The Final Championships

*early morning sunrise in Canal Park

Saturday was the 20th and last running of the Northwoods Snowshoe Championships. I had no intention of running this race since I haven't run further than ~7 miles since the marathon on December 6th. I saw the Friday morning paper and it mentioned that the race was in it's last year of running and that made my decision quite easy. The race has a 10K, half-marathon, and full marathon distance to choose from and I chose the middle distance. I figured I could gut it out for a couple of hours and get a good long effort. Accomplished.

The race started on the groomed ski trails at Lester Park where we did a short loop taking us past the start, then ventured out for the big loop that runs the trails, some private land on fresh tracked snowmobile trail that crested Moose Mountain and the famous "power lines" and back via the ski trails. Overall the snow was decent, but there was plenty of loose sugar snow to deal with as well. I managed to run decent enough for the win and no major injuries to report except a little frost bite on two toes and some blisters. Easy to heal.

Totals:

2:03:00 14 miles (gps)

End of Week Totals: 38 miles

Year: 77 miles