This past weekend, FLRC was proud to kick off our 2021 race season with the Super Frosty Loomis snowshoe race, the first outdoor FLRC event since last year’s Loomis. The weather was perfect, with plenty of sun and temperatures in the high 20s. Conditions were excellent, with over two feet of snow falling the week before. Some trails had seen enough use to get packed down a bit, while others were still soft and challenging—a perfect combination for snowshoe racing, if not for the fastest times. We had 11 finishers in the 5K and 25 in the 10K.
In the 5K, newcomer Michela Meister finished first with a time of 37:28, beating Eileen Randall’s second-place finish in 41:10. In the 10K, co-race director Eric Sambolec continued his dominance, notching his sixth straight win with a time of 50:59, outpacing Kurt Huebner’s 52:07 by over a minute. On the women’s side, Amelia Kaufman took home first place for the third year in a row with a time of 1:05:13, coming in comfortably ahead of Jenny Selig’s 1:12:02 for second place. Perhaps next year will bring some new competition for Eric and Amelia.
Many thanks to all our volunteers who made the race possible! Most notably, Martin Moravek spent hours directing traffic and helping park cars to squeeze as many people into the limited space available. Tonya Engst managed bib pickups with help from Micaela and Regina Moravek. Sandy Gregorich was instrumental in handing out rental snowshoes. Adam Engst and Melissa Wallace timed the race. And Joel Cisne and Wilderness Search & Rescue watched over the racers on the course to make sure everyone made it back to the finish line. Special thanks to Charlie and Ann Leonard for the use of their driveway and the Hammond Hillton warming hut, and to Matt Westerlund and Dion Snowshoes for the rental snowshoes.
Finally, thanks to all for adhering to FLRC’s COVID-19 race safety precautions—everyone was good about wearing masks and keeping their distance! As much as we missed using the warming hut and having our post-race party at the Dryden Hotel, it was great to get back to some semblance of normal.