Month: January 2017

Time to take another moment to recognize someone without whom we might not have a snowshoe series, and certainly not one that’s been around as long as ours has (23 years and counting.) Those of you who started snowshoeing in the last couple of years likely won’t even know who this person is – series founder and organizer for 21 years, Ed Alibozek.

Ed was often described as being the heart and soul of this series, and he certainly did a heck of a lot to make it happen, between overall organization, weekly updates, newsletters, directing multiple races a year (which included long drives from his home in CT to scope out and mark courses ahead of time), helping with even more races, and generally being a wellspring of smiles and positive attitude. Health issues led him to step away before the 2015-16 season, and fortunately for us several individuals stepped forward to keep things going. A lot has changed over 23 years, but much of what we are can be traced back to the thoughts and attitudes of Ed and the folks who helped him put this series on for that first 20 years, whether it’s a certain pleasure at holding races at beautiful sites out in the middle of nowhere or welcoming everyone who enjoys snowshoeing to our events, whether they’re at the front of the pack or bringing up the end.

There isn’t anywhere near enough snow to hold a snowshoe race on the Curly’s course this Sunday 1/29. RD Paul Bazanchuk is checking with the MA DCR to see if it can be rescheduled for Sunday 2/12.

Check the “other races” page on our site for other options this weekend… some may actually have snow.

I’d like to take a moment to recognize Dave Dunham, who has been working behind the scenes compiling the series scores for each season for as long as I’ve known about it (and probably longer than that.) After each race Dave sends along a list of milestones reached for a variety of factors (number of series races, overall points, number of wins, etc.) While we don’t always note these here or in the email updates, they’re always posted on our site on the Milestones page.

Series Race #4 took place on Sunday 1/22 at the Mt Tom Reservation in Holyoke, MA, with the 1st Annual Western MA Snowshoe Scramble – the only hitch being a complete lack of snow, resulting in two fairly challenging trail races. 13 runners ran a single 5k loop, and 27 tackled a 2nd time around for 10k. The course climbed steadily for about a mile and 500 ft of gain, then later dropped even more rapidly to finish where it started, on trails that sported an abundance of rocks, roots, and in some spots ice. Drew Best and Apryl Sabadosa were the first runners to complete the 10k; the 5k was won by Melissa Cooney and Brian Donoghue. Best of all, the rain held off until all the runners had finished!

Results are posted here and on Coolrunning.com. Photos courtesy of volunteer Sam Harding can be found here.

Many thanks to RD Carolyn Stocker and her crew of volunteers for all their hard work to make this race happen!

While not a series race, a number of our regulars opted for snowshoes on Sunday and headed to the Oak Mountain Ski Center in Speculator, NY for their annual Oak Runner 5k/10k races. Oak Mountain is primarily a downhill ski area, so runners here were also treated to some lengthy climbs and steep descents. Results of both races can be found here, with photos available as well: album 1 , album 2, album 3, & album 4.