The skies were much clearer this week, as the meadows and trails were fully bathed in sun on a beautiful, late autumn afternoon. The overnight lows dropped into the teens in some places, reminding everyone that winter is truly on its way, and the last holdouts who resist turning on their home heating were forced to give in. The early morning sun quickly baked away the night’s frost, and temperatures rose close to 40 degrees by race time.
This week featured a never before seen race course, a course that race director Tyler Magnan discovered this summer and fell in love with. After the tough but relatively short climb up the bottom of the sledding hill, the course gently rolls downward back towards the low point of the course. At this point, the runners took a direct route to the top of Mashtare’s Massacre, the highest point of the XC trail network. It is a nearly continuous climb for about a quarter mile, with only a short flat section for relief. Once at the top, the course is mostly downhill for the next half mile, providing some recovery time before hitting the dragstrip. The dragstrip is a straight shot across the meadows, stretching for about 600 meters. It looks flat, but locals know that running north across the strip is much easier than running south across the strip. Today, we were running south.
In a cruel twist, a steady breeze from the south picked up just before race time, causing many runners to find that running the strip into the wind was more difficult than the climb. Tyler was aware of this risk, knowing a southern wind would suck some of the fun out of this course, but his strong desire to do this course and the lack of wind earlier in the morning perhaps clouded his judgment. Nonetheless, I don’t think it ruined anyone’s day. It was still a beautiful day for some fall running.
42 runners made the start line today. In an extra show of perseverance, Scott Magnan managed to get to the line after his car broke down. He could have bailed on the race, but he found a ride, borrowed a vehicle, and when he got to Hard’ack, he ran straight from the car to the start line, still pinning on his bib as the first racers left the start line. It was great to see the Georgia middle school runners come out in force. Jonah Gorman edged out Matias Citarella to get the win in the 2.5k race. Unbeknownst to them, a vintage tractor trophy was up for grabs. Perhaps Matias would have kicked a little harder if he had known.
Through the first lap of the 5k race, a battle for top honors was shaping up between Joe Frost and St. Albans Nordic board member Brook Hodgeman. Joe pulled away on the 2nd lap, posting a winning time of 21:07. Lurking behind in 3rd place was Damian Bolduc, whose race form improved from last week, but wasn’t quite enough to reel in Brook. Elisabeth Vachon took top honors for the females, finishing 4th overall with a time of 24:05, just ahead of local legend Bill Simmons, who has a perfect 5 for 5 attendance record at this series. The next 3 places were filled out by women, as Laura Schned, Jessica Bolduc, and Jessica Bunce put in strong performances.
Most impressive from the day was the amount of youngsters that tackled the full 5k. There were at least half a dozen middle or elementary school runners who took on the difficult 5k course. The older folks will look on with a mix of enthusiasm and envy as we watch these young runners start to set PRs in huge chunks as they grow older.
After the race, runners were able to enjoy the sunny skies, the company of fellow runners, refreshments from Hannaford, and the ample prize table. One of the younger runners went home with a slick new Salomon jacket, so he can look like a pro.
The final race of the series is coming up on the 14th, and runners will get a slight reprieve, as the course will not go up either side of the massacre. We’ll see what the weather brings. Anything can happen in mid-november.