DRR at Mount Hood: Day 2 - Race Day 3/8/09

Bill, Dan, Jay, Steph, and Patrick's excellent adventure continues...........
DRR had the game plan, a day to get familiar with the course and conditions, a fuel loading team meal (jelly sticks and Hostess Snowballs on hold until after the race), a good nights rest, DRR was going to make its mark. Then there's Mother Nature.......Race morning had surprised us with another 10 inches of snow on top of the 4-5 inches the day before, and still snowing. Seven miles from the race at the base of Mount Hood, mostly uphill, and we had a team minivan. Race day start event, put on the tire chains. Dan, this wasn't supposed to be this hard. With a race time of 11am for the Womens' and 11:45 for the men, we thought we had plenty of time. An hour later the chains were still being adjusted and the seven miles were going to be at 30mph and under. We could snowshoe faster than that. A little rushed to get out, DRR was on the move, its time to get racin'. As soon as we hit the road, the sun came out. Maybe the day was going to be good after all. But similar to New England, the Mt. Hood locals have a saying for the region, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute". Sound familiar? The day would be a constant of a cycle of sun, dark skies-snow showers, sun, snow showers, repeat.

The race start at Mt. Hood Snow Park had 15-inches of new snow and we would find the course was nothing like it was the day before. And the circus tent set up the day before for sponsors, officials and awards had collapsed under the weight of the heavy snow. There would be no passing zones outside the single track pack unless you wanted to get buried deep in snow, the only pass would be if the racer blocking your path would step aside when you shouted out "track". On top of this, the bad weather in the morning delayed the early races, that were already perhaps packed too close together. Each race (5 scheduled) would find the fastest of the next trying to pass-by the slower of the previous. This would be a challenging day. The winner of the first race (Citizen's) would turn in a time of 40 min plus for a 5k. The 10k was going to be a long race.

Steph was off first with the National Women condenders. The sun was out Steph had a smile a mile wide (hmmmmm the next Chrissie Wellington?). The gun went off and so was the field in a fury of snowshoe kicked snow. Steph would finish stong, just missing the podium with a 4th place finish in the 40-44 age division. She's our star!


Next up the mensn Nationals. A field that boast some of the fastest trail and snowshoe runners from Colorado, Minesota, New York, and host state Oregon. Of course Massachusetts would have a strong showing with the likes of Dave Dunham (2-time National Champ.), and the strong DRR Captains group. The start was reminiscent of an Ironman swim, only the water was in the form of snow, as around 100 of the best snowshoe racers from around the country (and Canada), went from a 20-person wide start down to a double track within 50 yards. The gun went off and vision was completely diminished as snow was being kicked 10-ft into the air, racer's snowshoes were colliding together, near collisions almost throwing racers to the mat, shoulders bumping........it was a triathlon-esque start. The double track turned into a single track as the first 200-ft hill ascent at a 15 percent grade hit, reducing the race to a winter hike log jam. Once into the woods the racers would start to open up, spread out, and step up the pace. The first loop would find Jay and Patrick, stride for stride, and Bill and Dan not far behind. The 500ft. climb on the second loop would spread things out. Then, the sun disappeared and the heavy snows returned. Jay kept up a great pace, screaming down the descented, and placing first among the DRR racers. Jay with Metallica running through his head, was all business today and kick some serious butt. Patrick finished 4 places back as the distance caught up to some tired legs. Bill and Dan then finished a few places back. Overall final results were not posted by the awards, but I know we all finished well within the all-star field.


The sun came out, then was replaced with snow, then sun and snow as the closing ceremonies concluded, out in the open, because the tent, as I noted earlier was under a foot of snow looking like relief map you'd find in a museum. The scenery on this race was fabulous, the race a great memory, an event to check off the bucket list.

Time for Snow Balls.......and Jelly sticks. And Yes Denise, we had lots of comments on the DRR race gear. Dan's National Jackets (first picture of this blog entry) were better than anything USSSA could offer. Thanks Dan for pulling together the Jackets and the DRR website/blog, and thanks Bill for the race jerseys and guidance. What a fantastic first season for DRR.