My Quest to Become a Badass Snowshoe Racer: The Squall

Part 2: The Squall

On January 25^th, I stood with 92 other people waiting for the words to start the race. I'd started the Couch to 5K program, but hadn't stuck with it (life got in the way is my excuse, but it's not a very good one). My friends Tinker and Jarius had come up from New Jersey to do the Squall, and Jason's cousin's wife Elizabeth had ridden over with me. It was a beautiful day, with almost a carnival atmosphere, and we'd just had a great snowfall that covered the icy spots on the ground. I was looking forward to doing this and felt prepared, both physically and mentally. My first and foremost goal was just to finish. Not being dead last and doing it in less than the slowest time the previous year were bonus goals.

Ryan's arm came down and off we went, fastest people in the front, us pokey folks at the rear. I was sticking with Tinker and Jarius, Elizabeth was up ahead a bit. After 20 minutes, Tinker looked at me and said “If you want to do a faster pace, go for it” and off I went. Not real speedy, just doing the week 2 training from C25K – 90 seconds running alternating with 2 minutes walking. I caught up and passed a few people, Elizabeth included. For someone who wasn't running, she sure was hoofing it. There was an older guy just ahead of me, I kept trying to catch up, but it never happened. It kept me focused, though. I was feeling pretty good for most of the way, felt myself flagging a bit at one point in the middle, but I caught my second wind and was feeling really good. I wasn't giving it my all until I knew I was close to the end, though. I wanted to keep something in reserve so I could run hard at the finish. When I came out on the Link trail, I kicked it up a notch, and then really pushed when I hit the last curve before the finish. I was 87^th in, with a time of 57:15, ten minutes better than my target time. It was a wicked rush, having people cheer me in and congratulate me, telling me what a great job I'd done on my first snowshoe race. And then being impressed when they found out that it was my first race and I'd just been running since mid-December. Jason waited at the finish the whole time for me, he had my camera and was supposed to be taking photos, but was too excited and caught up in the moment and forgot he had the camera. That's love, standing in the cold for an hour waiting for someone to emerge from the woods. Let's face it, trail running isn't exactly an exciting spectator sport.

Photo courtesy of Tamerella's Photographs

I got my t-shirt and lots of warm fuzzies, and went home and promptly signed up for the next race in the series. And a week after that, I said “Oh, what the hell, why not?” and signed up for the last race, too. The madness is contagious, but it's a special kind of crazy. And if you do all three, you get to call yourself a Badass. I was already 1/3 of the way there, why stop now?