At 5:00 AM it was -10 degrees F° in Pittsfield, MA the site of Curly's Record Run, the Fifth race in the popular WMAC Snowshoe series. The course is a scenic 4 mile loop on a mix of snowmobile and single track trails in the Pittsfield state forest. The course climbed and descended over 1000' including a brutal plunge down an old ski run. The men's field looked to be one of the stronger ones to show up to a WMAC event this year. The course record holder Leigh Schmidt and last week's Mt Greylock champion, Elijah Barrett looked to give the CMS boys a serious run.

Jim Pawlicki and Dave Dunham arrived early and surveyed the scene. They did a warm-up on about 2 miles of the course and declared it "fast". The snow was sufficiently packed to run without snowshoes. Rich Bolt was next to arrive along with Paul Low and Kelli Lusk. Bolt has been running quite well this winter and Low placed second at Mt Greylock. Lusk is one of the top snowshoers in the country, she broke the course record the previous week by 2 minutes. She was running with the Curly's record to aim for. Ben Nephew was the final CMS member to arrive. He seemed unfazed by the -3 degree temperatures choosing to warmup in only a few layers. He was seen in his car after the race attempting to thaw out a toe that had turned a bright white.

As seems to be the norm at WMAC races, the field sprinted out. Bolt went right to the front on the early gradual climb. Bolt said "I was worried about Paul being fresh so I took it out hard to see who would go". Low, the 2002 and 2003 USA Mountain runner of the year, followed closely in Bolt's tracks. Bolt noted he was "beat at the top of the climb, I figured Paul would go by on the downhill". Bolt stayed steady on the downhill and the final twisting mile of the course to break the course record by over 2 minutes. Bolt said that "knowing the course and the downhill helped, I really wanted to break the record".

Pawlicki took it out pretty hard and early on in a flat section was passed by Nephew and Low on either side. Low attempted to hang on Bolt and Nephew settled into third. On the long climb Pawlicki was passed by Barrett and Schmidt. He stated that he "had a tough time on the climb". Dunham started at a slower pace than the many fast starters. "I planned on running the early part with Kelli (Lusk) and seeing how I felt" said Dunham. Lusk and Dunham went from 20th to the top ten during the climb. Dunham got into seventh place at the summit, close behind Schmidt. On the long twisting drop he lost sight of Schmidt, who would move ahead into 4th, and also gapped Pawlicki. At the bottom of the hill the main trail continues straight and the race course takes a sharp left. "I never saw the arrow on the tree and kept going until I hit the road" stated Dunham. After losing 6 minutes he go back on course and continued to pick off runners over the last mile. He said "I was pretty mad at myself, I have never gotten lost in a race before this, I should have spotted the turn".

Pawlicki moved up to 7th and wondered what happened to Dunham at the finish. Lusk put in a great effort finishing 11th overall and destroying the course record by about 5 minutes. CMS put four runners in the top 7 and six in the top 13. Pawlicki summed up the weekend when he said that racing twice in less than 24 hours and driving 14 hours to do it was "no big deal".

Results and pictures at: http://www.phsxc.org  at the excellent Pittsfield High School Cross Country web site.