Muddy Sneaker 20k

Jan was just a spectator Saturday as I ran the Muddy Sneaker 20k in the High Tor wilderness area of New York. After the race I was told by a veteran of 8 of these runs that conditions were the worse ever. The snow from last week turned everything to mush in the woods. It was a “right of manhood race” for me. Two days later and my quads are still shot, I’m not an efficient steep downhill runner. I have a lot of respect for the people who could race this course. I survived it, only falling once, cutting and bruising a knee, breaking a pair of sunglasses, cutting my hand, man what fun!

The last 1.4 miles is all up, with .2 or so having to hang on to tree branches to pull yourself along, it was that steep. I think we ran up and down the hill (mountain?) 4-5 times during the race, I lost count after awhile. If we weren't going up we were going down, there was no "flat" section.

Through the dense woods it was single track, about 4 miles with 2-6 inches of mud, slippery rocks, fallen trees to climb over and more stream crossings, going up steep paths or down steeper paths next to ravines I was sure I was going to fall in.

I like cross-country, but this is a different kind of race. I was hoping a bear would come along and finish me off. I backed my pace way off in the woods, I just didn’t feel like this was worth the chance of a long-term injury and I was slipping and near falling all the time. The logging roads were okay, I could deal with them even if they were steep up or down. But the rest, wow.

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