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Monday, March 15, 2010

40K at Carl Johnson ski-a-thon



Saturday I skied the Carl Johnson Memorial Ski-A-Thon at Great Glen Trails at the base of the Mt. Washington auto road. The race was a fund-raiser for ALS Northern New England (there is far less fund raising in the ski racing world than the running racing world). When I registered on Tuesday the forecast was for 50F and rain but the forecast kept improving and on race day we had nothing but sunshine and low 40s. The snow was a little soft but no puddles.

The race is a three hour as-many-5K-loops-as-you-can format. I did 8 loops (41K according to my Garmin 305) in 2:48:24. I felt pretty good through 30K but was sluggish on lap 7. I had a little spring in my skis on lap 8, either because I knew it would be my last lap or the gu that I took after lap 6 was finally oozing into my muscle cells.

There were three prizes. One went to most laps and I didn't win that. I came in 2nd but have to confess that because most of the fast citizens racers were at Bretton Woods for the ski marathon I was racing mostly against grandmothers and their grandkids. There was also a prize for wackiest tights. I didn't win that either. My tights weren't really wacky but I thought the whole outfit was might have won it. The last prize went to the most pledge money raised for ALS. I didn't win that either but I did pretty well, having raised about $200. So thank you all for that. It is going to a great cause.

5 comments:

  1. Nice work, Jeff!

    I've rounded up to the nearest dollar and will drop the check off tonight. :)

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  2. You've really downplayed your effort in this report. You skied really well. The only guy that was ahead of you has a very strong ski racing resume, which includes being undefeated in high school, countless other victories and a number of Canadian Ski Marathons under his belt. That being said, these photos don't convey the true horror of your outfit.

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  3. Hmmnn...very colorful..if you weren't recognized for that outfit, I would like to see a picture of the person that won..

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  4. You did look like a colorful merryman! Too bad they didn't let you do the by-the-lap donations - great job!

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