Snow and Nights

Now that winter has finally arrived PROPERLY (let's not have any more of those month-long spells of single digit temps with no snow to speak of, please), I've finally been able to get out and photograph some snowy winter races.

Yesterday, I hiked out onto the course of a small but well-organized snowshoe race put on by the North Medford Running Club in Baldwinville, MA (north of the Quabbin). Temps hovered around thirty and the sun was even out for a while. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying the mid-day romp out in the woods and fields. Photo gallery here.

Then I zipped on down to the first race of the durtyfeets trail series at Douglas State Forest (southeast of Worcester). I got a nice jog in on the course before it started; the conditions were challenging but perfectly fair, considering. About a foot of fresh snow covered the trails, but snowmobiles had partially packed it down. Sometimes it felt like running in sand, but it wasn't too bad and I actually really enjoyed my run. The race began just after sunset, so I went back out to take shots of all the runners in what remained of the daylight about a quarter of a mile in. Then I set up my tripod and took long-exposure shots of the runners returning by headlamp light. Experimenting with having a flash go off at the end of the exposure, I came away with a couple of cool ghostly shots of runners trailed by the streaks of their own lights. Afterwards they put on an excellent festive barbeque down at the picnic area by the lake. Photo gallery here. A very fun day and night!

night run!

another one of those awesome father/daughter moments (just about the coolest thing ever)

road crossing at the snowshoe race

NMC Baldwinville Snowshoe Race photo gallery

Durtyfeets Trail Series #1 Wallum Lake 7K photo gallery