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.