We knew this was different from the moment that they handed out popsicle sticks with our names and predicted time of finish on them instead of a race number. It was up to you to figure out how to carry it without losing it or running the risk of impaling yourself on it. Jon and tied it around our necks with dental floss; Carrie tied it to her wrist. I saw one guy tuck in the waist of his pants. That seemed pretty risky to me. The second sign that this was not an ordinary run was when they collected our watches! That was because the awards were based on how close you finished to your predicted times. It felt weird at first, but turned out to be liberating.

There were a few yards of grass at the beginning, then we ran through standing water and very soft ground, then into the first stream crossing. The water was fast and crystal clear, with ropes to hold onto against the swift current. The promised safety guards turned out to be a nice couple in their 80s who yelled at me on two of the crossings-- on number 2 she yelled at me for smiling, and on number 5, when I slipped and went down on my butt, soaking me to the chest and taking my breath away momentarily, she yelled, "Hey, no swimmming allowed!" Running through the water wasn't that cold when I remained upright, and the numbness in my feet went away pretty quickly afterwards. There was a fairly long uphill stretch after that which wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for the snow cover. Did I mention the six to 12 inches of soft snow? It was much like running in soft sand, with the added challenge of having your feet repeatedly slide out from under you. Jon tore up his shins on the surface crust when he fell foreward and sunk into the snow. There was a loop through the woods and I mistakenly thought, as I approached the starting area, that the race was over. I stepped it up for the finish, then realized that it was just a water stop and another trip up the hill and across the stream twice more ( I think there were a total of six trips through the water); a ponytailed guy I caught up to then said that there were almost two miles to go! Still, the rest of the run was a blast and I finished up with a burst up the hill and handed over my popsicle stick. I had predicted 55 minutes, so I was almost four minutes off.

Uh...maybe wear snowshoes?

Jon (who finished it in 47-odd minutes, good for 25th) and I waited for Carrie, and then we all changed out of our wet clothes and headed for the warm hut where the food was being served.


The snow was really tough. It was amazing how easy it felt when you could run on the ground, even though it was uneven, covered with leaves and sticks, and had stumps and holes galore. It was immediately like getting a rest whenever you could get your feet on ground. It wouldn't have been that hard without the snow, although apparently the muck is pretty impressive.


It was a whole lot of fun. The winners got a tile with a picture of moose. The winning guy got an amazing time of around 35 minutes, and what's just as amazing is that he guessed his time within seconds. The women winners got "M-M-M" thongs.

A final note. My goal for this race was "to end up covered from head to toe in mud." I did not meet my goal, thanks to the stream crossings, and the unexpected ice-cold bath in the penultimate crossing. My shoes actually finished much cleaner than when I started!