all of us who pre-registered, I probably could have figured it out myself!) We hiked a little ways into the woods, and then down the trail a short distance... and stood around waiting for things to begin. Apparently, even after the prerace meeting it was another 5 minutes before the start of the race.

It was kind of neat seeing all the headlamps twinkling in the darkening woods... though the increasing darkness combined with the narrow (maybe 2 people wide) trail made it clear that starting position could be very important, especially considering that many of the folks in this race had never done a snowshoe event before (much less one at night!) But after multiple countdowns from the RD (3 min... 2 min... 1 min... 30 sec... 10 sec...) it was time to run!

It became clear to me very quickly that racing at night is very different from going on a training run at night. For one thing, there were roughly 80 other folks out on the trails with me... and I knew full well that some of them had no idea what they were doing! For another thing, it's a lot more challenging to keep to the correct trail at speed than it is when you can go at any old pace... fortunately, there were volunteers at many of the crucial turns, to help keep us on course.

I suspect I went out too fast... I did the first 2k (about 1.2 miles) in 16 min and change, and really started to drag after that. I suspect it also didn't help that much of the winding path for the first 3k or so was a gradual uphill... of course, then we hit the base of the only "major" climb on the course, and running was out of the question! At that point I fell back on my main hill technique - the fast-as-I-can-uphill-plod, punctuated by lots of gasping for breath. The trail wound it way back and forth until we finally reached the top, where a very enthusiastic volunteer informed us that it was all downhill from there. Fortunately, I had read the RD's pre-race e-mails, so I knew that wasn't totally accurate.

We ran along the top of the hill for a while and then started down... and not long after found ourselves heading back up! What had been described in the pre-race e-mail as a short climb seemed to take forever, but finally we headed back down again, winding our way through a series of switchbacks. Toward the bottom it got steep enough that I knew I might be in for some difficulty, so I let the folks behind me go on ahead and took my time, until I finally reached level ground again.

At the bottom I finally figured out that the hollering and screaming I'd been hearing the whole time I was one the hill wasn't runners making noise, but rather cheering at the finish line... because it couldn't have been more than a quarter mile or so from the bottom of the hill to the finish! So I ran as hard as I could (translation - pretty darn slow) and crossed the finish line in 46 min 24 sec... not the time I'd been hoping for, after those first couple of 1k splits, but still not bad for the climbing and descending during the last 1.5 km and for running the race at night.

After that I wandered back to the parking lot, snagged a piece of pizza, and then waited around for the post-race raffle, where we'd been told it was likely anyone who stayed would take home a prize. (And that was probably accurate - they had a lot of stuff to give away!) Unfortunately for me, the prize I won was a six-pack of beer, which I donated to the ARE crew (since I don't drink) and then I headed back to the car to change into dry clothes and head out into the night for the long drive to West Springfield and my plush accomodations at the Red Roof Inn there... hopefully with a stop for food somewhere along the way!

All in all, this was an interesting race, and I liked the attitude of the organizers, who seemed very intent on everyone, fast or slow, having a good time. I could also probably get into the concept of night racing if I could do it more often, though I did miss seeing the scenery on the course (one of the fun aspects of snowshoe and trail racing.) For me the major drawback to this race was its location... as I left Madbury with another 2 1/2 hours of driving ahead of me, I had a strong feeling that it was just too much driving for a 5k... I was actually in Madbury for 3 hours or so, with only 46 minutes of that spent actually racing, and roughly 7 hours of driving from the race locations in western MA. So while I talked myself into doing it once for the sake of the adventure... I really don't think I would do this triple header again. (And I'm positive I won't drive the 8+ hour round trip out to Maine for the final 5k race in their snowshoe series on March 15!)

JMH

2008 Event Totals
Run 0 mi / 0 min
Bike 0 mi / 0 min
Snowshoe 33.2 mi / 8 hr 45 min

states visited: MA, NH, NY