5 February 2011 - Cast a Shadow 6 Hour Snowshoe Run and Relay - North Chili, NY

Cast A Shadow 6-Hour Snowshoe Run and Relay  Feb 5, 2011

Black Creek Park, North Chili NY

7 Laps (2.3 miles per lap), 5:41-ish (final results not posted yet)

          

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About two months ago, a classmate of mine (Keri- who is an incredibly talented and daring runner) double-dog-dared me to run the Cast a Shadow 6-hour Snowshoe race.  But we never do anything half-ass…we weren’t going to run the relay, but run solo.

            It sounded cool, kind of getting back to why I started running in the first place – to see what my body could do, and challenge it.

            But, we kind of knew we were screwed when my fellow Fleet Feet-Salomon Endurance Team teammate Jim R. (another swift runner) asked us “are you SURE you don’t want to do the relay?”

            Boots recommended for our training:  “Run a lot in snowshoes.  If you can’t run in snowshoes, run a lot anyway.”  Sounds simple, because it is.  He’s not a gimmicky kind of guy.

            For the past two months, Rochester had snow more often than not, which was good for training.  The course, from what I heard, was pretty flat with a couple relatively small hills.  Thus, training at Corbett’s Glen Nature Park in Brighton was a perfect training course, and a full lap at Corbett’s was close to the lap distance for the race. 

            While Keri and I didn’t get the long duration runs we intended (nursing school has a tendency to do that), we went into the race with no expectations, but no limitations.  We both would be happy with a half-marathon distance, even though a couple folks would hit marathon distance at the race. 

            As race day approached, Keri and I grew more excited.  But also I was nervous because this would be my first (potentially) long distance race since my complete mental and physical breakdown at Flower City Challenge Half Marathon the previous May.  Since then, I fell out of love with racing and took a hiatus.  I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office, feeling “something” was wrong – and had been for a while.  I was once a 7-minute mile runner, and now it takes every bit of energy to maintain an 11-minute mile.  Long story short, my respiratory system is literally toast from living near burn pits in Iraq.  I have the lungs of a smoker, but never smoked.  Runs make my chest feel tight.  My pulse ox was easily 100% on any day; now I maintain about 94-96% consistently – which isn’t unliveable, but a clear indication of what burn pits did to my lungs, and when I get sick I have to be cautious.

            So, I’ve resigned to never being the runner I dreamed of being, but I’m happy to wake up every day knowing that I can run if I want.  I’m just a crappy-lung runner, and I’ll glady represent. 

            Keri and I texted each other incessantly for the two days prior to the race.  We were happy to have a big snowfall earlier in the week, but no snowfall the day and night prior (which kept the trails groomed).  We made ourselves a huge spread of food (flat Coke, sweet potatoes – which I highly recommend!, almonds, Red Bull, coconut water), packed our bags 3 changes of clothes in case it snowed heavily during the race.  As I waited for Keri to pick me up, my husband Dave was singing all these annoying songs, knowing that they would get into my head.  I was pissed…I do not want to have church songs stuck in my head for 6 hours.  But luckily his friend Steve stopped by, and I played for him Cee-Lo’s “F**k You” because he had never heard it before.  Thus…”F**k You” was stuck in my head for most of the race.

            When we got to the race at about 1:15 (2PM start), we met up with a few other Fleet Feet runners – Eric and Andrew who were also running solo, and a relay team of 3 – Duane, Sean and Kelly.  We set up our spots in the lodge and our food buffet under the overhang outside, and got our final instructions.  In keeping with the “Cast a Shadow” theme, whether or not our last lap counts depends on whether the groundhog saw his shadow on Groundhog Day.  If the Groundhog does not see his shadow (early spring), the race is shorter and only full laps completed at the 6-hour mark will count.  Had the groundhog seen his shadow (longer winter), the race would be longer…as long as your last lap starts at the 6 hour mark, it counts.

            I was able to keep myself pretty entertained during the race.  If I wasn’t humming “F**k You”, I was looking at snowshoe tracks, determining what brand they were (I noted Crescent Moon, Dion, and RedFeather).  I played around with my gait and running style - namely the Sabatine “Shuffle” (which if I start perfecting this now, I’ll be running when I’m 76 like him), and the Monachino “Swagger” (which must be seen to appreciate), etc.  I brought the iPod just in case, but never felt the need to use it.  Which is good.  Me running with an iPod, especially on trails, is like selling my soul to Satan.

            So – the lap nitty-gritty:

Lap 1 – warmup.  Painful.  Working out the calf cramps and shin splints I get whenever I start a snowshoe run.

Lap 2 – my best lap.  Felt great, easy cadence, no pain.

Stop at Lap 2 to change socks and take a bite of PBJ and swig some coconut water.  Seriously, I didn’t eat/drink much, but it was enough for my stomach to compete for circulation with my legs, and I felt more drained, even though I was feeling good respiratory-wise.

Lap 3 – meh.  Ran about 70% of it. 

Stop after Lap 3 to change socks again and eat something more substantial.  About a 35-minute pause.

Lap 4 – felt okay, but hamstrings started to ache.  It’s snowing big-time now – those wet “sting your face” snowflakes.

Lap 5 – this one hurt.  I walked most of it as a power-walk.  Had a salt-potato after the lap.  Changed my shoes to Saucony Kinvaras and socks, which felt awesome.

Lap 6 – by best-feeling lap since Lap 2.  Felt light on my feet.  Dry feet go a long way.

         I was going to stop here…I came in at 5:05-ish and even though Lap 6 felt good, I wasn’t sure I had another good lap in me.  Some of the Fleet Feet people were watching, and encouraged me to go for one more.  I thought I saw Nate L. (I didn’t) telling me to go one more.  Clearly I was fried J  I think now it was Duane (and those who know Nate and Duane…there  is no reason for them to be confused for one another!).

Lap 7 – power-walked like a mo-fo.  My hamstrings burned, my back ached, my calves hurt, and my stomach felt like a brick and was cramping horribly.  It felt worse than any Army ruck-march I had been on.  I think I only jogged through the frozen brush area only because it was too narrow for people to pass safely and I didn’t want to block anyone.  I met up with Keri at the last corner (she was on Lap 10 because, well, she’s an animal), and she finished a few minutes ahead of me.  I jogged to the finish line, for looks only, and completed my last lap at 5:41 (I think).

           

         Overall, this was a fun race that I would do again.  Very low key, and so many of the runners were friendly and encouraging, really typical of any trail race I’ve done.  But it was also very independent…more like a supported run than oozing of competition (that I noticed, at least).  This was my first timed event and I wanted to know what 6 hours felt like, and this was a non-intimidating event to figure that out.  This also was a personal distance milestone for me (16 miles…longest before was 15),  And I feel pretty good to say that such a milestone was on snowshoes.

         The post-race spread was nice (lots of pasta, meatballs, garlic bread and salad), and one of the runners was sharing his peel-and-eat shrimp as we were standing in the food line.

         As I embark on my Sehgahunda training in the coming days, I feel better about pushing myself to do something more – which was the whole reason I started running on my own in the first place.  I need to run more, no doubt, but I feel good about my base considering all the setbacks I’ve had over the past several months.  I know for sure I need to get accustomed to running with a bit of food in my stomach. 

         I ache like crazy right now.  I dropped 8 lbs during this race (not that I’m complaining!).  But I feel accomplished and happy, and I’m ready to take on Sehgahunda in May.  And perhaps make Cast a Shadow my b**ch for next year!