Greylock Glen Snowshoe Race

The morning started out a bit slow. It took me 6 tries to get my Prizm up and out of the driveway. I had to keep backing up and getting a running start. The rest of my solo road trip was a lot better. I have never traveled East on the Mohawk Trail (RT 2) and must say it was one of the most beautiful rides I have been on. This was also my first snowshoe race and didn't really know what to expect once I got there. It was cold, as you can see from Tim Van Orden's frozen beard. I also noticed that my "trail blazer bear claw" shoes were twice as big as everyone else's. Ben Nephew pointed out to me that Dion Snowshoes allow people to borrow some of there "racing shoes". This was greatly appreciated. I loved the shoes and felt like I was running with regular road sneaks (except for the fact that I was running 7:30 mile pace). The workout was much harder than a normal race. It felt much like a mountain or trail race where your time doesn't reflect your effort. This should not be my last winter adventure. The results from the race were:

1 Justin Fyffe 29:37
2 Ben Nephew 29:47
3 Jim Johnson 29:51
4 Matt Cartier 30:14
5 Dave Dunham 30:18
6 Tim Mahoney 31:31
7 Tim Van Orden 31:48

This race was the highlight of my week. After spending most of the day in the Birkshires, I had the urge to stop and pick up a few pints of their famous brew. It was the perfect ending to a great day. My training log for the week looks like this:
Mon 6.2 am 9.2 pm
Tue 6.2 am 6.5 pm
Wed Off (knee soreness)
Thu 6.2 am 6.2 pm
Fri 6.2 am (-18 degrees)
Sat 2 mile warmup 4 mile race 2 mile cooldown
Sun TBD I plan to go to SMith College and beat myself up on the track