This year's Gunner Shaw race at Thetis Lake was very different from previous years. Not only did we skip both puddles, but there was also quite a lot of snow on the ground. The decision to not go through the puddles was an obvious one - a thick layer of ice that would have cut up the lead runners' shins. But it was still a bit of a disappointment to me. For some weird reason running through that smelly swamp is something I look forward too every year when I sign up for Gunner.
The snow made it a much more technical race than the usual muddy conditions. Quite a few runners ran with YakTrax the whole way, and probably enjoyed the extra traction. I forgot to bring mine, so I didn't have to make that choice. I think it would have been awesome to race in them, if it wasn't for the first 500m being on pavement. I would estimate that over half of the race was on slippery snowy ground. There were some stretches with no snow, but many of the flat and up hill sections were very slippery in my Cascadias. Some people said the downhills would be the worst part, but I actually didn't find them bad at all.
Anyway, enough about the conditions. It was a very enjoyable race for me, which really just means I didn't push it hard enough! I purposefully didn't go out too hard, and tried to keep up a steady fast pace without getting into the "red zone" too much. As a result I was able to really enjoy the race and feel great during and afterwards. My time was 40:04, which was good enough for 35th place, out of the ~400 runners (full results here). Thanks to Bob and all the organizers, it is always such an awesome race to be part of.
Here is one more video, this one is taken by fellow Harrier Gerry:
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