Running race 3:13:00 [4]
shoes: Icebugs Gryllo Green
Snowshoe Raid with Hammer as 2 1/2 MENiscuses.
Great to race with Hammer again- he was super solid in the bush in Loree forest- accurate and really fast. I have no clue how he can run through thick bush and navigate at the same time. I was just keeping up for most of it and we we in the lead for 8 controls or so. Unfortunately just as Batkins caught up with us at 150 I discovered we were missing the SI. We went back to the last control but didn't find it for over 6 minutes, as all the eventual lead teams passed us. I finally found it right where I had discovered it missing. Note to self- safety pin to glove is useless- need wrist strap.
The fast bushwhacking claimed my waterline valve too, so I ran dry in the first hour and my mouth was too dry to eat anything but snow for the rest of the race.
The reason Hammer brings me and my tow rope is for the second half of the race, as he runs out of meniscus quickly on the road and trail runs. We probably should have skipped the long descent and climb from 160 at the very bottom of the mountain and gone for the matrix, as it took a serious knee toll. As it turns out we got a bit too greedy going down to 30-point 178 and back, because the uneven frozen fields for the later controls were un-towable knee-hell too and put us well overtime. We had to skip the entire matrix.
The descent to the finish through the bush was also one big slip-and-slide, and we both took hard falls on our bad knees.
I was pretty bonked by the finish, . Much harder on our bods than last year.
I think we were both shocked to see that after penalties we were still 5th overall in such a strong field, and won Masters handily. Kudos to Hammer's great nav and ability to suck up some serious suffering.
Batkins cleared the course, just a tiny bit overtime.
As always, Bob runs a great race, despite lousy snow conditions. Our buddies were well represented on the podium, with a very tight race between the Bobkittens Lee and MsGally and Treehuggers/Running Free Bash/Dee.