Stay of Execution
An angel is looking out for me. Regardless of my bravado, I'm sure that 13.1 miles of running in the beautiful Jefferson woods yesterday would have been beyond painful (at least in the days after the race). Thankfully, I think, a noreaster rolled through town Saturday night and forced the postponement of the race despite the race promoters promise to not cancel for anything just a couple of days prior.
Here is the e-mail I received late Saturday afternoon:
"10/29/11
We hate to do this because the race organizers and volunteers were looking forward to the race as much as all the runners, but the conditions on Sunday morning look like they are going to be too treacherous for driving or trail running. While we know that trail runners are a tough bunch, things have gone from "We're Mainers, we can handle it!" to "People are going to die!!"
With all the snow that is expected it will be nearly impossible to follow the trails, and the course marking will likely be obscured. No one wants to get lost in the woods in the middle of a snow storm.
We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you can all make it out on Sunday, November 27th."
There was no way I was missing the race (unless we were without power at home, which did happen to be the case come sunday morning) but I have to admit, I wasn't super stoked to be running in several inches of snow and slop. That didn't deter me though as I started pulling out my water proof running shoes, gators, SNOWSHOES and other various cold weather gear. Thankfully I got the above e-mail before putting too much mental energy into prepping for the race.
The only bad news now is that with a month before the next race date there are two problems. 1. at the end of November there is a good chance for snow on race day again and 2. with a month to prepare, I'll have no excuses when I suck it and my brother (the one who can run, not the fat load. Hi Darren!) kicks my ass assuming he can get into the capped race.
