I am so excited to write about my first ever snow shoe race!  For the past couple of years, I have wanted to try this but didn’t have snow shoes to just drop in whenever.  So for Christmas, the big box under the tree… was a pair of running snow shoes! 

I registered for the Beaver Creek Snow Shoe Series which is the largest snow shoe series in the world!  It is about a 2 hour drive from Denver.  Well, registering was the easy part.  I needed to get my running shoes mounted and the person I found to do this was at Pedal Power in Vail.  So I trekked up there 5 days before the race to get my shoes mounted.  I had planned on trying them out afterward, but I wasn’t able too because of the mounting process.  I thought oh well, I guess I’ll be trying them out on race day!

Race day came and as I was packing up to head out, I mentioned to my Sister and Bro-in-law, “Don’t try anything new on race day!” as I chuckled.  I had yet to be on these snow shoes let alone attempt running in them.  After heading over to Beaver Creek, I got my number and got over to the start.  I started about 1/3 of the way back as to not get in the way of anyone “more experienced”!  The gun blew and we were off.  It took me about 2 miles to get comfortable in my shoes… to the point where at some times, I looked down just to make sure they were still on my feet!  These Northern Lites Elite Racers are amazing! The thought kept crossing my mind.. this is like the mountain biking of running!  I loved it!!!  My lungs felt like they were going to explode then my legs would feel like they were going to collapse; just a darn good workout!! 

I was about 4 miles into the race when a 13 yr veteran of the series, Tom Moorhead, turned around and yelled at me.. “Is anyone behind you?” I said that I thought so… and he said “Nope, I think we took a wrong turn… we are heading back in”.  I thought, there is no way!  I saw the blue flags and arrows.  He stopped, came back past me, and was confident we had headed the wrong direction.  Well, honestly, at this point, having never been to this resort, I had NO IDEA where I was or even where I needed to go.  I figured I better follow! Sure enough, Tom had figured out where we had made the error and we were back on track.  I must say, the wind was taken out of my sails a bit.  I couldn’t eat my frozen power bar and for my first time out… it was turning into a long adventure.

When I finally crossed the finishline, I had logged 7.25 miles running in snow shoes with 1,864 elevation gain for my first Snow Shoe race.. (yes, they had a 5k race too but I didn’t feel that was long enough).  I was sooo happy to be finished and am so excited to PR my next race!! ;-) 

I am hooked! Get out there and try something new! www.tristafrancis.com

Enjoy your training =)