No Frozen Toes/Snowshoeing at Soldier Hollow

Last Saturday, January 12th, was a free half marathon in Salt Lake City called the Frozen Toes. It was to benefit the hungry with donations of food. The plan was to show up at Liberty Park with canned goods which would be taken to the local food bank and then run the course laid out and then meet up with everyone for breakfast at a local restaurant. It sounded like a fun plan but Mother Nature had different plans for me that morning.

My goal this year is to run a few more races than last year and so this was going to be a great opportunity to add another one to the line up. The problem came when a major storm arrived a few days prior to the race and decided not to leave. I watched the local news on Friday night and with over 53 accidents that day in Salt Lake County and seeing people sliding all over the roads and getting stuck I decided I better play it safe and stay home. I was sooooo disappointed, to put it mildly.

I still wanted to run my own personal half marathon so I hopped on the treadmill and put in the time and miles there while watching lots of episodes of "Boy Meets World". My kids got me watching this silly show because apparently a newer one is in the making right now and will be coming out later in the year with Cory and Topanga as a married couple with a 13 year old daughter. Should be a cute show.

So, now moving a little further ahead into my Saturday, I saw a website offering free snowshoeing at Soldier Hollow up in Midway, Utah and was super interested in trying it out. I have been curious about snowshoeing for a little while now and almost signed up for a big race at the end of January. I didn't want to go into this race with not ever having tried snowshoeing first so when this opportunity came up to try it for free I decided now was the time to take advantage.

The day was beautiful, a little chilly, but I had a pleasant time tromping around in the snow out on the groomed trails.  I was all alone but saw so many other people doing some cross country skiing.  That was being offered for free for first-timers as well.  So the hills were loaded with lots of newbies. 

 

But now the truth be told.  I didn't love snowshoeing.  In fact I thought it was challenging and a little annoying.  I was frustrated that it took me longer to snowshoe than it did to just walk.  I felt like I had something stuck between my knees and could never get comfortable with my stride.  I traveled 3 miles and it took me an hour and 15 minutes. I even tried to run on the snowshoes but that wasn't going well at all.   I knew my decision about the big race later this month was not going to be hard to make.  Snowshoeing is definitely not the sport for me.  Give me a pair of skis and some goggles and I'll be happy.