Finally thawing

Well, it's been two weeks now and I'm finally thawed from Snake Creek Gap. Why was I frozen?

The temperature never made it over 30 maybe 25 and as you can see from the photo I chose to walk the creek.

"Yes, Shanna" you say "but it looks like you have trash bags on your feet." I did. As soon as the bottom of my shoes hit the bottom of the river, the bags had holes and my feet were wet. I stopped about 30 minutes later to take care of my feet. I changed my socks which consisted of removing three frozen pair of socks (the socks next to my skin were even frozen), putting a dry pair of socks on and a handwarmer between that pair and the outer frozen sock. My right toes warmed right up and the left ones remained frozen the entire race.

I have had friends ask, "you stopped in the middle of a race to change your socks?" I sure did. I was a whitewater kayaker in a past lifetime and have had lots of frozen toes. I try not to mess around with frozen extremities as I enjoy keeping them all. Call me greedy if you will. I realized in the beginning that this race was going to be really fucking cold but I was there so I might as well make the most of it. That being said, my goal for Snake Creek Gap #1 became to have the most fun (that's always the goal even when I'm suffering) and be safe. Mission mostly accomplished as I still have some issues with my left big toe being numbish. Next time I'll wear booties and ride it like Marshall did. My hands, thanks to that prior whitewater life, were so sweaty it was almost unbearable. Notice the pogies in the photo. 1 more plus for single speed and no cold hands here.

Fun though, I had a lot of it! I mean, look what I'm wearing, it's 2010 bitches and I brought that first 2010 bike race in with Endless single speed style! I chatted away with lots of the riders that either passed me or I passed. I met some new folks. I saw friends that I only see at this event. I cleaned a lot of the technical ridgeline and thought to myself a lot "wow! I raced this rigid last year?" I spent some energy cheering on the single speeds too. Sorry geary fellas (Marshall included), I cheer for the ladies (I only saw 1 other on the trail) and the single speeds.

Thanks to Mike Tiano for giving Marshall and I a ride in the Pope Mobile, all of the volunteers who ventured out on that really freaking cold day to put on one of my favorite events, the photographers for taking photos, and the racers for being out there getting it. I posted my slowest time yet and I'm registered money class. Right now I'm sitting in dead last by over 40 minutes. I guess I set that bar really, really low.

Hope to see you at the Icycle on January 31! Oh yeah, I'm also looking for a ride to SSUSA in February if you know of anyone who has an extra seat and rack. If not, I'll be back at Snake #2. Either way, it's gonna be fun and EndlessBikeCo is a sponsor of both!