'14 Snowshoe Marathon

Courtesy of Peak Races

Sat. March 1, 2014
Peak Races Snowshoe Marathon
26.2 miles
~6,500' elevation gain
2nd Place Overall

Overview
I had never ran in snowshoes until the day before this race.  I ran one lap of the course with the 100 milers on Friday morning and felt like I had a good handle on maneuvering around the hills.  I was just starting to get my elevation gain up in my training and this race was a perfect way to evaluate my leg strength and get a real leg burner under my belt.

Courtesy of Peak Races

This adventure was part of the Peak Races series put on by Andy Weinberg and company out of Pittsfield, VT.  They put on races that are extremely challenging and are set up the way races should be with no frills.  All of the staff surrounding their events love the mountains and love to see athletes push themselves to the extreme.  If you attend any of their events you will leave with a bunch of new friends that like endurance sports.  I typically seek out races that are not a bunch of repeated loops, but the challenging 6.55 mile loop with over 1600' of vertical per lap

Courtesy of Peak Races

seemed very different with each repeat.  The first lap was extremely firm and fast from the 100 mile snowshoers packing it down the night before.  The second lap was much softer with the additional 400 runners on the course between the 10k, half-marathon, and full marathon competitors.  There was also A LOT of passing folks that were enjoying the fabulous weather during my second lap.  It meant a lot of encouragement from folks, some more strenuous running lines, but also some really fun sliding lines down and around folks.  The final few laps started to get a  bit more technical in the steepest downhill locations.

Courtesy of Hillary Easter

I have never done a winter race like this and my nutritional needs were even greater than needed during the Virgil Crest 50 miler.  Essentially the only aid is located at the end of each lap, so you need to be prepared
for almost 1.5 hours of effort before resupplying.  Over the course of 5.5 hours I took in about 12 GU's, 3 salt stick tablets, 1.5 packages of peanut butter crackers, and 100 ounces of water (with one Nuun tablet per 20 oz.).  So I was able to consume about 1500 calories during the race or 270 calories per hour.  I was definitely calorie deficient at just over 3 hours in, so I think I can increase my calorie intake to about 300 calories per hour and still digest it okay.  I am also planning on making solid food a larger part of my nutritional plan (i.e. peanut butter crackers!), probably every 2 hours or so.

Courtesy of Peak Races

Overall I was very satisfied with this race and enjoyed it thoroughly!  I was in no climbing shape to compete with the winner Florent Bouguin (a North Face sponsored Ultra athlete), but ending up 50 minutes ahead of the 3rd place runner out of 43 total men was an accomplishment for me.  I will see Florent and many of the top North Face athletes at the Bear Mountain 50 miler in May.