This year, the Kahtoola Snow-or No Snowshoe Race was, indeed, a race in the snow. It was held at the Flagstaff Nordic Center and conditions were excellent! About two weeks ago, an intense Pacific storm delivered significant amounts of the white stuff, and cold temperatures permitted it to stick around.
Admittedly, I was not as well-trained for this race as I should have been. I caught an evil cold en route to Georgia right before Christmas, and I'm still trying to get beyond a nagging cough. Consequently, I’ve run about four times in snowshoes following my return from “Sweet Georgia,” and I had yet to run more than about three miles during any of these light training sessions. Fortunately, I had been attending HP Yoga classes about twice a week since my return, so I was receiving some strength training – which was my saving grace today. I had to run six miles in snow shoes at +8000 feet after virtually no snowshoe running this season – so, I definitely had my work cut out for me.
It was incredibly cold this morning. When I left my vehicle to register for the race, it was 2 degrees F. The 10K race course was beautiful. It meandered through hills of aspen and ponderosa pine forest blanketed in a thick shroud of snow. So, I could not have asked for a better day.
It was a great race. I finished in 1:21:17. For hardly training in snowshoes and it being my first snowshoe race, I feel really good about my Sunday fun. Because of my lack of training over the past month, I really didn't treat this as a race. It was more of a training run. I need to get ready for the Mt. Taylor Quad in February. So, as my buddy, Steve Ilg (Mountain Yogi), puts it…today was “Taylor training, baby!"
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