Gore Ski Bowl, North Creek, NY
Sunday, December 15, 2019

21 runners came out on a sunny afternoon to enjoy some snowshoe time on the lower loop at the Gore Ski Bowl Nordic Center. 20 runners opted for the 3-lap (approx. 2.7 mile) competitive run, and 1 opted for the 2 lap recreational snowshoe. Despite several days of warm conditions and rain, the snow had held up surprisingly well and conditions were better than just about anyone expected.

The mens’ race was won by Saranac NY’s Matthew Medeiros, and the womens’ race was won by Verona NY’s Jamie Woolsey. After everyone finished, a short awards ceremony was held during which each runner had the opportunity to choose a prize.

Our thanks go out to RD Paul Allison and the staff of the Ski Bowl/Nordic Center, who pulled together a great early season race under potentially tough conditions. Gore has been our season opener for four years in a row and hasn’t let us down even once. Thanks also to Bob Underwood of Underdog Race Timing for keeping track of how quickly (or in my case, how slowly) we reached the finish at the end of that third lap.

Photos from before the race, the race start, and the bottom of the first downhill can be found here.

Full results can be found below:

place	first	last	age	sex	time	points
2.7mi
1	Matthew	Medeiros	34	M	00:19:00	100.00
2	Joel	Pekosz	42	M	00:21:06	95.24
3	Tim	Russell	30	M	00:21:30	90.48
4	Shawn	Prevoir	40	M	00:21:34	85.71
5	Brian	Wilson	36	M	00:23:18	80.95
6	Jeffrey	Andritz	38	M	00:23:49	76.19
7	Jamie	Woolsey	36	F	00:24:57	71.43
8	Stacie	Minchoff	36	F	00:29:06	66.67
9	Devin	Ashline	27	M	00:31:04	61.90
10	Karen	Provencher	65	F	00:31:25	57.14
11	Shawn	Krutz	54	M	00:31:36	52.38
12	Jen	Ferriss	48	F	00:32:07	47.62
13	Matthew	Miczek	47	M	00:33:28	42.86
14	Anthony	Barkdale	55	M	00:35:28	38.10
15	Dave	Heyward	65	M	00:36:00	33.33
16	William	Farrell	70	M	00:38:11	28.57
17	Jen	Sharp	61	F	00:38:47	23.81
18	Tracy	Watson	50	F	00:38:58	19.05
19	Laura	Clark	72	F	00:42:57	14.29
20	Jamie	Howard	54	M	00:45:33	9.52
21	Meghan	Perryman	40	F	00:47:16	4.76
1.8mi
1	Annie	Wy	29	F	00:34:28

 

The 2019-20 DION WMAC Snowshoe Series kicks off on Sunday 12/15 with the Gore Ski Bowl 5k. A couple of days ago, RD Paul Allison reported in that “the man-made snow loop is holding up well despite the rain and warming temps in the last few days.” With a few alterations to avoid the au natural areas that didn’t hold up so well, they will still be able to host a 5k race. The course will follow the lower 1.25 kilometer man made snow loop.  Snow conditions will be groomed frozen granular.  For the timed 5K race class, racers will do 4 laps.  For the recreational untimed (2 laps) for a total of 2.5K. Online preregistration is available until 5 PM the day before, or register day of from 1-1:50 PM in the Lodge.

Please remember that despite Paul’s optimism Mother Nature can sometimes throw a monkey wrench in the works – in this case in the form of above-freezing temperatures and rain on Saturday. Keep an eye out here and at our Facebook group for any last-minute updates.

Looking ahead to after the holidays, the relocated & renamed Get Rec’d 8k on Sunday 1/5/20 now has the most current information posted. RD Mike Owens plans on having the course determined soon. This one is our first National Championships Qualifier of the season. If you’re looking to use this race to qualify (and also receive some discounts) be sure to have an up-to-date USSSA membership.

Over a foot of snow in Albany during the last 24 hours, with more to come in the next 12 or so – and even more snow to the north and in southern VT and western MA. I think it’s fairly clear that Mother Nature is telling us it’s time to get out the snowshoes.

The 2019-20 DION WMAC series will kick off on Sunday, December 15, at the Gore Ski Bowl. The schedule that we have so far can be found on the left sidebar or under the 2019-20 schedule tab at the top of the page. Keep checking back for updates (we’re still hoping to schedule a few more races, and sometimes things change as race day approaches) and we’ll look forward to seeing you out on the trails over the next four months!

… though it would be easy to think otherwise since the slacker web-minion hasn’t updated anything since the middle of March. I’d cut his pay but he’s already working for free…

Laura has been hard at work since August assembling the list of series races for the 2019-20 winter season. What we have so far will be posted very soon.

For those of you interested in competing at Nationals (Leadville CO at the end of February) there are once again qualifying standards to do so. You can find those here or wait for a bit and I’ll post a summary of the most relevant info.

More to come soon!