Snowshoes round 2!

After my near success in the snowshoe race the previous weekend, combined with the fact that reading week (a week of no school) had just started and all of my friends were training in California, I decided that it was time for me to go to Ottawa to train hard for 4 days, support my friends in their ski race, have fun in the city with friends, and try another snowshoe race. This time to win. Truthfully I had no plans of where to sleep, or how to get around, but I had a ride to Ottawa and a lot of friends in the city so I could make it work, right? It was too cold not to.

Friday night we got in and I stocked up on the necessary supplies for a weekend of training and unpredictable living situations.

Chocolate, tuna, bananas, rice. Yep, athlete's diet!

This whisky was delicious. 

The snowshoe and ski races were on Sunday, and this time I was taking things seriously and putting in a training block (lots of training in a short amount of time), so I got out to the trails twice on Saturday and familiarized myself with what I thought would be the course. I ended up doing a massive extra loop, but I did the course too, and upon reviewing the maps at home I was straightened out. The course started and finished in a windswept field then got into some pretty technical, twisty and hilly trail for about a kilometer or so. The course then went across another wind swept field and up a hill that got steeper as you went up (I remember very clearly). The next part of the course was pretty standard trails until a steep hill of about 60m elevation gain and a wild 1.5 km run out to the finish zone.

I got to the race start and after watching my buddies do a ski race in -36°C it was my turn to run 10km on snowshoes. And this time I wanted to win! It was hard to judge proper layering for this type of event, but I settled for 2 turtle necks, some wind proof tights, and a Gore-Tex shell. I was told that if I wanted to win I had to keep my eye on this older guy who was probably going to win. Didn't seem so bad, but here’s what I've been told about Dave McMahon: he was one an Olympic athlete in Biathlon (skiing and shooting is a pretty badass sport to be very good at), he has also married an olympic athlete, he trains about 3 hours a day, he runs a snowshoe race series and two snowshoe group workouts every week, he owns and runs multisport company, he coaches, and that he's a really nice guy.

It would be less embarrassing for me if you just muted this video..

I saw a big Gatorade water cooler right by the start line and decided to go get a drink, as any nervous athlete would right before a race. I swigged down cup in one gulp and there was something seriously wrong. It wasn't cold. It was salty. It was hot chicken broth. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't actually that offputting, but I didn't get more. 

I looked around at  some pretty intense people at this start line and asked the guy next to me whether he'd been in a snowshoe race before, the response was a little intimidating

"Yeah, I was 12th  at the world championships a couple of weeks ago! But my hamstring hurts today"

Oh. So that's how it is.

As one would expect, Dave went hard right from the start, positioning himself in first place through the technical bit, and I stayed right on his heels, thinking that to win, I'd have to stay in second position for the first bit at least, right?

Thanks Dave for posting this photo

Once we were out of the technical area the world championship guy blew by us and I was forced to make the same move; trying to stay in second place for as long as I could. As we crossed the windy field area, I noticed that this new pace  was getting us ahead of everyone else.

"Push a little harder and we won't have to worry about them again!" I yelled

I regretted that in about 2 minutes when I forced myself to slow down, unable to keep the pace up the next hill. Well shoot.

When the trail flattened out again, I was back with a vengeance, and by the bottom of the gradual downhill section I was leading the race. I had mixed feelings about this, maybe it was a bad move, it was pretty early to assert myself as the leader in a 10km race, especially with these world class competitors, but hey, I was feeling good. I had a few minutes of trying to suppress panic, even though I knew that I wasn't actually choking, the combination of the cold and the double turtle neck gave me the feeling that someone had their hands clenched around my throat, and I grabbed the shirt and held the neck out from my adam's apple to try to calm down. I did not however get passed.

The last time I raced with a turtleneck I just took it off... (Thanks Brad Jennings for this photo)

I maintained first place until we got pretty close to the start finish, when this guy just came blowing by me. I was pretty upset about this, the crowds were everywhere and this guy was taking my glory. The audacity. I figured that he probably just wanted to lead going into the second lap, and that he'd surely blow up at that pace, until he went straight for the finish line cheered on by the crowd. That jerk was only doing the 5k race. What a softie.

I led into the technical section and Dave was back on my heels, and we were just far enough down the trail that we could still look back and see 3rd place, (who was another guy, not the world championship guy), but I didn't think that he'd catch us. By the time we got to the big hill near the end of the lap, I was feeling confident, but not about to waste all of my energy on the uphill, which is where I was passed. I ran the rest of the race out and finished second place, beaten by a man who truly new how to race properly.

Proper podium gear. I do best in flannel! 

