By Marty Basch

Do you gun for local glory in an ill-fitting GS suit during your beer league ski run?

That's chump change compared to what a couple of energetic free-heeling fanatics are doing at the base of Mount Washington during Nordic Meisters on Tuesdays at Great Glen Trails.

Each week Jackson's Steve Piotrow and Portland, Maine's Bill Newton routinely do all three disciplines offered to about 100 Meisters. That's a 5km classic ski, a 5km skate ski and a 3km snowshoe run.

Why?

Well, because they can.

In the classic and skate skiing, Piotrow can generally be found in the top 10 and Newton in the lower third. In the scant snowshoe division, they readily finish in  podium positions with Newton winning the first week, and Piotrow ever since.

Piotrow, 48, a self-employed online retailer and rookie coach of the Bartlett Nordic Team, is a five-year Nordic Meister who added snowshoeing to his competitive arsenal last season (a year after it was offered) basically "because it was there."

He’s a multi-sport athlete, competing in triathlons. Last spring he soloed in the Tuckerman Inferno Pentathlon.

Old Guys Can Learn New Tricks

Piotrow started cross-country skiing while in his 30's and credits Nordic Meisters with inspiring him to learn both classic and skate.

"The snowshoe appealed because it looked like a fun way to stay in running shape during the winter," he said.

Piotrow blocks out the morning for his Meister time. He accounts for warming up, taking a short break between legs and socializing. It takes about 2 and 1/2 hours.

He does classic, followed by skate and finishes with snowshoeing.

A runner, snowshoeing is his strongest leg.

"Of course, by the time to get that point I'm pretty wiped out so I can't say I really enjoy it," he said. "It's more of a death jog by then."

He's a better classic skier than skater.

He's also easy to spot, carrying skis, boots, poles, snowshoes, extra clothing, snacks, drinks, wax and all.

"It's a small miracle each week when I don't forget something," he says.

Gotta Be Me

Newton's a longtime Nordic Meister who races for himself.

"Not to be the fastest," he said. "Not to be first. But to have fun."

In his world three events equals three times the fun.

Over the years, he's participated in du- and tri-athlons. He's a runner. Newton, 56, a physician's assistant in internal medicine, estimates it takes him 1 hour, 15 minutes to complete the three events before he heads to the timing booth in the afternoon.

He's strongest in snowshoes—it mimics running—and weakest in the skating leg, blaming a lackluster technique.

Every Tuesday he brings a set of skate skis and boots; classic boots and two sets of classic skis (wax and waxless depending on conditions) and snowshoes with a form of trail shoes or boots based on conditions.

"Over the years, I have dabbled in a variety of winter sports," he said. "What I have done has depended on where I was, who was around, conditions, what else was going on in my life. Basically, I like to play outside and want to be able to do something regardless of whatever else is happening."

Newton is quick to deflect his tri-Meister role and heap praise upon not only Steve ("an outstanding athlete"), but the entire skiing and bicycling family. Last season Steve's wife Meredith did all three events, but her work schedule precludes it now. She still competes (she's fast; often near the top of the women's classic group) as do the Piotrows two young sons Foster (junior skate at Nordic Meisters) and Darren (Bartlett Nordic Team).

"They're the kind of family that gives me faith in the world," Newton said.