Winter Warriors

According to Robyn's Thesaurus, the phrase "2013 Iola Trail Run" can be substituted with: challenging, grueling, snowy, slushy, sleety, slippery, chilly, extended, exhausting, insane, an uphill battle and, let's not forget, FUN!

Heck yeah! I can say that now, but 10 hours ago, hmmm....

We knew going into this Great Lakes Endurance trail run, that it would be challenging. Even though it was shorter in length (just a 5K) compared to the one the four of us did last fall (a 10K), we were 100% sure that weather would be a factor in this "Spring" race. And it was a big one.

In a nutshell, here is the BEFORE photo of me, Chris, Cindy and Niki...

And here is the AFTER....

Now you get the picture?

Here is a little bit about how it played out. We headed out at 8 a.m. in the Run Like A Mother Minivan. Ha. The event took place at the Iola ski hills. This sports area is used for cross-country skiing and their world-famous ski jumps. Since this is a "trail run" we knew it would be up and down hills through the park.

It sure felt like it was all uphill, though! Obviously, with the way Mother Nature has been cooperating lately, the trails were completely snow-covered. Completely.

Our running shoes did not touch one piece of dirt or grass (even in the parking lot!) Like my new bright trail-running shoes? Those didn't matter today. Probably snow shoes would have done the trick.

This wasn't really a "race" as much as a goal to get decent footing. Going up hills felt like a cross between swift mountain climbing and running up sand dunes.

So hard.

It was so physically draining that after the first few hills, I pretty much pumped my arms hard and walked up the rest... Then tried to make up time going downhill... without falling on my butt, of course. Amazingly, I did not see anyone fall.

It was a pretty route -- even though it ended up being more like 3.85 miles than 3.1 (according to our GPS watches). The falling snow was pretty, too. For awhile. Then it was getting heavy and also icy and it was windy. That was a bit painful pelting the face!

By the end, it was more like a snowstorm. You can see in this photo that visibility was down. (No, we did not run that ski-jump hill -- they all just felt like it)

And you can see in this one that my "after" photo reveals some icy slush clinging to my jacket, hat and face.

Are we Winter Warriors and just insane?? Maybe my oldest sister was right when she said I was being stubborn by doing this run when I've had enough stress going on lately. But hey, I did not get hurt and I was too busy trying to survive and finish that I did not have time to think about those stressful things!

Plus running generates all kinds of endorphins -- which probably helped keep our spirits up on the treacherous drive back to Wisconsin Rapids. Saw one vehicle in the ditch because the plows (yes, I am talking snow plows on April 14th) hadn't gone through anywhere yet.

When I got home, sweet home, I thought, "OK, I am going to take one more darn snow picture of my front yard and this better be it!"

This might make me think twice about signing up for a SPRING race next year.

But I doubt it.