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This winter, I made a few New Years running<br />
resolutions. You know, the usual: “Lose<br />
Weight, Get Stronger & Get Faster”. I also<br />
made another resolution: “Do more snowshoe<br />
racing”. Fortunately, the decision to do the last<br />
thing, made accomplishing the first three things so<br />
much easier. Although, when I first started out, it<br />
sure didn’t feel that way!<br />
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I hinted<br />
“strongly” to my wife that I’d like to see a nice<br />
shiny pair of Dion racing snowshoes under the tree<br />
this year. So, imagine my excitement (and surprise)<br />
to see exactly that on Christmas morn.<br />
Unfortunately, the snowshoes didn’t come with the<br />
pre-requisite snow allotment and I’d have to wait a<br />
few weeks to try them out. It’s hard to believe,<br />
given the kind of winter we’ve had, but in late-<br />
December and early-January snowshoe race after<br />
snowshoe race was either cancelled or postponed<br />
due to lack of snow!<br />
By the second week of January, Mother Nature<br />
decided it was time to have a proper winter and<br />
dumped a bunch of much-needed snow on us.<br />
And, continued dumping snow on us for what<br />
seemed like weeks on end. Finally, I had my<br />
chance to head into the woods and try out my new<br />
snowshoes. I was so excited for the opportunity to<br />
see how these sleek and light shoes performed.<br />
Barely two minutes in to my “run” I got a very<br />
close look at my new gems as I was doubled over<br />
them gasping for oxygen. This was going to be<br />
harder than I thought!<br />
NO SHOE-IN BY: MICHAEL WADE<br />
Slowly, after much suffering and wheezing, I began<br />
to learn how to pace myself while I churned<br />
through the snow. My training times were not<br />
impressive, and I ended each workout completely<br />
exhausted, but I could see clear improvement from<br />
week to week. At this point, I was also doing some<br />
snowshoe races on the weekends. My goals for<br />
these races were fairly low-key. Run the whole way,<br />
get in a good cardio workout and have some fun in<br />
the process!<br />
The other benefit to doing these snowshoe races<br />
was to see first-hand how the real snowshoe racers<br />
do it. The first thing I noticed while watching these<br />
Pro’s was how effortlessly they moved across the<br />
snow. Quick light steps as opposed to my<br />
lumbering, stumbling strides. The other thing I<br />
noticed was that ALL of the other competitors<br />
were smaller than me. In fact, I didn’t see anyone<br />
even remotely close to my 6’-4” height and 190 lb.<br />
frame. So, while they were moving quickly through<br />
the deep snow, I was “post-holing” all over the<br />
place. Hmmm.<br />
Finally, after weeks training (and deep snow races),<br />
my fitness improved and I was beginning to close<br />
the gap on the faster snowshoe folks. Fortunately,<br />
the snow conditions also improved (for me<br />
anyway) and what was once deep, fluffy powder<br />
had been thawed, compacted, and re-frozen to a<br />
fast, weight-bearing, super-speedway. By mid-<br />
February, I decided I was ready to mount a serious<br />
challenge to their snowshoe supremacy!<br />
Continued on page 23<br />
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the<br />
ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds<br />
in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain<br />
February - April 2011 <strong>Striding</strong> <strong>Along</strong> 22
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