Snowshoe running: Neither for the faint of heart, nor the
out of shape runner. In January, I made my second finish at the Tahoe Rim Tour
Snowshoe Race. Somehow, I remember it being so much easier the last time I ran it. But then again, I suppose I was in better shape that time.
In fact, I think it was the ease and joy of the 2011 race
that had me eager to return, and of course I had Jamie in tow this time as
well. What’s the fun in tromping through
powder with tennis rackets on your feet if you can’t do it with your best
friend? Unfortunately, for this year’s edition, we’d both run long just the day
before, but I thought it would be a good way to get my winter ass back into
shape. Ha! Well, it was. Depending on what you mean by “good.”
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This is what it looked like at the start. Do you see anyone without skis on their feet? Yeah, me neither! |
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Ready for a long day on beautiful trails! |
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Here's Helen, getting ready to ski away from us at the sound of the gun. |
Fortunately, the conditions were pretty firm, and we set a
conservative pace early. This was a good move, since we certainly didn’t feel
like it was easy at any point. Snowshoe running for me isn’t so much about
going fast as it is about focused coordination: Don’t step on your own shoes
(or your friends), don’t kick your ankles (Ouch!), and don't forget to point your toes on the
downhills.
The course, starting in Tahoe City and finishing at Northstar
Resort, has a solid climb over a mountain pass. Not easy. We enjoyed incredible
scenery and were happy to find some downhill running in the later miles.
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Jamie, tearing up the downhill. |
We finished exhausted and happy in the bright Tahoe
sunshine. Thirty minutes slower than in 2011 and with our snowshoe craving
sated for the year.
~~~~~
In February I joined many of the wonderful women of my family for the
second annual Snowshoe Jamboree (aka “SnowJam”) in Arnold, CA. It’s ladies’
weekend at the cabin, and we always have so much fun.
More snowshoeing? Okay, count me in!
This year, my sister and I spent the first morning skate skiing at Bear Valley.
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View from the summit! |
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Skate skiing is hard work! |
I also learned about the quaint little town of Murphys, which was just a short drive from our cabin. If you like wine tasting, you will appreciate Murphys. The whole main street was packed with tasting rooms, and we had a grand time exploring. Perfect for ladies weekend!
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A lovely afternoon in the tasting room at the Frog's Leap Winery. |
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See why it's perfect for Ladies' Weekend? |
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They sort of have this thing about frogs in these parts, especially the jumping kind. These two were just hanging out though. |
On day two we went snowshoeing around Lake Alpine. The weather could not have been better!
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Yosemite Gals at Lake Alpine. |
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With Mom and Sister. |
I'm already looking forward to next year's SnowJam!
~~~~~
This weekend will see one of my favorite races take place:
Way Too Cool 50K. I’m signed up for it, but I’m not sure I’ll be at the
starting line this year. The prospect of not running it makes me mighty sad,
but I still have some lingering health questions to answer for myself. I’d like
to get those things figured out before embarking on any serious races. Part of the reason I haven’t committed to the
DNS is because I just can’t face it. I love this race!
We’ll see how the next week plays out, but either way, I
will certainly be there. If I don’t race, I’ll be volunteering at the Highway
49 aid station, cheering you all that final 1.4 miles to the finish. My
advice if you’re running Cool? Make friends and have fun. It’s a big race, and
the upside of that is that you’ll get to meet a lot of great people. Ultrarunners
are pretty cool folks (no pun intended).
~~~~~
And in extremely important non-running-related news, I
burned through the entire second season of Downton Abby in three days last
week. Based on the spoiler-y comments on Facebook, I have decided that I will
not be watching season three. This is where it ends for me. As far as I’m
concerned, there is no season three. Aside from the fate of poor Mr. Bates, (who,
let’s face it, as the story’s martyr, is pretty much doomed), everything seems
to be resolved quite nicely, thank you very much. The End.
And it occurs to me that this must be a particular challenge
of writing for a television series – you never know just exactly when your
story is going to end. If Downton Abby were a book or a movie, the end of
season two would be a pretty solid ending. I mean, (Spoiler Alert!) the war is
over, Sybil’s made her break, Edith has had some growing experiences and is more
mature (less of a bitch), Anna and Mr. Bates are together (okay, sort of), and
Mary and Matthew … Well that took long enough, didn’t it? It was very Pride and Prejudice. But nonetheless,
resolved.
When you’re writing a book, you know exactly when it’s going
to end, and you create your story arc to arrive there at the right time. Even
in a series, if you were writing, say, seven books. You know that it’s at the
end of book seven where either Harry or Voldemort is killed by the other. You wouldn't write that part into book five.
In TV, it seems that it’s more like, “Okay, we might get
cancelled so maybe we’ll resolve this storyline, but leave these others hanging
in case we do run next season.” But then if things are too resolved and the
show does run for another season, they have to reopen old storylines, or invent
some new ones, and eventually it all starts to feel rather ridiculous and contrived.
I mean, how much drama can one family really go through?
So, anyway. Downton Abby. Only two seasons. End of story.
(Unless there’s a season four, and it really rocks. Then, someone call me.)
~~~~~
And lastly, the 41st
Iditarod started this week! Once again, my 5th –grade students and I are following the race, learning about the history, and each choosing a musher to track online. Many of my
students’ mushers are already in the top ten, so they’re pretty excited.
Last year, I chose to follow Dallas Seavy. Despite the fact
that there were six past champions in the race that year, Dallas pulled out his
first win as the youngest person ever to be Iditarod Champion. Of course I spent the last 3 months of school bragging to my students about how my musher kicked all their mushers' butts.
I always give the students first choice of which musher they
want to follow. This year, even though no one chose to follow Dallas, (I need
to teach them better research skills!) I picked Aliy Zirkle. I still kind of
think Dallas is the one to beat, but there are a lot of strong dogs and experienced
mushers out there. Aliy is smart, has a strong kennel, and could definitely
pull out the win! (I try to tell my students that it's not about choosing the winner, but it's hard not to want to see your musher first to Nome!)
Happy running, doggies (and everyone else out there)!
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Zoya DeNure's team at the 2011 Iditarod (Photo by Dana Orlosky) |