I asked for some advice after the podium from Dave, saying that I was thinking of doing more of these races, and he had some very encouraging words for me. Apparently I was quite fast down hills and on flat sections, and he described to me how to run up the hills properly (I had just been walking with long strides). He told me that I would "keep the pace" well. I asked what pace, expecting him to say his weekly snowshoe race series pace, but he told me that I would be competitive in a world cup. That was the first time anyone had ever said something like that to me, and I don't think that I'll ever forget it. All just because I tried a new sport and decided to give it a second chance!

Snowshoe racing. Yep that's a thing!

So I heard of a weird and crazy thing happening in the next town over, called a snowshoe race. Let's think about that for a second.

and 

plus

Yep, it's basically a perfect combination of awkward footwear, keeping warm by any means necessary, and high risk racing with lots of falls. 

I had been thinking of getting to the snowshoe race on the weekend but I decided not to because I was busy with lab work, Popeye's chicken, bowling, and then out at the bars until close. I woke up though (a direct result of the fried chicken) about an hour and forty minutes before the race start, and it was a beautiful day. Plus I don't believe in hangovers. I tried calling a friend who was going, but they didn't answer so I did the logical thing; ate two Clif bars and started to run toward Westbrooke. 

To give a bit of context, that morning wasn't too cold (maybe -15C), but it had snowed the whole night before and as a result the roads and sidewalks weren't properly plowed. I figured that the run was probably about 15km, but that someone going to the race would pick up the guy who is running along the side of the road with snowshoes tied to his bag, right? Wrong.

This is not the face of a guy who may not be happy with his choices

People tell me frequently enough that I'm "crazy" when I tell them of some of the stuff that I do outdoors. This time I thought that I was a bit crazy or stupid too. I realized that to get to the race with no help I had to run at basically my race pace because of the snow. This sign was probably the best thing that I could imagine:

..but I still had a couple of Kilometers..

I got to the race just on time to sign up, but not with enough time to have a bathroom break that I desperately needed. Seriously that chicken.

When I got to the start line, the race organizers was just explaining that some crazy guy had run all the way from Queen's University, and was just in the bathroom so the race would start as soon as he was out.  I realized that there wouldn't be time for the bathroom, so I just got to the start line in time to hear the end of this. I raised my hand and let him know that I was there and the race could start. This was when I knew that I was in a good place - all of the racers (about 50) gave me a round of applause. It almost made the explosive pain in my gut go away. Almost. It did however give me the confidence to be quite assertive at the start of the 6.5km long race. Which looks exactly as funny as you hope it does.

I'm the guy in the white sleeves and green vest slotting into second place. I realized immediately that this was an ambitious thing to do, and if we hadn't been running through farm fields I may have actually pulled off to hide behind a treeline and relieve myself. One guy who I definitely knew to watch out for was my friend (who didn't answer his phone) Derek Snider, a very accomplished runner (having competed and raced internationally) and skier. He's also a pretty nice guy, so when I heard him come up behind me I just got right out of the way. This left me in third place, amazed at the pace of the guys ahead of me, and concerned about the real snowshoe racers behind me.

A snowshoe race obviously must follow a trail of some sort, so there was a very skinny trail packed through the bush. This is pretty hard to navigate on snowshoes, but you definitely want to stay on the trail, otherwise the more snow you're fighting through the harder it will be. In my rush to make it to the start line on time, I put my shoes on the wrong feet, which meant that the binding release was on the inside of my legs. Now, I either have massive calves, very little coordination running in snowshoes, the trail was too skinny, or some combination of all of these but I kept charlie horsing my calves on the snowshoes, causing some pretty serious brusing, and of course loosening of my snowshoe bindings. 

Bruised calves and fantastic PJs

I had fun being in a race situation again, and it was nice to be assertive and own that third position in the race. There was a guy trailing me, but I was in 3rd and the next closest person behind him was too far back to catch us-as long as nothing bad happened.

I talked a fair amount to him, trying to figure out what snowshoe racers were like and what other sports they do. After some fairly one sided conversation he asked me if I did ultra marathons which are basically day long races on your feet. I told him that I did if I felt like it, but not officially (planning on doing one this weekend). I was promptly informed that he's an Ironman Triathlete, and he does ultra marathons too. I guess that these snowshoe racers are pretty hard core!

I tested him by accelerating my pace a few times, and found that I could create a gap between us quickly enough, but I wasn't interested in holding that pace if I didn't have to (remember I had run an hour and a half in the snow just to get to the race). So I held down third place and enjoyed talking at my fellow competitor. I was too tired for my heart rate to go high enough to get me to the point of breathlessness, and I was enjoying what I was doing. No pressure, right?

