Here were some thoughts that Eddy shared with us (in his own words) that we wanted to pass along to you.
We had a perfect day on Saturday. Sunny, around 20 degrees at the start of my Men's National 10K event. There were 6 qualifiers in my 75 -79 Masters Division, several are veterans of running high altitudes and mountain races in Colorado and the Northeast. The 10k race started above 2,000' and in the first half of the race, there were switchbacks with 700' of climb up the mountain. The course was mostly on a single track snowshoe trail. The second half of the race brought us back down the mountain on some very sharp switchbacks.
I walked fast on the real steep parts going up to preserve my calf muscles. I could see that there was a guy ahead of me by only 4 minutes in my division. Had I recognized him at the start it would have been interesting; I recognized only 2 of my 6 competitors. The guy ahead of me was from New England and was familiar with this course. I did hold on for a silver medal and keep the other 4 guys in my division behind me.
My legs are a bit sore yet after two days, but I am excited to start with some long training runs up to 30 miles in the next few weeks in an effort to be ready for the 100km nationals on April 12 in Madison, WI.
Meanwhile, I'll savor this silver medal.
Cheers! Fast Eddie
Official Results
| PLACE | TIME | NAME | AGE | DIV | CITY | STATE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 192 | 1:27:26 | Ed Alibozek Jr | 75 | M7579 | Adams | MA |
| 195 | 1:31:48 | Ed Rousseau | 75 | M7579 | Minneapolis | MN |
| 202 | 1:41:59 | Kermit Cadrette | 76 | M7579 | Rome | NY |
| 208 | 1:55:39 | Jerry Levasseur | 77 | M7579 | Brunswick | ME |
| 210 | 1:56:10 | Jim Kauffold | 77 | M7579 | Belmont | CA |
| 211 | 2:01:25 | Jules Seltzer | 78 | M7579 | Pittsfield | MA |