Every year, the Beaver Creek Snowshoe Adventure Series offers tough courses at high altitude, strong competition, and high energy atmosphere. The trend continues for 2012, and last weekend Lindsay Krause (wife of cycling buddy Greg Krause) and I tackled the I-70 monster to journey west to Beaver Creek.
After boarding a misguided shuttle bus that took us to the Beaver Creek Ritz Carlton (I didn't go inside, and doubt if I ever will), we finally made it to the starting line in time. For the first time in years (ever, maybe), a Beaver Creek race was without Mike Kloser and Bernie Boettcher. Josiah Middaugh, however, was there, and so was Alex Nichols, a talented trail runner on the Innov-8 Team, who looked tough.
After running together for about a mile, Josiah pulled away from Nichols and I. We pursued him actively, but the race became a battle for 2nd. Alex was a very tough competitor, and I was happy to finally gap him on the final ascent before dropping to the finish.
Josiah notched yet another win (it's been quite some time since anyone has bested him on snowshoes), and I was glad to bring Team Merrell to a 2nd spot on the podium. CU Buff grads looked great in the women's race, with Lindsay taking 2nd and her training partner, Kari, taking the win.
I look forward to the Colorado Snowshoeing State Championship on 1/28 (pedalpowerbike.com) and Teva Games two weeks later.
