Sunday, January 20, 2013

2013 Bradbury Squall Race Report

OK, so given her cough and cold, Friday night's sleepover with Morgan combined with yesterday morning's tumble time class and other activities may have been a bit much for little Sam Sam. In a way, it was just bad luck - the sleepover had already been scheduled so that Kristen and Rob could go out that night, and tumble time just happened to start yesterday. She didn't seem so bad that I cancelled either, but I'm sure she would have not melted down so much last night around dinnertime had she had a quiet day at home. Tsk tsk to me, I guess, but I know she had fun with both things, so what can I say? In any event, she was dead asleep by 6:45 last night. Now that's tired! Of course, I had high hopes that she would be so tired that she would sleep well. Anyone want to take a guess how that turned out? Yup, you guessed it, not so much. Ah well, I can hope, right?

In any event, after numerous wake-ups last night, we were finally up for the day around 7:00 am. It's nice to have an 11:00 race start, at least for me! A leisurely morning, time for the grandparents to arrive, and more than enough time to get to the race with time to chat a bit and get in a short warm-up. Sam was very excited to have Grammie and Grampie come play with her for the morning! I arrived at the park around 10:15. It was almost 40 degrees out! Crazy. Actually, it meant it was fairly comfortable standing around before and after the race, and warm enough during the race that I even shed my hat, so really it wasn't all that bad of a deal.

After a bit of chit chat and getting myself ready, I did a short 0.75 mile warm-up out onto the end of the race course, just to get an idea what the last 1/4 mile or so would be like. Then it was into the snowshoes and ready to race! I knew that the course narrowed quickly down to singletrack so I put myself pretty far up in the starting line. It may have been a mistake as once we turned off the Link, I was suddenly leading a chase pack to the front pack! Aie. Not the way I like to race, but it sure was good motivation to move! We quickly dropped off from the lead group, but I was still working pretty hard. There was great snow coverage along the Island Trail, but the twisty turny singletrack was extra challenging in snowshoes. Tough to get a rhythm. I got passed by two people on the singletrack - Jennifer, the eventual women's winner, and another guy. The Garmin beeped 2 miles just before we arrived back at the Link, at which point I was swiftly passed by 4 people, including Leslie, who was moving well despite being sick. I really wanted to keep up the pace, but was starting to realize I was pretty tired! I kept my eyes on Leslie and attempted to reel her in. I think I closed the gap a bit, but that was it :-)

Photo by: Maine Running Photos

The snow coverage was a bit thin once we turned off the Snowmobile Trail onto the next stretch of singletrack, and I struggled a bit on the uphills, but knew there wasn't too much more to go. I was glad I had run the last bit of the course as warm-up, as it was a relief to pop out of the woods onto the Knight Woods Trail. I willed my legs to go faster, but the energy just seemed to get sucked right out of me with every snowshoe step. I sadly was passed just before the final curve to the finish by a guy who had been on my trail through the singletrack stretch. I just couldn't push it any more to fend him off. Ah well. I still managed to finish as 3rd woman in 33:53, and 19th overall out of a record 62 finishers! So not bad in the end, although I do wish I'd finished a bit stronger. I think I need to get out on my snowshoes a bit more in the next few weeks before the White Out. All in all, a fun, if painful, race and just as snowshoe racing should be :-)

Full Results

Some great races by my Trail Monster friends today! Yahoo. And of course, a huge huge shout-out to Ryan, who once again put on a great race, and to all the volunteers who helped him out! The Trail Monsters certainly are a great group of people, and it always shows in our races. I'd call this one a success for sure!

While we were gone, Sam was having fun...

Taking a walk, and getting a balloon, downtown

...and we finished up the night cheering on the Pats! :-)

Go Pats!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm headed to bed! I'm whooped!


2 comments:

Scout said...

Great job out there! Seems like a strong race to me.

And, yes, big congrats to Ryan, too. What a great event!

Jeremy Bonnett said...

Awesome race Danielle you looked strong coming in the finish!