In life two things develop character:.. what you do…. .....and how you do it......
I must be in need for some character development...
On Friday, March 7, 2008, I drove the 6 hours to Pittsfield Vermont so I could compete in the Pittsfield Snowshoe Half Marathon..... Vermont is everything you think it should be, vast amounts of snow, quaint Vermont chalets with little white lights, charming General Stores that sell real Vermont Syrup in super nifty maple leaf bottles, moose crossing signs, and of course really narrow pitch black mountain roads. .. yes this was Pittsfield, Vermont.. population 400..
They were calling for crappy weather.. a mix of snow, freezing rain and rain for the day of the race, so I made sure to put my extra gloves, socks, etc.. in zip lock baggies within my backpack to keep them dry.. thus if I needed to change into dryer stuff after the first loop I could do so…I was feeling quite smart until I saw that people showed up with totes.. NOW WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT!! ......A tote would keep the rain off all my stuff and I could sit on it if need be!! ......UGH! .....
The race director had told us that they would have to shuttle in all 175 race participants because they couldn’t park everyone due to the snowdrifts, so we would have to park at a store ½ mile down the road and a shuttle would then drop us off at the race.. ...the problem was the shuttle could only hold 6-8 people at a time and there were 175 people registered.... I was afraid I would miss the shuttle and didn’t want to wait in any long lines so I made sure to get on the first shuttle at 6:30 am.. the race was not suppose to start until 8am…. thus I was the first to arrive and now had to wait an hour and a half in the cold.. THANKFULLY it had not yet started to rain!
The event didn’t start on time as it took quite a few shuttles to get everyone to the start and thus we started the race roughly around 8:15am … The first half mile or so was through an unplowed field and then onto single track up the mountain…... …… as soon as we hit the first rather large incline, only the best mountain goats were running it.. the rest of us.. as I was..... were at a crawl.
The first couple of miles were tough… not only was I overheated and thought of ripping off all my clothes.. yes it was only 31 degrees out but I was HOT AS CRAP! .....The hills were just nasty. PLAIN MEAN AND SPITEFUL.. .around mile 2 it thinned out.. most of the people who were behind were now way behind and the elite were way ahead.
The view was stunning…
I did stop a couple of times and got out my water proof disposable camera to take a couple pictures.. sure this was a race but heck you do have to enjoy it! ....At the first aid station at mile 3, I was having a sharp pain under my foot and had to unhook my snowshoe, take off my trail shoe and socks and find out what the problem was.. here it was the toe warmer in which I had put in my shoes to keep my toes warm had lodged itself into my foot somehow...... I removed it and proceeded onward. I couldn’t believe that I had only gone 3 miles and it was well past an hour already…. I looked forward to some down hill.. unfortunately I still had a couple miles of uphill to still battle..
They said the next 3 miles would consist of switchbacks going back and forth up the hill instead of going straight up.. this was a lot nicer to deal with.. ! ....I came upon a beautiful area and I just had to stop and take a picture… a women came up on the path and as I moved out of her way, I gave her the preverbal good luck.. nice job.. and asked her if she was doing the half..( to get perspective of if I needed to put away the camera and put the beat down on her)..
She mumbled she was suppose to do the half but would not be.. I said, “why not?”….. She said, “Why bother!”. ……and she grumbled away.. I thought about this for a moment.. why bother? ....Hmmm..??? .....Because…. you CAN!..
She was long gone … and I thought about her for a moment.. wondering how someone can feel so defeated in the face of such beauty…. The mountain was beautiful and we had 10 hours to complete our task.. that is more than enough time to do so… you could walk the entire next leg and still finish within the time frame. I was tickled to death knowing that baring broken limbs that I would make this time cut off!!!! ....I wonder why she didn’t see this.
We entered a portion of the course that I will call the PINES… it was perhaps a little short of a half mile but it was a winding tunnel like course through thick pine trees… the pines were so thick that it resembled dusk in there and they said it would be dark and it was... it was such a cool feeling… the smell of the pines, the wind whistling and the dark eeriness of being in there.. super neat!
When you come out of the Pines you are now on the ledge of the mountain.. not a ledge in like fall off and die ledge but a ledge in where you could see for miles.. it was like the pictures you see in the magazines of the climbers who make it to the summit of the mountain and all you see is the summit and all the vastness about. On top of this summit was a little blue pop up shelter which temporarily housed the sledding disks for those daring individuals who wanted to sled down the last mile.. YES the last mile of each loop was 1 MILE DOWNHILL.
The first time around I opted to run the down hill.. figuring it had to be safer.. W-R-O-N-G…… I ended up on my a-s a lot...... I came upon another snowshoer and we traveled together for a while falling and laughing and oh my goshing at how unbelievably steep the course was...... we made small talk with each other and then I said to her.. do you hear that???..... She said hear what??? I said hear.. that music???… and she said oh yeah that’s my ___ (whatever she said)… she had music coming from her backpack… I said OH THANK G_D the music was coming from you .. I thought they were coming for me (meaning the angels, music.. you know.. ).. ha.. forget it.. you had to be there.....
