15 years ago: December (2009) – I started the month heading to the USATF National convention. Some of the other interesting stuff from the convention included getting to meet Meb. The fact that he knew what MUT was and he knew that Paul Kirsch and I had gotten an award just added to how cool that was. I stepped down as the USA manager for the juniors and Paul will be taking over as the Team Manager for the juniors. I’ve had a lot of fun going to the World Mountain championships over the years but felt it was time to move on to other things while the team was doing well, rather than ditch when times were rough. Paul has done an amazing job over the years!
I only raced twice during this month, a rare CMS weekly series race and a snowshoe race. On 12/12 I headed to Worcester for the CMS 52-week series 5k. I hadn't done a CMS series race in more than 10 years and hadn't raced the Worcester course since 1993. In '93 I ran 26 CMS series races in order to get a special t-shirt. It was a lot of fun but I guess it burned me out on going to Worcester. I ran alone from the start on a sunny and windy day with temperatures in the teens and wind chills in the single-digits. I ended up with a WIN in 17:11. A rare treat, Petey joined me and he took 3rd place in just under 19 minutes. This was my 29th CMS series race with times ranging from 14:40 to a race-walk effort with Don Drewniak (31:45).
The following week I was already in Austin TX for work and Eric Morse and I worked out a plan to visit some high state points, county high points, and fire towers. We settled in for a drive to Mt Magazine, which is the highest point in AR. We headed to the trailhead for the summit. It was an easy 5 minute run up to the top. Next up we navigated over to Petit Jean Mountain. We hiked the short distance to the summit about 30 minutes after sunset with just enough light to see. We headed off to Waldron, AR for a night, the only negative about Waldron was that Eric found out it was a dry county, no beer for him.
The next day we were up before sunrise and headed out to Rich Mountain. I had picked out a spot on Fire Road 514 where we could do a run in both AR and OK. After Rich Mountain we drove a long way to get to the tri state marker near Zylks, LA. We stopped just over the state line where Eric happily purchased a six-pack. There was a pretty cool Texas state marker and the benchmark was encased in concrete which had the three states (LA, TX, AR) chiseled on it. We took turns standing in three states then headed for a LA county high point (actually Parish high point).
On to Driskill Mountain which was only a few miles from the Lincoln Parish. Eric and I ran from the car to the summit of Driskill, which at 535 feet is the highest point in Louisiana. The run was only about 5 minutes and the other trails/dirt roads on the map were either very rough or posted, so we headed back to the road. Next up was the Hot Springs County High Point. We ran to the top in 15 minutes and checked out the fire tower and benchmark on the top. Next up was Hot Springs National Park, we ran up and over West Mountain on our way to Music Mountain. After a quick gallon jug shower and change of clothes (we decided against heading into town for a bath in many of the bathhouses) we headed for the airport and trip back to the real world.
The final weekend of the month I went to Woodford VT for the “I love Woodford” 3.5 mile snowshoe race. I took 4th place as Jim Johnson, Tim Van Orden and Brian Rusiecki battled it out in front. They all finished within 4 seconds (24:00 to 24:04) and I came in 32 seconds later (24:36). It turned out to be a great day to kick off the snowshoe racing season, and a great way to close the books on the 2009 racing season.
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