Sunday, March 23, 2025
I actually wrote a little bit about this when I first started this blog, roughly 20 years ago.
March break 2005 I was sitting at my computer and found myself wondering what info might be online about a fun trail race I'd done years before - the Leatherman's Loop. So I went searching for information and found a bunch of nice stuff. Which got me thinking (1) I should run that race again, and (2) what about some other fun races I'd enjoyed previously, like the Summer Solstice Run at Minnewaska?
And with that I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole. I discovered the Albany Running Exchange, then a fledgling club organized by SUNY Albany students, and I discovered duathlons which seemed like an obvious way to combine my love of running and riding a bike (not triathlons, I swim like a brick.) I also discovered the WMAC (I think I'd heard of them before through some of the races they out on, but now I actually ran some of their races...) I ran a few of races during the spring and summer and did better than I thought I would... which led me to tackle a series of races and events throughout the fall (I did 9 races/events over 11 weeks... in comparison I had done 14 races/events during the previous eight years) that I called my "Nine Strenuous Weekends". I also learned that snowshoe running was not only a thing, but a potential way to keep running trails in the winter, and that led me to purchasing my first pair of Dion Snowshoes and I also ended up running my first snowshoe race that December.
And things, as they say snowballed from there, until here I am, twenty years later. It boggles my mind that it's been 20 years.
Stay tuned for a few more of these "holy crap it's been 20 years" thoughts - in April when I celebrate 20 years of running races with the ARE, in May with Yellowjacket Racing, in September when I look back on the start of those Nine Strenuous Weekends 20 years ago, and in December with Dion Snowshoes and snowshoe racing (fingers crossed we have enough snow at some point in December to do one of our usual races!)
