The Boulder Lake Ski Race has been going for six years now and decided to add a snowshoe division to the event for 2009. I noticed this update rather late on the calendar and I'm guessing that may have been a reason for such a tiny field of entrants. With only a half dozen split by gender I at least had one strong competitor by the name of Jim Reed. He's an accomplished master's trail runner and defeated me last year in the half marathon of the Northwood Snowshoe Championship. Upon receiving the GO command, I went to the front immediately as I prefer not to chase over a short course. My legs were very heavy and felt exactly the same throughout until the end. Surprisingly, I revved up my engine to 181 bpm for a max HR off nothing but low intensity training thus far. Many punchy climbs to handle and one in particular near midway I put my head down to give 'er hell. This gave me a gap that would prove to be the decisive move that I would maintain. It was evident, by my retching in the heat of battle that this effort meant I was on my limit. A win is a win and while I know I'm still on the rise, fortunately, it was good enough for that competition.
Results: 1st place overall; 4k in 22:43.4
Later on in the evening my legs were antsy from standing around in the tent waiting for the awards ceremony. I didn't cooldown properly so we got Jen a headlamp at the shop while we picked up our racing team jackets for a night ski in Lester. Glad I anticipated this as it made me restful.
Duration: 45 minutes
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