Let It Snow! The Ferreira Saturday Snow Double

Finally! We finally have snow. Enough snow, in fact, to have a snowshoe race. Enough snow to make breaking trail very challenging. Luckily for me, I never have to do that in races, thanks to the likes of Jim Johnson et al.
This weekend will be Amber and my first snowshoe race and only second time this year on snowshoes. We can't think of a better way to start it off than with a snow double.

The weekend will begin Saturday at 7am at the base of Whaleback Mountain for the first race in the Winter Wild race series. This race has participants ascend and descend the mountain on whatever equipment they choose. This includes skate skis, snowshoes, crampons, running shoes etc. Whatever you use up, though, you need to take on the way down. Last year I just wore running shoes and completed the 2.5 mile loop in 16:13 for 11th place, 3rd in the Open category(first 8 finishers were all skiers). I'm aiming for under 15 this year. We'll see.

After a quick drive down to Lyndeborough, NH, we will prepare for Feel Good Farm, the first race in the Granite State Snowshoe Series . Amber and I did this race last year with very little snow and it was tough. It's a five mile two loop course that climbs 3,000 feet up and down Moose Mountain. Amber finished 18th overall and I came in 10th with less than two minutes separating us. Amber will not settling for that this year. She's gunning for the Ferreira win, which based on her fitness as compared to mine, she has a good shot being the fastest Ferreira on snow Saturday.

Speaking of Snow, Sean will be coming to this race with a vengeance. Feel Good Farm is his arch nemesis, as it chewed him up and spit him out last year in his lowest finishing place in the whole series. He made a lot of progress throughout that year, qualifying and placing well at the Snowshoe Nationals. I'm expecting a good race by him tomorrow.

Another racer that I expect to see higher up in the standings this year is Chris Dunn. He has only gotten stronger and stronger over the past year and is an exceptionally strong hill climber so will be right in his element on Moose Mountain. He and Sean are in the same age group so it will be interesting to see how the race turns out.

Acidotic Racing has picked up some pretty strong runners in the past month or so, and I'm expecting multiple top ten finishers.

This weekend is going to be great!