A big rainstorm on Monday took a toll on snow in New England. Here is the latest from Craftsbury, site of this week’s National Masters and Craftsbury Marathon.
Here at Craftsbury, the rain has passed and there’s even some thin sunshine this morning. Temps are still higher than seasonal norms, in the 40s. While less than ideal in some ways, it means that we can still easily move snow around.
All available hands are shoveling, driving bucket loaders and dump trucks to harvest snow and move it around to the trails. (All the more reason Ida is probably glad she’s at U23 worlds instead of at home!) Anyone who is inspired to come up with their shovel would be greatly appreciated and put to work.
What does all of this mean for the respective events of this week?
10k National Masters’ Freestyle course – we are 90% certain that we will have the course ready as advertised by Thursday with the one exception of the Race Loop bypass at the end. The course will stay on the traditional finish of Ruthie’s rather than cutting west to pass right next to the Road. If this is not the case, we’d run on a 5k loop.
Dash for Cash – We are figuring out the direction the course will take for the Friday night sprints. It’s almost a certainty that the racing will be head to head on one lane, rather than the way it was laid out earlier. Stay tuned.
25/50k TD Bank Craftsbury Marathon – The current plan would be to run the course similarly to the 10k Freestyle course, with the addition of most of Lemon’s Haunt to put the total classic loop to between 12 and 13k. The 50k division would do four loops, the 25k 2 loops. Start and Finish would be at the Center barring a major snowstorm between now and Saturday.
25k Tour – We are currently thinking of postponing the Touring division to a later date (tentatively the first weekend of March). The final decision will be made tomorrow.
Thanks for your patience as we work through this and a big hats off to our grooming crew who are tackling this challenge with their usual gusto. Keep checking www.craftsbury.com for the latest updates and snow conditions. Next anticipated update will be tomorrow morning, though earlier if the situation warrants.
