Snowy defeat by a wiener dog

Ann saw that some folks from Trail Factor were organizing a "fat ass" (a low-key, free, no aid run-- I only learned the term recently when James Varner, race director of Rainshadow Running, was on UltraRunning podcast) on December 15, so we sucked up our new-kid-at-school fears and showed up.  John dropped us off at the Germantown trailhead of the Wildwood Trail, where about two dozen people gathered. Most of us ran through to the Wildwood trailhead on NW 53rd for the "half ass," 25k, while a few hardy folks-- including a couple in Christmas sweaters and knee socks-- ran back for a full fat ass 50k.

Ann catching snowflakes on her tongue

Here's the thing about the run: as we all waited to start, a man arrived with a dachshund. Just an ordinary wiener dog, but I knew that dog would pass me and trample my ego. So my one goal was to stay ahead of him. We started off and the vast majority of people were faster than us, but we settled into a nice line as a snowflake drifted down here and there, becoming more steady, until-- what the what!?-- it was SNOWING. Hard.

I was having a nice conversation with the owner of Haskell the dog, when we hit a hill. He told me that most quadrupeds have longer back legs, enabling them to go uphill faster. Therefore, if you want to get away from a bear, run downhill not up.  Then he passed us. The dog passed us. That was it, and we were basically on our own from there back to Ann's house. We hung on for more than half the run, though, and pushed our pace a bit.

I heard later that Haskell's paws got so cold that his owner had to carry him the last two miles. Now that's love! And he still beat us.

We're definitely looking forward to more runs with this fun group.