Race Reports

Lessons from the Agassiz Uphill snowshoe challenge

As a fairly last minute idea, I decided to interject the 1st Annual Kahtoola Agassiz Uphill into my very light 2008 season. The mysterious (to a non-local like me) course covered two miles and 2,000 feet with the winner expected to complete the distance in 45 minutes. Since there was a kid’s 1K fun race, the entire family decided to go and with that, we were off to our first family-centered race with all four members donning a pair of snowshoes.

I won’t get into all of the details except to say that only two out of our four ended up with our snowshoes touching snow yesterday morning. Racing as a family,as I learned, is far different than have one racer and three fan club members.

Here are some important take-aways from the past 72 hours.

1. My plans were flawless, my execution was flawed.
   Unfortunately, Las Vegas’ multisport community is fairly non-existent so we often have to travel to more enlightened communities like Los Angeles, San Diego or Flagstaff if we want to race. Unlike more populated areas of the country, each of these venues is at least a four-hour drive. Because my wife and I have to work for a living, that means we don’t end up getting everything packed up, the dogs to the kennel, and our familial unit asses out the door until 7 p.m. on a Friday night. This makes Saturday races particularly challenging. In this particular instance, compounded by the hour time difference between Nevada and Arizona, we didn’t arrive in Flagstaff until 1:30 a.m.
2. Don’t stay in town for less than 24 hours.
   As a family competing together, staying 24 hours in the race venue town doesn’t cut the mustard. After four hours of sleep, getting the gang up, dressed for snowshoeing and out the door was a challenge. My oldest daughter was eventually kicked out of bed, excited to try snowshoes for the first time in her life (generously loaned to the family by Coach Steve Ilg). My youngest was essentially comatose and seeing that we weren’t going to make it in time, my wife opted to stay with her and sacrifice her first time dancing on the snow. She was not (quite that) pissed at the situation, but she was not definitely not happy about driving four hours, spending tons on gas and lodging to miss out on the fun.What’s the hang-up? One of us needed to be conscious for the four-hour drive back to Vegas after the race (see #3 below).
3. Know the check-out time of your hotel/motel/lodge.
   Why did we have to leave so early? Well, the Ski Lift Lodge had a check-out time of 10 a.m. Since the race didn’t start until 8:00 and I wasn’t expecting to finish before 9:30, we had zero time to get down the mountain, cleaned-up and out the door before we got kicked out. Calls to the lodge staff to request an extended check-out were never returned. With no where to crash after the race, we were essentially homeless.
4. Know the weather.
   I mean, really know the weather. I had miscalculated the morning temperatures at 8,000 feet and had everyone in my family showed up, they would have frozen their asses off…possibly ruining their first experience to the point of never returning.
5. Know something about the course.
   The course directions on the entry form and Kahtoola web site were non-existent. During the pre-race meeting, the race coordinator described the non-marked course to the gang…most of whom seemed to be Flagstaff locals. They knew what she was talking about. I hadn’t a friggin’ clue as to where I would have gone if I were racing. Most likely, I would have gone off course and ended up being found by search and rescue in the spring. A course map would be helpful for next year.
6. Know something about race-day conditions.
   Competing in snow events requires a bit more knowledge of the quality of the snow conditions. Looking at the athletes at the start line, I would have been one of two, out of 30-plus racers in snowshoes. Snowshoes would have been perfect in powder. Due to some spring-like temperatures in Flagstaff, the snow was wet in the afternoons and froze hard overnight when the temps dipped into the high 20s. This hard-packed snow was perfect for micro-spikes, which everyone was wearing.
7. Honor thy locals.
   The Flagstaffians milling around the ski lodge prior to the start race must have been descendants of the Scandinavian gods. I swear, not one, male or female, must have weighed more than 150 pounds. Plus, just about every one of these people were damn good looking folks.Unfortunately, I forget the name of the guy who won the race. I later learned that he ran up the mountain from the highway as his warm-up. By my calculations, that’s 6-1/2 miles starting at an elevation of 7,300 feet and ending at 9,500 feet.I’m not sure what my coach Steve Ilg did as a warm-up, but I saw him running down a steep ski run and heard the other locals talk in hushed tones about him.“Who’s that crazy guy running down the mountain.”“Dude, that’s Steve Ilg.”After the race where he thinks he finished 10th (no official race results as of today), he went telemark skiing. When we caught up with him a couple hours later, guess what his post race & ski nutrition was? Some BCAA and what looked like a bottle of Fortune Delight tea.That’s it.
8. Just have fun, no matter what.
   Although I could have raced, I opted to pull out and join my daughter for the 1K fun run. After all, that’s why we were there in the first place. To do this as a family. What fun would it be for Amanda to sit all by herself in the ski lodge?For the fun run, Amanda ran with two other kids a half kilometer up the bunny hill and then ran down. Before the race coordinator Hilary would let them cross the finish line, they had to pick up three plastic carrots with chocolate candy scattered nearby. Since I was all dressed up to race, I decided to take a run up the kids’ course and damn near had a stroke about 3/4 of the way up. The altitude and minor climb made my heart jump to 200 bpm and feel like it was going to explode out my ears. Oooof.Nonetheless, we had a great time and Amanda couldn’t wait to get back to Las Vegas to tell her P.E. teacher and friends that she ran a snowshoe race. Plus, Hilary gave her a pair of Kahtoola MICROSpikes just for showing up. Hey, where’s the love for the guy that drove her there? ;)

The key take-away from this is that life is life. Sometimes it works out as planned, sometimes it doesn’t. Just learn to play the hand you’re dealt. Learn from the experience. Enjoy the experience.

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© 2008 The Outdoor Journey.