I learned a little something about snowshoeing. . .

Primarily that it's very hard -- particularly if you're breaking trail. I decided it just wouldn't be enough to run my scheduled 20 miles -- I really want to do some more challenging runs that will get me ready for Western States. I decided snowshoe-running would be a great idea. I talked with some people about where I should go and decided upon Blacktail nordic area -- which has about 40k of trails that are normally groomed. Also, it's at close to 5,000 feet which is decent. Unfortunately, the groomer is broken. And, I was the first person there this morning. I decided to give it a go anyhow. It was beautiful but very very difficult. I couldn't really run and my heart rate was about 30 bpm higher than normal. And it was because it was hard. I decided to go a ways and see if it got better. It didn't. Somehow I managed to hop/walk a mile before I decided to turn around and head to easier terrain. There was just no way I could do that as my long run.

Beautiful!

See look! My feets sink in the "pow" (as Jeannine calls it)

It turned out that coming back was a touch easier -- if I ran where I ran on my way out it was more do-able. Still hard of course, but doable. I decided to run 20 steps and walk 20 steps -- I think I read that in one of Olga's race reports and figured it would be good practice. I eventually made it back to the car and thought "hey, maybe I'll do another two miles." It was just a little easier than before (of course) now that I had double tromped the trail. By now, there were some cross-country skiiers out who were using my trail and making it even better. Then, a group of four snowshoers made the trail even better.

Check it out! Broken trail!

Before I knew it, I had completed 8 miles. The catch, however, is that it took me a full 2.5 hours. I debated continuing on and doing 4 hours of this torture (beautiful as it was, it was torture). I thought I was going to fall over I was so exhausted after the 8. And, I had an OCD attack and knew I wanted my 20 miles.

I drove back to Kalispell and ran the remaining 12 with the furball. It was in the 30s so I actually wore capris. I thought about shorts, but I was really chilled from the drive back. My teeth chattered for about a half mile into the 12 mile run. . . but then I was kind of hot the rest of the run.

All told, this run basically took me all day -- between driving and snowshoeing and sitting on the couch in my change of dry running clothes, trying to decide whether I really needed to run another 12, it was a long long run. But there were a lot of good things about it, and I had my adventure for the weekend.