First Trail Race

Conditions:

• About 24 degrees
• White-outs occurred at least twice, 40MPH wind gusts
• 8 inches of fresh powder

It was unreal. First of all, 8 inches of powder in central Pennsylvania? That just doesn't happen. The beginning of the race went through a kind-of-dark section of the state forest filled with snow covered pine trees. The snow was hanging on the trees, the snow on the ground was deep, sort of packed down, but still pretty loose. It looked a lot more like Montana than PA. I was tired after about the first 100 yards. I have never run in snow like that. It was like running in sand. The first mountain we ran up was steep. It was a single track trail. I was just trying to keep my steps run-like at that point. Then I looked up and everyone in front of me that I could see was walking. I looked back and the people behind me were doing the same, so I followed suit. Seconds later, it was a white-out. I could see only a few feet in front of me. I could feel the snow sticking to my eye lashes, eye brows, skin. I started to run again and continued to do so for the rest of the race. With every step my ankles were turning and rolling. The left one started to hurt and I could feel the snow packing into my right shoe and sticking to my sock around my ankle. I finished the 3.5 miles in 39 minutes and 39 seconds. When I crossed the finish line I had ice still attached to my eye brows and lashes. Even though the run kind of hurt, it was cold, and the snow was like nothing we ever see here- there was no other way I would have wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon. I finished 47th out of 105 overall and second in my age group. We got pretty cool blue t-shirts and age group winners got a knit hat that says "Snowfest 3.5". It was a really fun afternoon spend with 104 other people just as crazy as me for being excited to do a trail run in fresh snow and gusty winds (and all the people who love us enough to come out to watch the start and end of a race with roughly 40 minutes of standing in the semi-heated bathroom in between). My uncle placed 3rd in his age group and finished roughly 20 yards behind the two guys who places ahead of him. A friend came to watch me, he said he loved the way I looked when I crossed the finish line, snow sticking to me and yet I had a huge smile and looked like I genuinely liked what I was doing. I said that after running that race, there is no other way to finish than with a big goofy smile. Because like I said, we were all crazy for doing it, and crazy people smile a lot!

For a bit while I was running I was thinking, "What the fuck am I doing out here!?" But when the awards ceremony started and the organizers asked who was coming back to run next year, my hand, along with some people who didn't run this year, was in the air.

I love the camaraderie that comes with every race. You may not know most of these people, but they are excited for you , and you for them, anyway. Today, the youngest participant was an 8 year old girl and the oldest was a man who turned 70 yesterday.

Good times, though I'm still not sure I am up for the 5k trail night race in March. That may be a little too intense for me. I guess we shall see. Next up for sure: The Run For The Cookies, February 28, 10k. Oh boy...