It was a battle of the generations. The opening contest of the six-race Headlamp Hustle Nordic ski series at Dublin School, held Thursday, Dec. 18, saw 24-year-old, Dublin-based Liam Sullivan dueling for first with – and narrowly beating – Rob Riley, 53, a Canterbury resident. Riley is one of New England’s finest master’s racers.
“I took it out hot,” said Sullivan, catching his breath after the hilly, two-lap 3.2-mile nighttime duel, “and the whole way I could see his headlamp behind me, lighting my shadow.”
Riley estimated that, throughout the race, he was constantly between five and ten yards behind Sullivan, who won in 16:56.
“I could tell how close he was by his light,” Sullivan said, “and around the turns I could see his headlamp bobbing. He’s a much better skier technically, and I was making mistakes. I caught my ski around one of the turns and that cost me a second or two. On the unlit portions, I was skiing off balance. For me, the wheels were slowly coming off, and this 50-odd-year-old man was about to run me down. Luckily, the race was just short enough that I held him off.”
Riley finished four seconds back, in 17:00. Lindsey Burkhardt, 43, of Dublin, was third, in 18:03, and nearly 50 seconds ahead of the second-place women’s finisher, Massachusetts-based Jessica Snyder.
https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=416503&did=564183
There were 13 racers in all, and even the last-place finisher, 62-year-old Andy Sheehan, was in high spirits, cooling down. “The conditions were awesome,” said Sheehan, of Concord, Massachusetts. “The course was demanding, and some of the region’s top master’s skiers were here. It was great for somebody like me, a mere pedestrian, to be able to compete against them. I will be back.”
The next Headlamp Hustle is set for Thursday, Jan. 8. Register for $6 at Dublinxc.com.