What a lovely day! Well compared to the last couple of weeks we've had. If there had been this much snow out of the blue, I would have whined a lot more. Actually I didn't whine at all, to my recollection, although it WAS the tough course I'd been expecting. I should mention that the Edworthy XC starts at the top of a very large valley, travels haphazardly to the train tracks at the bottom and then ends at the top, and that one has to do TWO of these punishing loops for the 8k. The paths weren't icy, at least. I rather preferred the snow to past years' mud and ice, on most of the course. There were several deeper places where my feet just about sent the rest of me flying by slipping out in crazy directions, but I lucked out with some quick reflexes. I rather enjoyed pounding the bumpy snow with my Brooks Trail Addiction shoes - they seem to have a lot of lateral stability and grip, and I didn't notice my arches or my ankles complaining, as I have in the past with road shoes under similar conditions. I'm all over the map here in my report. Perhaps I should start at the beginning :)

Karen slogging through the woods

I showed up before the line got too long, ate a banana while I paid my fee to Lorna in the usual registration vehicle. Yolanda, a running buddy of mine, had already signed up, and we chatted with Nancy and Nadine from the Tues/Thurs (Roadrunners) group, Jill and Penguin Dianne from the Garage Gang (a triathlon group), and Philippa from the Gord's Store group I've been running with, amongst others before the race. There was a little breeze, so I kept my windbreaker on, but I could feel the bright sunshine warming up my black leggings. I tied it around my waist after first 1km, but I was glad I'd brought it along.

Race Director Danny described the course for us, and informed us that we would be seeing a little more of the ridge than we usually do, but that most of the hazards would entail low-hanging branches in the bush. That was all fine and dandy for short, slow me, but I could envision some of the crazier skinny-fasts failing to negotiate a turn at a crucial point and ending up painfully off course. It didn't happen, but there were a couple of bottlenecks in the first km where us BOPs (back of the packers) got to catch up with the crowd as it carefully stayed ON the edge of the cliff.

Jill started me off on a lovely pace, and we chatted as we dipsy-doodled around the plateau, following the flags stuck into the snow. On the twisty down trails through the bush I rather enjoyed myself, and even managed to scoop up a removable rubber shoe cleat that someone had lost. I figured that it would be just trampled under the snow if I didn't get it, and I handed it off to the next volunteer I saw. In the deeper snow at the bottom I heard a couple of skinny-fasts catching up to me on their second leg already. They were catching up so fast I couldn't decide which way to pull over, and they were fighting so hard to stay ahead of each other that they didn't deign to give me a hint. They ended up trying to get round me on either side, and both were nearly clothes-lined by the low-hanging branches that I neatly ducked under :P. Lindsay McLaren was much nicer as she shouted "On your right" before she passed me going up the nasty monster hill. I had run all of the way so far, and had been saving my walking just for this hill, knowing what it is like. I walked all the way up, for hours and hours. Okay not really hours, but it seemed like long time. My heart and lungs said I was running HARD, but my legs were merely trudging.

It took a while to catch my breath and start running again at the top, and then I peeled off the 4k loop to do it all over again. I heard 4kers from behind me heading towards the clock, and tried not to think about joining them. I caught up to Janet and Lloyd, where Lloyd was trying out his latest history lesson on his daughter, Janet. Lloyd distracted me throughout the down and then back up, with tales from somewhere in the 1800s, involving burning buildings and some famous RCMP guy. The volunteers at the bottom were great cheerleaders, with lots of "be strong" and "hang in there", but we really weren't feeling all that discouraged. The sun was still shining, and I was still crazily happy to be hanging my lungs out to dry in the crisp, fresh, 0°C air.

Lloyd and Janet left me at the top, as I just couldn't get my legs to run at a decent pace for the longest time, and I was left to enjoy the ridge by myself again. Finally I could smile for Kathy Taerum's digital camera and head for the clock. I did not have much of a sprint left. I was very tired when I finished, and quite surprised to see I'd matched my Waldorf time quite nicely, at 57ish minutes. Yolanda patted me on the back and we cheered Jill in seconds later. I've never run Edworthy at so fast a pace, even when I did only the 4ks. Woohoo!

We all headed for soup (spicy carrot, YUM) and munchies, and proceeded to coordinate a car-pool to the upcoming Okotoks XC.