I’m A Competitor in the Wide World of Sports/Assanine Ideas

I don’t know what possesses me at any point – to look at a race or some other activity and think, “Gee, that could be fun” but a few weeks ago I looked at the Sourdough Snowshoe Race and thought just that. There were two options – an 11.4 mile and a 30k – and I know better than to think I’d want to do the 30k but I was interested in the 11.4 miler. I went to the website and there was a note saying it had reached its cap (it was limited to 70), but you could get on a waiting list. So I thought, why not let the universe be the decider on this one – so I put myself on the waiting list. Now this race was free, because it was on National Forest, but they did take donations, so I think that helps give people an out if they no longer feel like doing the race.

About a week before the race I got an email from the race director saying there was a spot available, so after talking to E about it, I signed up and that was that. When stuff like this happens – it makes me feel like I’ve already ‘won’ something.

As the race got closer, the weather forecast got worse – high winds –and I debated whether to do it myself. I kept having flashbacks of Mt Evans and I did not want to go through that again, but I remained on the roster. Friday before the race, it was posted that the trail got 4-12 inches of snow in areas and again, I got nervous, but remained registered. I have been on the race snowshoes about 5 times, with the longest trek being six miles- and I knew ‘better’ than to think I was ok, but I still think I thought I was going to be ok. The trail I was using was extremely hard packed – so aside from the extra effort of using snowshoes there wasn’t much needed so really I had no idea what to expect.

Saturday morning rolled around and the high wind forecast was still there, but so was I so E and I headed up to the race, and I was getting more nervous as we got closer- the wind was pretty bad. I was just hoping the trail would be deep enough into the trees that I’d be protected from the wind enough not to notice. I signed in and we made our way to the trail and I got ready to go. When everyone lined up for the start it was obvious there were not 70 people there, or the 56 I thought were officially in the race as of the last roster. It turns out only 42 people ended up even participating in the race at all.

The RD said go and we were off. I did wear my garmin for this, but kept the settings as they have been-no information on pace, just the overall time and my heart rate. I do get the end of mile beep and know how fast I went, but other than that I just have to watch my heart rate and use that as a guide. The trail started at 9600 feet and went up to around 10233 so for the most part – you’re going uphill. I don’t know how far I got into it but I looked down at my heart rate and thought – there’s no way I can sustain this for 11 miles so I backed off a bit. At that time I was behind two women-tiny women- and thought I’d just try and keep up with them for as long as possible. There was another woman in front of them so I just followed along as best as possible. I had no idea whether they were doing the 11mile or the 30k and would only know when the turnaround came.

There was a lot of powder on the trail, not something I’ve really been doing with the snowshoes and the trail itself was cambered so you had one shoe higher than the other with the lower one sinking into the snow and it was hard to get any real rhythm going. I just tried my best to follow in the footsteps ahead of me. I remember at one point I thought – gosh we’ve got to be in mile 3 at least right now, maybe even mile 4, because I hadn’t heard my garmin beep – but when it did and it beeped ‘mile 2’ – that was the first time I said out loud ‘this is *beeping*stupid’ – seriously what was I thinking. So I just plodded ahead. Thankfully, the next time I actually heard my watch beep it was mile 5 so three and four went by pretty quickly – or they were for the most part unnoticeable. I will say in one of those miles I fell – which apparently is a given at least once – so I got that out of the way – I did look around to make sure no one saw me, and no one did – for some reason I always end up in a race by myself – lucky or not who knows.

At almost precisely mile 5 I saw the first guy coming back, and in my head thought, well right now I’m technically second. (I don’t know how I create these things in my head, but I do – and a lot of times they help) He was going at a fast clip and I just don’t know how you get that comfortable on snowshoes in order to do that but he had it down. I got to the turnaround point and saw two other men heading back and then saw the two tiny women checking in and then they moved on to the 30k trail. I was first woman. (seriously??)

I turned around to head back, passed four more guys heading to the check in and suddenly there was a fire. I wanted to be first woman – I wanted to win this race, and I didn’t want anyone to pass me heading back. So I started to book it, relatively speaking. It wasn’t all downhill on the way back- the trail was rolling so I just did what I could on the uphill and tried to pick it up on the down and that was my process of thinking. I looked back from time to time but just kept moving forward- and I really wanted to be done. I hit mile 6, didn’t see mile 7 on the garmin, saw mile 8 and just thought 3.4 more to go.

At mile 9 I was ready to be done and I kid you not miraculously my ipod turned on. I had taken it with me in case I needed it, and had one earphone in, but never stopped to turn it on. It turned on itself and started playing a Pink song and that was all I needed. The trees heard my prayers and gave me at least four great songs that either helped me pick up the pace or just distracted me from the clop clop clopping of the snowshoes – which gets annoying after about six miles. I hit 11 miles and was home free – there wasn’t anyone behind me so I knew I was first woman, fourth overall and I was psyched. I ran as fast as those things could carry me and the Eminem song with the Lil’ Wayne duet came on and for some reason I really love that song. It was perfect and even more perfect because whatever .4 I thought I had left actually turned into .7 and that was not what I needed. I saw the trail sign and the parking lot and booked it to the finish line – which was actually just running up to the RD and telling him my number.

I finished the 11.7 mile race in 3:08 – a 16 min/mile pace. I was two minutes behind third place and 4 behind second – first place just blew everyone out of the water. The guy who got second place said something like ‘you really picked it up on the way back’ or something to that affect. Interestingly enough, he was the only person to pass me on the way out. I don’t remember what I said to him, if anything – I was done and really just wanted to get someplace warm and sit, even though that elicited calf and hip flexor cramps- so it wasn’t as pleasant as I thought it would be. I got my trophy from the RD and they took a few pictures and we left.

As a side note – I’ve only ever placed in two previous races so perhaps one might think I don’t have a lot to go off of, but the award for this race is by far the best award I’ve ever gotten.