Winter's Last Hurrah

Winter's Last Hurrah Snowshoe Scramble

Race #3

Rotary Park

Biddeford, MAINE

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Registration: 8:45-9:45 am

Race starts at 10:00 am

Kids Race at 10:45 am (12 years old and under)...IT'S FREE!

Cost: $10 pre-registration; $5 for UNE students*; $15 day of event

RACE RECAP

As the saying goes 'sometimes it's better to be lucky than good'. March on the coast of Maine can be tricky as far as snow cover goes. Saturday morning I awoke to the most glorious site a snowshoe race director can imagine...it was snowing! The forecast had been for rain and with the thin snow cover in Biddeford it would have made for some pretty creative course routing on the morning of the event. Thankfully the 2-3 inches of white stuff gave us the entire park to work with. Our final event capped an incredibly successful year with over 125 men and women and 17 teams competing in our races. acidotic RACING's Geoff Cunningham (Meredith, NH) won the event in a time of 26:27 followed by Wicked Running's Patrick Smith (Salem, MA) and acidotic RACING's Paul Dillon (Newton, MA). Sarah Thomson (Salem, MA) won her second consecutive series event on the women's side with a time of 30:11. She outpaced both Jackie Stohl (Gorham, ME) and Diane Gagnon (Old Orchard Beach, ME) for the victory. ROAG's Scott Graham (Westford, MA) and Diane Gagnon (Old Orchard Beach, ME) won the Men's and Women's Masters categories. In a close finish, Eric Keup (Ipswitch, MA) edged GCS Triad Racing's Mike Amarello (Merrimack, NH) for the YETI title. Once again the team event was won by acidotic RACING with Cunningham, Dillon, and Steve McCusker (Dover, NH) all finishing in the Top 10.

This is the last race in our series and it's going to be unique! Biddeford has an incredibly rich snowshoeing history dating back to the early 1900's. The city's proud Franco-American heritage will be on display. We will crown our men's, women's, and team series champions at the Redhook Awards Celebration immediately following the event. Everyone is welcome. We promise plenty of cold Redhook, hot food, and TONS of prizes! Remember, walkers are always welcome at our events.

The Course: The 4.5 km open cross country course will feature multiple "surprises".

A part of the proceeds benefit the Maine Coalition to Fight Prostate Cancer

* Valid and current University of New England student ID must be shown.

Rules: minimum snowshoe size 120 square inches

*RACE UPDATE*

March 8, 2008 - The snow at Rotary Park yesterday was fine. More than enough to race on. The question will be how much will the rain today impact the snow cover? I'm planning to be back out at the park Monday afternoon. I'll update the conditions then. For now...everyone cross their fingers. In the event the race is cancelled all pre-registered competitors will receive a $10 refund of their entry fee.

Would you rather register the "old fashion" way? Click the link below to print out a PDF version of the entry form and mail it back to us with your check.