Middaugh weighs in on snowshoe nationals

With four U.S. national snowshoe championships under his belt, Vail endurance athlete Josiah Middaugh is probably the guy to beat at altitude at the U.S. Snowshoe Association (USSSA) National Championship at Summit High School on Saturday.

Also a five-time U.S. Xterra champion, Middaugh won’t be without stiff competition, however. Iowa’s Scott Gall has been racing on Middaugh’s heels at previous national championships and at the recent Winter Teva Games earlier this month, where Middaugh outpaced the flatlander by roughly 20 seconds in the 10k snowshoe race in Vail.

“Everything is good; I’m healthy,” said Middaugh, who is on a bit of a win streak this winter, also taking the Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon title in New Mexico last weekend. “I’m a little fatigued from a lot of racing. I’ve done five races in the last three weeks, but otherwise, I’m feeling really good.”

Middaugh won the national snowshoe championship in 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2010. The last time he competed in the championship was two years ago in Buffalo, N.Y., – Middaugh won on a Saturday and promptly hopped a red eye back to Colorado, where on Sunday morning, he went on to set the day’s fastest pace at the Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championships in Beaver Creek.

Climbing to an elevation of roughly 9,350 vertical feet, this weekend will be the highest-ever installment of the championship in its 12-year history.

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“It’s always good when people come and race at altitude. That’s the true advantage of living here over people from sea level,” Middaugh said. “But the guys that are really strong uphill runners are still going to be strong.”

Middaugh cited Gall, a former Colorado resident and member of the U.S. Mountain Running Team, as the snowshoer most likely to give him trouble at the race this weekend. The winners of the men’s and women’s categories will receive an automatic invites to the 2012 Snowshoe World Championships in Quebec, taking place the second week in March. It’s a trip Middaugh said he’d be interested in making if he picks up a fifth national title on Saturday.

“I think the sport of snowshoeing is great, but I wish it was a bigger event. They’ve talked about having it in the winter Olympics, and I think that’s the ultimate goal. I think it has gained some traction in the last few years,” Middaugh said.

In addition to the altitude, the good news for Middaugh is he’ll be sleeping in his own bed prior to a national championship for the first time in his career.

“I would like to be able to do the national race every single year,” Middaugh said. “I think Colorado is an epicenter for snowshoe racing and there are a lot of successful events that have taken place in Colorado, so it makes sense to have a championship race here. … The big thing with the altitude is to go out really hard and make it a race from start to finish, so that’s what I’m going to try to do.”