Workout Wednesday: Snowshoes Anyone?

I missed out on the first snowshoe race of the season here in Northern Ohio held on January 26. Rats! However, with a little searching, I found another equally as exciting snowshoe race for this weekend.  This one is at the Lake Metroparks Farmpark. And how exciting, it's on Groundhog Day!

There's a distance for everyone - 2.5K, 5K and 10K.  I haven't been in my snowshoes for at least a year so I'm going to try for the 5k distance, since I know I can at least run that distance. I'm definitely going to earn some serious Nike+Fuel for this workout! 

If you're interested in trying out snowshoeing, and it really is quite a great workout for runners, there's two more races to sample.  On February 12, the Sasquatch Snowshoe race will be held in Russell Township.  On February 19, the Polar Bear Snowshoe Race is in Brecksville.  Both of these races are sponsored by Northcoast Endurance Coaching and Vertical Runner.  No snow? No problem.  The races will be run on the trails - so come prepared!

And maybe celebrate with a nice cup of hot chocolate post-race! 

Dirty Love 10k Trail Run

Brrrr! When I arrived at the race site, I initially sat in my car contemplating taking a DNS. I thought about running inside the shelter, picking up my race bib and mug, dashing back to my warm car, and driving back to my warm house! But when I went inside the shelter, saw all the runners hanging out, smiling and chatting, I knew I couldn't leave. Time to suck it up! Afterall, it was 18 degrees and the wind wasn't THAT bad...yet!

We lined up for a cross country-style start. As we listened to the race director say that runners will be crossing a creek during the first mile, I glanced over to my warm car. Hmmm...I could just slide out of the crowd unnoticed and drive away in my warm, DRY car. But alas, I reminded myself I do not DNS (except the one time when I had rotovirus. Today I was healthy so no excuse.) A couple more announcements and we were off trampling through the fluffy snow. This might actually be fun. Could that be?

The creek crossing at a quarter-mile in caused an 8-minute log jam for everyone to cross. No biggie because this wasn't a "race" to me, but rather was a great excuse to run 6.2 miles with company. After about 20 minutes in, I was over-the-top happy. All body parts felt good and I wasn't going to die of frostbite. Good fun! The volunteers were great at water stops at 2.5 miles and 4 miles. Loved the ups and downs of the trail and enjoyed the beautiful view afforded to all of us on this snowy morning.

I crossed the finish line with a huge smile and gave out many thank you's to all the kidnd volunteers. We are lucky to have such an active running community here in Northern Ohio.

Post-race, I grabbed coffee and hot cocoa for my girls and we had great fun playing Country Dance on the Wii. What a great start to Sunday!