Notes
Having no idea about what to expect, having never run a snowshoe race before and having run an ultramarathon last weekend, I just wanted to finish in the top third of all finishers for my goal today.
There were 32 finishers, and I finished 10th, so mission accomplished.
Not quite sure how...my friends took a look at my snow shoes and were quite happy since that gave them a chance to beat me in a race for a change. My shins are all black and blue now...my canoes are not meant for running. Every single step involved the front of the snowshoe coming up and whacking me in the shin.
I lined up about 4 or 5 feet behind the starting line, since I figured I had no business being right up front. But then Judson Cake lined up next to me, and everybody else lined up next to or behind the two of us, so we actually started quite a ways back from the starting line, which rather amused me.
10 guys went out ahead of me right from the get go, and within a mile or so I'd sort of figured out how to run in my snowshoes. I got passed right before turning off of the groomed double track but then passed somebody halfway up towards the summit. I caught up to Jeremy (who had passed me) around a mile into the race and just let him pace me the rest of the way since he was moving at a good clip while not going so fast that my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. Chuck Hazzard caught up to me and basically did the same thing within a half mile or so of that so the 3 of us ran in a line together until there was about 3/4 or a mile to go.
Jeremy took the straight line up a small steep hill on the boundary trail and was doing his best to make me work for a pass (since I wasn't asking for one he didn't feel a need to move out of the way) but I went out of my way and around a tree because it looked like it would be easier and I wound up in front of him anyway. From there, I just tried to bust my ass and put some separation between myself and him and Chuck, and I wound up beating Chuck by 6 seconds and Jeremy by 21 seconds. I also came within a half a minute of 9th.
It was a ton of fun, I can't wait for the next race. The course had a small amount of groomed trail but most of it took place on single track. There were some good climbs, and also a lot of crazy drops that I'd be scared to run down that fast in the Summer given how rooty and rocky and steep it is (normally we run that part of the trail in the opposite direction.)
I tried on some of the loaner Dions after the race, and it's amazing what a difference that makes. They only weigh a pound and are much smaller than my snowshoes; it's not much different than running in normal shoes by feel. I've already put my name in to borrow a pair for next time, it will be interesting to see how well I can run on fresher legs and with smaller, lighter snowshoes. The second race is 4.25 miles or so and the last is 5 mile, all 3 on the mountain side of the park.
So, final numbers:
3.5+ miles in 35:39, good for 10th out of 32 finishers. Makes my goal of top third.
(Didn't win any prizes for running, but got a bag of goodies from Precision Nutrition as a raffle prize. Well, Erin won the bag, I won some coffee, which I gave away, and then that person won some energy bars or something so she gave me those. Everybody was pretty happy.)