The last of the NENSA Marathon series was the Sugarloaf
Marathon. I was totally psyched about
going up again this year after I had such a good time skiing it last year in
really good, and unexpected, conditions.
With more snow and colder temps heading into it I figured the skiing
might be even better.
On Friday a stalwart group of CSUers piled into Tom Simon’s
car (Mark Daughty, Robert Faltus, Andy Milne and myself) for the trek to Pat’s
Pizza in Auburn for an excellent pre-race dinner (and cheap too!) and then the Wilson Lake Inn and then the morning
schlep up to Sugarloaf from there.
Robert, being the shortest, got relegated to the cheap seats in the back
from whence a zinger would be hurled into the conversation every now and then, lobbed
like a grenade of ridicule. That kept
the conversation going non-stop for 3 hours as we entered the land of no cell
phone service. I was trying to find out
the results of the EHS races in Rumfaaad and its tough up there even though we
were driving right past the road to Rumford!
After a reasonably restful night, more so than usual the
night before a big race, we headed off to Sugarloaf in the early dawn
light. There was much less snow in
Farmington than in my back yard, but as usual driving up the road to Sugarloaf,
it started piling up those last few miles before the touring center and it was
clearly powder snow upon our arrival.
Now, one of the best features of the Sugarloaf Marathon is the very low
schlep factor. On a scale of 1 – 10 this
race is a 2. Not bad. Lodge is right there, the stadium is right
there. No muss, no fuss, walk up, drop
the skis, go register. No logistics
planning needed whatsoever. Clinton was already there, having just done the surgical
strike by arising at 3:45 for the long drive up from Boston for the race! Other CSUers were trickling in such as Drew
Messinger and Cici Cruz-Uribe up from that hotbed of Nordic skiing, Falmouth , MA
I hustled out the door to test my skis, but perhaps more
importantly, to test myself. A week ago,
while taking photos at the Westonloppet I tweaked my piriformis or something in
there somewhere and was having trouble skiing all week. Yup, it wasn’t feeling any better and so I
went in and Tracey Cote, the Colby coach, switched me to the short race. I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to get
a chance to chase Nirmegh (NWVT) or Tom or Mark or Robert. Last year had been so much fun, but sometimes
when you get older you get smarter, at least about some things…… This gave me a chance to get up on the bridge
into the stadium and watch the start of the long race with Sugarloaf in all its
glory arising behind the stadium. (See
photos posted a week ago.) Fabulous mountain for sure! Everyone took off, some faster than others
and as they disappeared into the woods for lap 1 I went down to get ready for
my race. We took off as some of the
faster marathoners were already lapping through. At the start I was presented with a couple
right turns and my butt was not happy going in that direction. This might be a long short race! I wasn’t effective at V2 or alt V2
either. Well, there is always double
pole, so I threw that in where necessary and on we went. V1 was good and going around left turns was
good so at least I could go up hill ok. I
settled in.
I’m happy to say that the skiing was truly fabulous with
firm powder snow. Plus, no wind, it was
in the mid-20s and so not freezing either.
Hey, we deserved this after the conditions we’ve skied in all
winter! My first no buff race in a long
time! Basically, the story of my race was that I
couldn’t hang with anyone so I just cruised along trying to wake up from lack
of sufficiently strong coffee. At this
point I thought how happy I was to have moved to the 2 lapper as I was
systemically tired. Andy went by on the
long uphill towing a whole group along, including Ari. They were looking strong and I just moved
over to get out of the way and they were gone before long. The high speed descent was a bit interesting
given my injury with its sweeping right bends that normally you step turn
around, but that set off alarm bells in my gluteal area and I ended up just
steering around it, which in the perfect snow was just fine. At this point I noticed that Raul Siren was
lurking behind me. Raul and I have had
some great races together going back 20-25 years and so now I had a reason to
step it up and try to stay ahead of him.
The Sugarloaf course they now use is really fun and the 2nd
half of it has lots up smaller ups and downs, many corners to try to maintain
speed on and nothing that will kill you aerobically or otherwise. It wasn’t long and then we were off on lap
2. On the long uphill Elisa Bradley and
Izzy Caldwell caught up. I was able to
hop in behind and hang with them most of the way up the hill before they too
disappeared, gapping me where I couldn’t effectively V2. Once again, on the long fast downhill alarm
bells clanged from my butt muscles and then onto the fun part of the
course. I was not moving very fast, but
just fast enough to stay ahead of Raul.
When marathon skiers went by I’d hop in for as long as I could to gain,
if not a draft, at least some motivation.
I felt and skied better on lap 2 and before long tackled that final
nasty little climb into the stadium and I was done. Not a very inspiring race, but it was great
skiing. I watched Gray and Jody come in
and then grabbed my warmups and camera and headed out onto the course to watch
the rest of the gang on their 4th lap. Andy came by still towing Ari and a few
others. Looks like Andy did all the work,
but then Ari sprinted around him at the end. Greg Harkay came up the hill having an excellent race, then Mark came by looking very relaxed and smooth and clearly having an
excellent race with Drew right on his heels.
Mark managed to stay ahead at the finish. A bit later Brett came up the hill and I told
him Robert was right behind. He had
thought Robert was further back and so that motivated him to pick it up to the
finish. Robert was chasing but was
unable to close the gap by the finish. Steve Moreau was having a fabulous race in what I believe he said was his first marathon! Nice! Cici then came up the hill looking pretty strong. And then I waited for Tom. Where was he?
I waited some more but decided maybe I should ski back. As soon as I got back Clinton
was coming around the corner for his finish looking pretty good for a guy who
got up early and drove from Boston
to start his day! And then more
waiting. Did Tom drop out? No, finally, he came over the bridge and
around the corner into the stadium, totally wasted. Tom had visited Bonk City
Inside several CSUers scored prizes for placing in their
respective age groups and several scored a Swix hat for being endurance
warriers, having completed at least 4 marathons in the NENSA marathon
series. And like that, the season was
essentially done. We piled back into
Tom’s car as the sun popped out for a while, feeling very spring-like, and
headed for Boston . Andy graded papers, Mark drove, Robert lobbed
one-liners from the back of the bus until he fell asleep from a days hard
efforts, I resumed trying to download results of the EHS relays and reading out
the awesome CSU results and Tom and Mark bantered in the front. For a couple of us it had been one race too
many. For others an excellent day. For all it was one of the best days of skiing
of the year in a year with a lot of good ski conditions.
 |
| Long day..... |
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