the Way of the Turtle

GREEN MOUNTAIN TURTLE, Part 1 -
Season of the SnōShū 2010 - Race #8
Northfield Mountain 5.3mi Snowshoe Race
Saturday, February 6, 2010

If there's one thing I've learned from 5 seasons of snowshoeing it's to have faith in the race directors... if there's a way to hold a race (either with a modified course, at another site, or as a trail race) they'll do what needs to be done. Northfield was an excellent example of that. Ed was checking out possible backup sites if the race needed to move, but word came down late in the week that Northfield would definitely be a snowshoe race at Northfield Mountain. Good thing too, because during most of the ride there I saw nothing but brown and grey... the TomTom Ann gave me for Christmas more than proved its worth, plotting out a route that took me over roads I've never been on before and knocking 10 minutes off the driving time to boot!

It was colder at Northfield than in Albany, which left me wondering how to dress... in the end I threw on a windbreaker over my shirts, which may have been a mistake - I probably would have been plenty warm with all the climbing we did for the first two miles or so. We found out before the race that we'd be running primarily on the wide ski trails, since the snow was fairly thin in the woods (and even in a few spots on the trails) and that the course would end up being a little over 5 miles long.

As I've already mentioned, the first part of the course involved a lot of climbing to reach the top of the mountain... and gave me a few clues that it wasn't going to be a strong day for me. My legs felt sluggish all the way and something I'd eaten over the last day or so definitely wasn't sitting quite right. With the Vermont qualifier still to come tomorrow, I just took it easy, both on the hike to the top and the long, long descent back down to the bottom.

Often when we run at Northfield the course includes a short side-trip down to the observation platform above the reservoir. Northfield is a pumped storage hydroelectric facility, which means that when there's surplus electricity it's used to pump water into the reservoir on top of the mountain, and when more electricity is needed that water is released to power the generators. I don't know anything about FirstLight Power Resources as a power company, but they have definitely created some beautiful areas for outdoor recreation in conjunction with their power plants.

This year's course skipped the trip to the platform and simply took us down the road that we would usually find ourselves climbing... easy going for most folks, I suspect, but hard pounding on my legs and especially my knees. I was glad when we finally had a bit of singletrack, even with the sparse snow cover, though all too quickly we were back on the packed ski trails and heading down, down, down. No fault of RD Dave Dunham, that's simply what nature offered us this year.

One plus to not feeling at that great and taking it easy - I had a lot more time to look around and take in the sights on the descents (usually I'm trying to make up lost time from being a slow climber.) And Northfield has a lot of scenery to appreciate. Huge boulders and rocky outcroppings, evergreen forests with chickadees sounding like their laughing off in the trees, masses of icicles crawling down the rocks alongside the trails... on a sunny day it would have been breathtakingly gorgeous, with today's clouds it was merely an awesome place for a run.

One plus to the modified course - that one last hill before the final dash didn't make the cut this year, though there was a bare/icy patch that called for some caution on the long final downhill stretch. And at the very end I managed to find enough juice in my legs to make a convincing run for the finish... at least in my own mind.

After that we had the rare luxury of a heated building to stand around and visit in, before it was time to head back out on the road and begin my trek to northwestern VT in pursuit of the possibility of qualifying for Nationals. As always, it was great to spend time with my crazy friends, and this time around we owe a big thank you to Dave Dunham and his crew of volunteers who helped with everything from marking the course to registration to timing to making sure we had food to munch after the race. The weather has been uncooperative enough that I was convinced we'd be cancelling some events around now, but as always Dave and his helpers pulled out all the stops to show us a good (albeit for me a slow and knee-jarringly torturous) time.

JMH

2010 Event Totals
Run
Bike
Snowshoe 34.0 mi, 8 hr 35 min

states visited: MA, NY, VT