Looking the part of a guy who's falling asleep in this one (thanks Robby Breadner for emailing the photo)

With just over a kilometer to go, I felt my left snowshoe completely come loose, but I figured that for that distance, I could get away with kind of dragging my left foot, and may still keep my podium finish. After a minute of foot dragging, we were caught by 5th place, and another 30 seconds or so later I totally lost my snow shoe. It was pretty sad, but I had to stop and re attach my snowshoe with my cold hands, and watch the other two run towards the finish (we probably had 800m till the finish). I still came in strong once I re-attached my snowshoe, with a good race smile on my face.

(thanks again Robby Breadner for the photo)

The race was a great experience, I was shocked that there were so many people taking part, and was more than happy with my 5th place finish - if I had wanted to win, I should have taken it more seriously; I went for the fun and enjoyed not being too competitive (and doing well) at a race where nobody knows me. One thing that struck me was just how challenging it is to run in snow with snowshoes. It's tough to balance, it's insanely hard on the calves, and the quads. Just so that everyone is aware, I have since built up a tolerance for Popeyes, so I can exercise and eat it, please don't judge. The real moral of the story here though is that sometimes we all have to do things and if you push yourself really hard, you may find a new sport or do something that you never really thought that you'd be able to do. Now I've got the taste for these races, and I've done more since.

Keep posted for more updates!

The person who caught me at the end of the race and place fourth was Lindsay, Derek's girlfriend and another very fast runner. Yep I got chicked, and I was lucky to have stayed ahead of her so long anyway!

The 'dacks - almost 10 hours of running, crawling, climbing and rappelling

I've got some crazy friends. Like I mean nuts. And we all like adventures, you know – camping, biking, hiking, running, and exploring, you know, that kind of stuff. So when my buddies invite along on an adventure weekend to the Adirondacks I was pretty stoked and didn't really ask questions until later. Let's review some of the guys that I hang out with:

Kelsey K. and Matt F. invited me, they both like beavers

run lots

ride bikes hard

They also live with this guy

Who just won this

Or check this one out to see the obstacles better

Now, once I asked a bit more about the details of the trip to the Adirondacks, I got worried. We were going to do a trail called "The Great Range Traverse" that is close to 40km, ranked 3rd hardest in the US, all in one day. Running.
"I don't know guys, I don't really run much"
"Oh don't worry Chris, it will be fun!"
"Yeah! It will be!"
That conversation happened on Thursday I believe, which gave me a day to collect supplies for us to do this feat.

This is what ready for a serious adventure looks like!

We left Friday with the plan of driving across the border to Lake Placid, sleeping in a parking lot, and waking up some time before dawn so that we can actually get everything done in one day. Unfortunately, we got caught behind a rollover in the mountains probably 2 hours from our destination, which left us up in the middle of the night, caught on the road unable to move in the middle of the mountains past midnight. Once we got moving again, it was late enough for gas stations to be open, and we got close enough to call it and stop driving. Naturally, the smartest place to stop driving because you're running out of gas is a gas station, so that's what we did! Pulled into a gas station, pulled out our sleeping bags, and slept behind the car under the awning of a gas station, not bad eh?

This is me hopping in my sleeping bag to snuggle behind the car at the gas station

Unfortunately for us, we were woken a couple of hours later by a State Trooper, who wasn't really mad but woke us up nonetheless. After a bit of oatmeal and a refuel, we were off before dark and pulled up to the small dirt lot where we would start running to the bottom of the first mountain.

Headlamps on, chocolate bars packed, ready to rock and roll.

By the time we got up the summit of the first mountain (of 8 major peaks and some minor peaks), the sun was up and we got to see something pretty great.

This continued almost 10 more times, over almost 10 more hours, but unfortunately it got so foggy and we were in the clouds, so this was the only actual view that we had. We rotated turns who would lead up the mountains, shifting our order when we got to the top of one, giving high fives, yelling Chums! and doing wolf howls!

At some points we would be on all fours trying to keep moving up incredibly technical ascents, or climbing ropes, ladders, or bits of trees to keep going up.

This truly was challenging, but the company and the challenge were worth it (chocolate helped too).

After 5-6 hours of running and jumping and climbing I really began feeling it, especially in my knees and the bottom of my feet (using minimalist shoes was tough, but it's all I've got!). By the time we had gone up the final mountain, the 16km run out of the mountains stretched for what seemed like an eternity of poor coordination, and me mumbling chums! as I tried to keep up with the chums. I swear that I'm not crying.

It was one of the hardest things that I've ever done, but the trick is just to keep moving the next leg ahead of the last one generally following the pattern right, left, right, left. Even if my the end that's all that you can think about, you'll be happy that you tried that marathon, or 10km race! You'll look better than us afterward.

Chums