The distance for the first week of our 2020-21 series is 5k or 3.1 miles.

You can snowshoe (run or walk/hike) or run/walk/hike the distance anywhere you’d like from Sunday 12/27 through Saturday 1/2. I’ll post a link to report having completed the distance once I get that all set up later this week. No need to time yourself for the series, we’re not recording times this year, just the distance you covered and did you snowshoe or not. Feel free to do more than 5k, but you should cover at least 5k during the week. Whether you do your distance in one outing or split it up over multiple days is up to you.

Please choose a safe place to do your 5k and follow all local rules and guidelines. Take proper precautions to keep yourself and those around you safe. If you arrive at a trailhead and it’s crowded, please consider going somewhere else or returning at another day/time.

If you’d like to run or walk a live 5k snowshoe race for your distance, there’s one scheduled for Sunday December 27 at the Gore Ski Bowl Nordic Center. Online registration preferred and strongly encouraged, closes at noon Saturday 12/26. Day of registration will be available but discouraged to reduce contact. The race will have a rolling start with people starting when they’re ready between 2-2:30 PM. There is also a 2.5k option. There will be a limited number of Dion snowshoes available for rental.  More info including Covid precautions will be posted soon.

Yes, we’re still here and putting together a 2020-21 Dion WMAC Snowshoe Series. Actually, Laura Clark has been working for months to try to assemble a list of races – the radio silence has primarily been my fault, my paying job (which truth be told I also love) has been the most time consuming and exhausting that it’s been in my almost 30 year career. But the time has come to reveal our plans for this season, mainly because we might actually have a live race happening in less than a week…

This is likely obvious to everyone, but I’ll run through it anyway. This is not going to be our usual snowshoe series. Live races will be thin on the ground, and some that are currently planned may not end up being allowed to happen. Many of us can’t legally cross state lines to attend races outside of our home state, and some states likely won’t even let live races happen even if we could. Some folks will be comfortable attending a live race, others not. Various modifications to race formats will be needed to try to make them as safe as possible for participants, including limiting numbers and allowing online preregistration only.

In light of all of this we’ve decided to focus on participation and encouraging people to get outdoors to snowshoe or non-snowshoe run, walk, and hike, whether it’s by participating in a live race if one is happening or simply spending time and distance outside close to home. The plan is to have a particular distance to aim for each week. If there’s a live race that week, that could be one option for accomplishing that distance, but anyone is free to participate wherever they are. Later this week I’ll post details about recording participation, which will be on the honor system. Toward the end of the season we may have a raffle for some prizes and Laura may revive a version of Farmer Ed’s Barnyard Awards (how many people reading this remember those?)

At the same time we will also be running a distance challenge where the goal is to see how many miles of snowshoeing you can do this season. Top mileages will get bragging rights and maybe some prizes if we can rustle some up.

The fun starts the weekend after Christmas, hopefully with the first live race of the season – 2.5k and 5k at the Gore Ski Bowl Nordic Center. Online registration will open as soon as permission to hold the race is granted and I’ll post full race details once we know it’s happening, but at the moment the day and time to keep free is Sunday, December 27, with a rolling start between 2-2:30 PM, in North Creek NY.

Stay tuned!

… all of you who participated in any of our 16 races (some of which had two or even three distances to choose from) this season. We had 431 finishers between all of the races, which is pretty impressive considering how feeble winter was at times and how many races and activities there are to choose from. Thank you for choosing to spend some time with our crazy crew.

Actually, you’re a winner if you got outdoors this winter, even if you didn’t do one of our races, rather than vegetating indoors for the last four months.

Every entry into a series races counts as an entry into the series raffle run by Dion Snowshoes. There are two raffle winners, each getting a Dion logo piece of apparel. Our congratulations to Kathy Furlani (Hoot Toot & Whistle) and Jim Rucker (Garnet Hill). Please contact Bob Dion to make arrangements to claim your prizes.

The series champions are determined by the top combined points for their best six races. Each gets their choice of a complete set of Dion snowshoes. Not a lot of folks did six races this season, so the qualifying field was small, but our two champions definitely stand out. Congratulations to Stephan Fowlkes (527.9 pts) and Christine Natalie (524.1 pts) for being named 2019-20 Dion WMAC Snowshoe Series Champions! Please contact Bob Dion to make arrangements to claim your prizes.

I’d also like to mention two individuals who I think set the record for most series races run this season – Matt Miczek and Laura Clark, who each ran 12 races. They also attended all six of the Tuesday evening  Gore Nordic Citizens’ Races, completed the Merck Ultra 25k, and spent countless hours on the trails at Saratoga Spa State Park & the Wilton Wildlife Preserve getting things ready for the two Saratoga snowshoe races. We don’t have awards for the most miles/hours spent on snowshoes, but if we did they would go to Matt and Laura.

There are still a few more updates to post before we go into snowshoe hibernation until fall – stay tuned.

Keep an eye out for the overall series champions and the series raffle results (2 winners, each race you ran is one entry to the raffle.) I should have those compiled and calculated in the next few days.

On to the results:

Camp Saratoga snowshoe race 2/8/20

Brave the Blizzard trail race 2/15/20

Frigus 5k/15k45k snowshoe race 2/15/20

Stone Bridge Caveman 6k/15k snowshoe race 2/16/20

Hoot Toot & Whistle snowshoe race 2/22/20

Gore Nordic Citizens’ Race #6 snowshoe race 2/25/20

Garnet Hill snowshoe race 2/29/20

Nor’East Evening snowshoe race 3/7/20