Snowshoeing - And 1st Race

Saturday, I dragged my son kickin'-n-screamin' from his mom's lair to go snowshoeing. He procrastinated so much it took him two hours to get ready!
"I need to wash some socks."
"No you don't - you're going to wear these synthetic ones."
"I can't find my shirt."
"So - you're not wearing cotton. Wear these."
Then he had to eat lunch. That took over an hour because his 14 year-old body was burning it almost as fast as he was eating it, in spite of his sedentary life.
Then his mother tried to give him gloves that don't breathe. "Nope! He's using these!"
FINALLY! It was 2:51pm by the time we left the car at the trailhead near Mt. Evans.
The wind was absolutely possessed. I chose a trail on the east side where the wind couldn't reach us.

In general, I don't like dragging kids into the outdoors. You can't force kids to like altitude, forests, snow, cold, wind,... Trying usually backfires. But my son spends most of his time either playing music, screwing with his massive Hot Wheels collection, playing computer games either with me or with his friends, or doing homework. It's all sedentary. I don't drag him often, and when I do I go out of my way to make sure it's not a traumatic event. He usually returns to his mom with tails of adventure and how awesome it was.
Saturday, he loved it. I wasn't sure how it would go-over. We only did 2.3 miles, but with snowshoes, it was something a little more.

One of the reasons I wanted to run 100 miles was to show my son that "impossible" is usually nothing more than a frame-of-mind. But it can't get in the way of spending time with him. So keeping my priorities straight, spending time with him will necessarily take a bite out of my training. I guess that's too bad. If reduced training ruins yet another year of trying, I'm sure my son will still benefit from time-with-dad, plus seeing me try so hard might wear off on him. His mom became sedentary the day she married, and his friends are all typical sedentary computer-game junkies, so it's up to me to influence him to balance life with physical activities. Kids are like water - they tend to take the easiest paths. Sedentary living is easier.
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Since my carpool ride to the Ghost Town race failed to pan-out (he has a tender knee), I decided not to spend over $100 in gas and most of my 3-day weekend driving. So I ran Frosty's Frozen 5 at Chatfield Reservoir. There's 5-mile and 10-mile options. Heck, my shortest race last year was 13.5 miles at the Aspen Golden Leaf. I'm totally not used to racing at this distance. But it was very fun to do something new, even if it didn't last long.
My knees were fine! I felt good. Actually any race hurts, especially if you're not used to it, but all things considered, my off-season - with lots of stretching - has put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.
I don't know how many hundreds of runners there were, but I came in 77th. Since short stuff isn't my thing, I'm quite satisfied how I did.
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It was a fun weekend - and it's not over - I get Monday off! What will I do?!?! I think I'll climb something tall.