A Winter Wonderland

The snow gods saw fit to dump a bunch of the white stuff out here in the Midwest. It looks beautiful. But it makes for interesting race conditions.

This was my first orienteering/adventure race. And the first couple hours were grueling for me. I was cold. And I was running with a sub-3 hour marathoner. And I didn't know what the hell I was doing. We were running through the woods, sometimes on trail, most often not. Up hillsides.Down creek beds. Through sticker bushes. Over fallen trees.

All following the direction of my teammate. He was very helpful in showing me how to navigate. 

  

It was amazing out there. We tried to stay warm. And for the most part, we did. Because we were running. But stopping on a knoll or ridge top got chilly. And sometimes searching for those checkpoints took some time.

At the end of it, I was able to stand back and revel in how much fun I had...and feel the welt on my head from running it smack into a tree branch that I didn't clear.

I woke up yesterday feeling like I got hit by a truck! My legs look like I got attacked by a mountain lion and beat with a stick. That makes shaving tricky. And the foam roller was a huge help to kneed the knots out of my quads as I fought back tears.

Recovery week is over and there are races the next two weekends!