2014 Bradbury White Out Race Report

So, seriously I really did hurt my back hauling around that vat of soup yesterday, and was nervous heading to Bradbury this morning. It felt a bit better after some stretching, exercises, heating and icing this morning, but was still off, for sure. I didn't even bring anything to warm up in, figuring I'd just save it for the race and hope for the best. Also, I figured I might be flying in at the last minute, but in the end, it was really easy to drop Sam off at Anne's this morning. She was so excited to be spending the morning with her best friend, and could hardly wait for me to be out the door so they could play :-) Thank you, thank you, Phil and Kristen! We really appreciate it!

We got a few inches of snow overnight, but nothing like the 6" to 10" they had been calling for. It created a nice powdery layer atop the thick icy crust from the end of last week's storm. Ryan said conditions were actually much better than yesterday, as the new snow added a bit of "cushioning," so to speak. Well, whew! An extra huge thanks, then, to Ryan, Ian, Zak, John, Lawrence and Pankaj for setting the course - must have been rough if today was good! Yikes!

The course Ryan had come up with was tough. Lots of singletrack, with half of the "O" trail thrown in for good measure, and an uphill finish on the Knights Woods Trail. I was expecting it to be rough, but was still surprised by how loose the snow was once we turned off the Link onto Lanzo. I immediately decided I should take it down a notch so that I would have energy for the whole course! Rebecca and Aly passed me fairly early on, but after that, I was in a little void with no one immediately ahead or behind me. I just worked to keep upright, not kick myself much, and not to slip and slide around too much. In the end, I'm not sure I did too great of a job at any of those things, but hey, I tried :-)

The course is blurring together a bit right now, but somewhere on the uphill around the Bat Cave, I tripped and fell; as I was picking myself up, I motioned for the guy behind me to go by. I kept him in my sights as we weaved along the trails, but never quite caught back up to him.

I was fearful of the "O" on snowshoes, but I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. In fact, without all the rocks and roots and quite as many dips, it just seemed like a twisty turny trail. Of course, some of the tighter turns were interesting in the snowshoes, and I certainly was sliding around like crazy in the trough in the sugary snow, but I wasn't cursing that portion of the trail any more than I had been the others. Ha! Of course, right after I turned onto the Knights Woods Trail, I somehow managed to trip myself up and went down, with the back of my right snowshoe caught in the inside of my left snowshoe, with the decking of the right caught tight in my cleat. I flailed around trying to loosen it for a few seconds until I realized I was going to have to take that right snowshoe off if I was ever going to get going again. Damn! I felt so ridiculous, and so utterly ungraceful! But I didn't get caught, and I got things back on as quickly as I could and powered on up the hill as fast as I could (which wasn't very fast!) to the finish.

Looking at the finish line photos, I look very serious and it does not appear I'm having much fun, and indeed the first words out of my mouth were aimed at Ryan, with a "You suck!," which was said only partly in jest. But I did sign myself up for these races voluntarily, it is snowshoe racing and it isn't supposed to be easy. It was just tougher than I would have liked today! ;) Very happy to have managed to finish 4th woman, and mad props to Jennifer, Rebecca and Aly for putting in some great times on a tough course today. Not to mention Ian for a great win, and all the other Trail Monsters for some pretty awesome performances. As always, the volunteers do a great job, and extra thanks to Mindy and Val for heading out this morning to run the course and pack it a bit more for us! Thanks guys!

Photo courtesy of SNAPacidotic

Didn't hang around for soups and awards, as I wanted to get back to relieve Phil and Kristen of caring for our child, but of course, Sam wanted nothing to do with me when I arrive, and I ended up hanging out for another 1/2 hour until I could tear her away from their playing. Ha! Ryan nicely picked up a bag of Wicked Joe's coffee for me as my age group prize - yum! - so that was a nice surprise to get!

The back is still tight, but not as bad as I thought it might be. Hopefully it will chill out over the next few days and not become a big issue.

RESULTS
26/61
4th woman