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After a mid-week warm-up and rain storm, the end of the week saw a fortuitous snowstorm that left behind plenty of snow for the WSSF North American Championships at the New Land Trust in Saranac NY on Sunday, January 14. Almost 100 runners competed in three races (kids 1/2mi, 5k, and 10k) under sunny skies. When not out on the course, runners enjoyed the warmth of the lower level of the New Land Trust clubhouse and the nearby Dannemora Community Center hosted both registration and the post race volunteer-prepared feast and awards ceremony.

Junior champions in the 5k were Andrew LePage and Rachael Woodruff; the 10k was won by Joseph Gray and Sara Dunham, with a wrong turn leaving several of the frontrunners disqualified.

Results for all three races can be found here.

Thanks to RD Jeremy Drowne and a small army of volunteers who made a potentially very confusing day run smoothly and put on a top-notch race on a challenging, beautiful course!

 

The word from RD Bob Dion is that Saturday’s series race, the Hoot Toot & Whistle 5k, is a go.

Day of registration only, from 9-10 AM at the Readsboro School.  $15 for ages 18-65, no fee for other ages. Make sure you leave enough time to register and take the shuttle or run/walk to the start 0.8 mi away.

The current forecast is for weather in the 40’s. Bob says the course is in good shape and should be a fast race for the fleet of feet. There are several water crossings that will require some care.

All the info you could want and more can be found at our race page.

… though this is related, trust me. One of the unsung heroes of snowshoeing in the northeast is Laura Clark. Along with series founder Ed Alibozek, Laura has done an incredible amount of work promoting snowshoeing in this part of the country, through organizing races (the Saratoga Winterfest race in early February is in its 18th year – that’s older than most of the students I teach!), writing articles and race reports for a variety of outlets, helping with races, and competing in an impressive number of events both during snowshoe season and the rest of the year. You wouldn’t be reading this right now if it wasn’t for Laura (she’s the one who asked me if I’d be willing to help out.)

But this isn’t about Laura, it’s about her late husband Jeff, who passed away back in 2014. Jeff was one of us too – helping Laura organize the Saratoga races (and making sure things went smoothly while she was out on the course running the race) and in many cases hiking races while she competed in them (which sometimes meant he left before the runners did and had the unique joy of breaking the trail until the runners caught up and passed him.) Jeff was always willing to help out, always supportive, always had a story to tell, and always had a smile and positive comment for everyone.

Jeff at the 2008 Curly’s Record Run snowshoe race.

Yesterday Jeff was honored by Saratoga County as part of their “Honoring Our Deceased Veterans” program, in recognition of his service during the Vietnam war. During the ceremony a flag that was flown over the Nation’s capitol in his honor was raised and will fly over the Saratoga County Offices for the next thirty days. More information can be found in an article about the ceremony and Jeff’s military service in the Saratogian. 

Race info has been updated for the Western MA Snowshoe Scramble (1/27), Saratoga WInterfest (2/4), and Camp Saratoga (2/10). Online preregistration is available for all three – I hope to have mail-in registration forms for the two Saratoga races soon.

Also, Brave the Blizzard (2/24) has lots of preliminary information at the official race site and online registration is open there as well.