“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night …”
The motto of the U.S. Postal Service is not yet inscribed on the yurt that serves as the base lodge at the Dublin School Nordic ski center, but perhaps it should be soon, in homage to racer Richard Pendleton, of Peterborough.
A soft-spoken novice without an ounce of killer instinct in his bones, Pendleton, 61, displayed unflagging fortitude this winter, showing up for and finishing all six races of the Headlamp Hustle Nordic ski series, including the finale, which played out in rain and fog last Thursday night, amid low visibility, on icy, rutted snow.
Pendleton was one of five Hustlers to finish all six races this season. His campaign carried a singular poignancy, for in almost every race he finished dead last. Lesser skiers would have folded their cards, but not Pendleton. “I made a commitment to myself to come to every race, and I guess I’m stubborn,” he says.
A lifelong recreational skier, Pendleton had almost never skate skied before this season. But he wanted to learn, so he borrowed a pair of nineties-era skate skis from a friend and then toed the line at the first Hustle. “Skating was harder than I thought it’d be,” says Pendleton, the easement stewardship manager for the Monadnock Conservancy. “It’s like swimming. Some people make it look effortless. I just thrash about.”
Before two races this season, Pendleton said he thought to himself, “I really don’t want to go. But I’ve made an appointment.” He showed up. He struggled. One night, he says, “I felt like I was coming down with something during the race. I just felt so crummy. But I said to myself, ‘What am I going to do? I’m out here. I’ve just got to keep going.’”
At the end of each race, joy trumped misery for Pendleton. Sitting in the yurt recently, he described the moon and the stars he’d seen looming over the race course. “It’s just so beautiful being out there,” he said, “watching the headlamps of other skaters moving through the woods. And I love the race community. I joke with the organizers, ‘’Do you want me to lock up? Because I’m going to be the last one to leave.”
Pendleton finished last among 16 racers Thursday, completing the twisty, hilly 3.6-mile course in 42:10. The race was won by Franklin Pierce University professor Victor Feofilaktov in 19:04, thanks to a razzle-dazzle finish. Skiing in his first-ever Hustle, Feofilaktov, 50, didn’t know the course, so he simply glued himself to the heels of the race leader (it happened to be yours truly) for the first 3.4 miles. Then, with a couple twisting downhills before the finish, he changed gears, throwing down an unassailable kick for a two-second win.
The highlight of the evening came about 25 seconds later when this season’s premier female Hustler, Lindsey Burkhardt, found herself locked in a fiery battle for third. Burkhardt’s foe, a Massachusetts skier named David Currie, was a first-time Hustler. He’d been several seconds behind her three miles into the race. But Currie, 54, went kamikaze on the fog-shrouded downhills that ensued, and by the time the pair reached the gently upslope 100 yards from the finish, it was neck-and-neck. Currie lunged and prevailed by a tenth of a second.
Points leaders for the six-race season were Lindsey Burkhardt of Dublin with 30 points and Bill Donahue of Hancock with 25 points. Racers got three points for each race they finished. The winners of each race, both male and female, got two bonus points and second and third place finishers, both male and female, notched a single bonus point.
Other top finishers included Mark Florenz and Richard Pendleton, with 18 points for the season, Josh Wyman with 15 and Natalie Eckroth, Erin Driscoll and Liam Sullivan who all had 13.