Snow Shoe Time!!

For a few years now I have been wanting to try out some snow shoe racing. I have seen a few races and finally this year I said I would find the time to get out to a mountain and race in one. It was on my bucket list! I ended up heading down to the Mt. Hood area for an 8k debut in snow shoeing, which also served as a National Championship Qualifier. Before the race I was confident I could handle the weather being that I had been training in snowy, icy conditions in Norway for the past few weeks. What I found out was that training and racing in horrible conditions are two different stories. Once the snow starting coming down I could barely see where I was running and managed to head in the wrong direction at one point due to the snow covering up the course markers.

In the end I was able to find my way through the deep snow with only a few minor scratches and bruises! Racing in the snow reminded me alot of mountain running uphill in that it takes ALOT longer to run a mile. I felt like I ran 15k, so needless to say the finish line was reached with a sigh of relief. I found that the 230's worked perfect for the snow shoes. The 230's don't soak up so much water so my foot was fairly dry. The light weight of the 230 also helped a great deal, especially after the 1st lap when your feet start weighing down on you and causing you running gait to quickly fade. Now that I have one in the bag, I definitely plan on checking some more races out in the near future!