Klondike Days Snowshoe Challenge - 5 mile Race Report

Every year since I've been at Teaching Drum, we've done a demonstration at a local event called Klondike Days. It's partly a historical rendezvous, where people dress up and reenact the fur trade era, but it also includes crafters, lumberjack competitions, dog-pulling, chainsaw art, and a lot of other random Northwoods kind of things. Last year I didn't even realize that they had a snowshoe race - in fact I barely even knew about snowshoe running - until after the event. After doing some training in snowshoes this winter I decided I'd give it a try and use the race as a LT run in my training.

The race took place on Saturday morning, and I came very unprepared. First, I had to spend most of Friday setting up the Teaching Drum booth and display and then I had to do more of the same early on Saturday morning. I got to the registration table way later than I had planned and then went to change into my winter racing outfit only to realize I could not find my running shoes. Now, I'm not the type to panic too much but I started to get a little worried as race time approached. I finally found the shoes which I had carelessly left in the van, and had to sprint to the starting line, the only real pre-race warm up I would have.

Going into the race I knew my competition would come from one John Bierlski, who'd competed in the National Snowshoe Championships and whose father I see sometimes at the local gym. Standing around the starting area we were able to pick each other out pretty quickly and exchange pleasantries. My strategy going into the race was to keep close behind Bierlski and then finish the last mile with a strong kick to win the race. The reality was that he went out so quickly that I quickly lost sight of him within the first half mile, and though I'd still make up ground in the last lap of the race, I finished almost half a minute behind to take second.

This was a great introduction to snowshoe racing for me and a good introduction to racing races instead of just running them.