Racing race 8:01:00 [3]
Day 1 Snowgaine with Storm
Storm and I teamed up for this race both reluctant to be outside in the cold for 8 hours, 2 days in a row. I was particularly concerned about freezing to death based on how cold and wet I typically am after 3 hours of Snowshoe Raid. Storm agreed with me many weeks ago that we would take it easy and not push the pace so as not to sweat - the first step towards hypothermia. As it turned out, the temperature was warm and this was not going to be an issue. I took Denise's sage advice to loose the 5 pound bag of clothes but still kept the expedition pack loaded with other stuff to start training my back and shoulders for Cowboy Tough. I kept the spare underware, however. Underware is the new emergency blanket.
At the start - with 40 people and 4 suburus in the parking lot, the Race Director sent us on our way with a very clear warning to not return with a dog, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't alluding to Peak Performance... You know who I'm talking about!
Day 1 went great and was easy for us to just follow the elephant tracks in the snow but in a few cases where Storm really questioned the route of the leaders to the CP, and we broke off the beaten path, well those were the most fun for us. Not that the leaders didn't know what they were doing!
I found that freezing to death was not going to be a problem at any pace, even if you're sweaty, as long as you keep moving, you wear gaitors and booties to keep your feet dry as long as possible, and you don't fall in a creek. Then it might as well be 10C.