As a member of a local multisport club back then (Capital Multisport), I raced a fun winter triathlon at Gunstock Mountain. In a pleasant surprise, I won the short course race! True, my young-punk friend Ryan Kelly won the long course in about the same amount of time, but still... I hadn’t come in first in a long, long time, and it felt pretty darn good :o) The course was a hilly, 4K trail run on snow, a very tough 3.5K mountain bike route (also on snow), and a 3K XC ski loop (on snow, obviously). With fairly soft snow conditions, the bike part was terrifically hard, and I took one fall on the first hill where my front tire sunk in a deep drift; I pitched over the handlebars and the bike landed ON me. It was hard for everyone though, and while it all sounds pretty absurd (which it was) it really was absurdly fun! Just remembering and writing about it here makes me want to pop on my running snowshoes and hit a race in the Dion series soon. Or dust off the ol’ Nordic planks for some kickgliding miles at Northfield Mountain or Notchview.
I came into triathlons by accident when a stress fracture at the 2007 Clarence Demar Marathon forced me to drop at mile 19 and pushed me into the pool for a few months. A friend gave me an old bike and by mid-2008 I’d completed my first sprint tri; the injury was such a gift in disguise. The multisport training left me better balanced, and all-around stronger. Since that time, I moved to the Valley and shifted my then very regular hiking jaunts in the White Mountains to more local exploratory trail runs, and you probably know what that led to (this). Today I find myself running about half roads and half trails, with plenty of other activities mixed in. I’m happy with the variety, and hope to keep going strong in 2020.
There’s certainly plenty enough to do; there's lots of upcoming local snowshoe races and Winter Wild type events on deck for the next few months. Winter won’t slow me down and I plan to start the new decade off right today with runs like the annual Sawmill River 10K in Montague.
The past few months have been busy too. Smaller events like the 9K for K9 and Gorge Apres Gorge races, and a Hoka demo day on the icy trails at Mt. Warner, were heartwarmingly very well attended despite unseasonably frigid temps for November/December. Girls on the Run hosted a successful event in November. And our local claim to trail running infamy, the Seven Sisters Trail Race, sold out for 2020 in just under 24 hours a few weeks ago; that’s 500 spots snatched up for a race that’s still over four months away!
While my local running club (SMAC) doesn’t have any regular planned group runs lined up for this winter, hill workouts are scheduled return in the spring. In the meantime, Marathon Sports in Northampton offers weekly social runs every Thursday evening at 6:30. Led by Jeff Hansen, around 20 people or so start at the store and run a 4 to 5 mile route around downtown. Camaraderie generally ensues. Neither speed nor experience are required; the runs will often break up by paces into small groups and no one gets left behind. Bonus: no purchase necessary!
As we say sayonara to the 2010s (with their Westeros, Thanos, and Skywalkers; their Hokas, Pipers, Pelotons, goops, reboots, serials, snaps, and tweets; their culture bubbles, Boston Bombings, sub-2-hour marathons, and Flanagan and Linden victories), let’s all aim to be as awesome and strong as we wanna be in the New Roaring Twenties to come.