I think they put the down hill at the end of the loop so it gives you a false sense of how good you feel.. you temporarily forget how painful the first 6 miles was. the gal I was snowshoeing with decided to bail at the first loop end.. I told her oh come on you can do another loop I will do it with you.. she thought about it.. she said she had a blister.. I said I had bandaids.. she thought some more.. she said she already gave them her tag.. I said go tell them you want it back.. she thought about it some more and just smiled.. I told her it was nice meeting her and left… I headed back out for loop 2…
I was feeling fresh and free and as I crossed the meadow...
WOW… life can not get much better than this.. then reality hits.. YO wendy .. you have 6 miles still to go and it mostly uphill.. rats...... I looked around and found a really nice walking stick and thought this may help me get up some of the hills. I had forgotten to bring my snowshoe poles in my haste (they were sitting in my car!)…... so me and the stick head up the mountain… ..I was alone most of the next few miles.. much to my liking…. And I picked up some snow and munched on it… like a giant tasteless slurpee.. so there I was alone heading up a mountain in the sleet with my stick, munching snow…
A couple miles in, it started to rain and freezing rain really hard..thus the little streams I had passed before and would have to pass over again on this second loop were getting deeper.. crossing them now put water well over my trailshoes.. instantly soaking my socks.. no good.. I will have to watch this.. the last thing I wanted was frost bite on my toes and to lose them!
You take notice of things when you are alone… like the
little hanging skeletons..no they were not real.. and I hope to G_D I was not hallucinating… ...and perhaps in a normal circumstance this may be some cause for alarm.. but it sure was a pick me up and made me smile to think that someone trekked all the way out there to put it in a tree.. what a great sense of humor. ..
I met up with another couple when I was taking a sitting break..YES A SITTING BREAK… I had just thrown myself oh so dramatically onto a snowdrift.. and just laid there..eatting some more snow.. that’s when I met this other couple.. they too were struggling up the hills.. We all plugged away and talked about everything from why we are doing this… to what we do…. to how much “fun” we were having. This gal was also having problems with her wet feet and frozen toes.
Around this time, we were passed by a group of snowshoe “elites” who we come to find out where the Marathons on their third lap!.. impressive.. they were still mostly running on their third lap and we were shuffling and on our second lap…
By the time we got to the aid station at mile 9.. the fire pit was now almost deeper than me.. the fire they had going had burned through the 4-5 feet of snow and was now 4-5 feet lower than us.. very cool. The people who were manning this aid station were soo nice.. they offered us hot choc, bananas, water, cookies.. anything we needed… even M&M’s.. G-d bless the lady who peeled the banana for me ….. I just wanted to lay there next to the fire and take nap!
It’s the little things you notice… someone had either accidently or purposely spilled some M&M’s on the snow and it was like beautiful color rainbows on the white snow.. I headed back out to complete my last 3 miles…….
I was temporarily passed by a women, her husband, and her dog.. the dog appeared to be the hunting kind and was having a blast out there.. rolling around on the snow.. happy… the women was VERY unhappy… she appeared to be having some issues and I could hear her bickering with her husband… I happen to catch back up to them and pass them as they were still bickering..
I entered the PINES again and then out on top of the mountain.. it was now sleeting, freezing rain so hard but I didn’t notice until I looked up and saw how much water was running off the temporary tent set up to house the sleds.. I spent a few minutes shooting the breeze with the two guys who were manning the sleds and I told them I was going to opt for the sledding option for the last mile..... I asked them again.. is it really a mile down hill?.. they said it was…..
HMMM.. so he gave me a disk.. briefed me on the danger… wish me luck… and off I went.. LIKE A BAT OUTTA H_LL>> .....Picture… Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation… I FLEW down the hill like a ludge I did the switch backs (the sharp turns) up on the side of the snow rim.. and back down.. I had to use my left arm as a brace and dragged it in the snow to try and slow me down some.. the water was running down the snow hills because of all the freezing rain and I went through one part that completely drenched me like I was on a raft at Jungle Jims… I actually think I giggled because here I was.. 42 years old.. and I felt like I was 10…
Sure the time I spun completely around and was heading backwards for a spit second scared the F_ sh-t outta me.. and the time when my leg ended up backwards behind me was cause for alarm but it was the most exhilarating sled ride EVER...... 1 MILE DOWN HILL, cruising down at whatever g-d forsaken speed I was doing.. I wanted to GET OFF THAT MOUNTAIN!!
When I got to finish line I had the biggest smile.. I got my super cool finishers award, and engraved hammer! ...YES…. I went to bed at 6:15pm that evening and didn’t wake until the next morning at 6:30am!!
This sooo develops character.. just not sure what kinda character..
