I can't help but get nervous before races, there's always this sense of "what if I can't do it?" Even if there are no expectations, it seems like there's always a tiny seed of fear and doubt that wonders if I'll fall flat on my face and FAIL.

I've fallen before (in pretty much every snowshoe race) and I always bounce back up and keep running. So really the failure would be to not show up.

[Tweet "The failure is not showing up"]

I'm glad I show up for these snowshoe races, they are hard as heck and hurt like crazy-sucking 10 degree wind is it's own kind of painful. But just after we crested the biggest hill in the snowshoe race on Saturday the trees opened up and there was a stunning view of the summit of Mount Washington, it's outline perfectly crisp against the cloudless blue sky.

By the time I had the chance to snap a pic of Mt. Washington, the could had moved in.

"Whoa!" I said to myself and then smiled because really, for me running is all about those "whoa-moments." If I didn't get outside, if I didn't show up then I'd be missing something amazing. Maybe not every run is like that, but the ones that are make it all worth it.

I went into Saturday's race with no expectations, just to have fun and run hard. These races are great training runs, it's like a race-effort tempo almost, plus you're building a ton of durability and leg strength.

Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble Race recap

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The snow conditions made for a fast race, we basically just skimmed across the hard-packed, icy crust. I got out to a quick start and then settled into what felt like a hard, but sustainable effort. Around the three mile mark I felt a bit of a dip in my energy and felt like I couldn't push too much more, but I tried to muster the fitness I do have and raced into the finish pulling off third place female and a negative split (although all the hills are in the beginning of this race, so that is pretty much a given).

I didn't fall and I didn't fail.

The whole family came up for the race, which was great: I love having them there, but it's also a lot of work to get the whole family out the door. Basically it means packing everyone's clothing and snacks the day before, waking everyone up, feeding everyone breakfast and then listening to everyone ask "are we there yet?" all the way to the race. Sometimes it's easier to just make some coffee and sneak out the door in the morning with my race bag.

But when I turned the corner and saw them all standing on the snowbank waving and cheering, "Mommy!" it put an even bigger smile on my face. Plus, I think they had fun: Liam spent the entire time laying down with his face in a snowbank and ate 1/3 of it, while Jack and Sophia slid down the icy snow piles.

We grabbed pizza after (at our fave pizza restaurant Flatbread!) and then went to the Mount Washington Observatory Museum-because the kids love the house that "shakes" in the "200mph winds." It ended up turning into a great family day, which was great and I got in a good race effort too.

If you've got kids, do they come to your races?

--Sarah

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Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble Race Recap

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