If you lived in the Midwest, you know that we had an absurdly mild winter. When you're running a trail race designed to be run on packed snow, this doesn't bode well at all. With temps soaring into the 60s the weeks going into the race, weather was not on Race Director Ben Welnak's side.

A couple days before the race, Ben made the executive decision to work with the park and go to Plan B, which was to take us off the single track. We never got to see it, but it's likely the single track would have been a combination of slush, ice, and mud. Not good for a race nor maintaining the trail.

Plan B took was to take us on an out, double loop, and back all on a paved bike trail. The race was definitely shorter than the allotted 13 miles as well, but with the quick change, I don't think that's an issue.

The problems with the 2017 race again came in the form of the weather. Saturday night before the race, some rain rolled in, further melting the snow. After the rain, the temperature plummeted over night, freezing all of the rain and snow melt.

Have you ever tried to run (or walk) on a coat of ice on a bike path? It's tough. Those who had the foresight to use IceBug shoes succeeded in the race. Those, like me, with Yak Trax were out of luck, as we kind of just slid on the ice since the Yak Trax don't bite into it.

The loop itself included an aid station that we ran past twice, and a couple killer climbs, one right into the wind. Without ice, this would have been a super fast course, but with ice that slowed down a lot of runners. I thought it was downright unpleasant, and a few runners bailed after loop #1.

Ultimately, the 2017 version of the race wasn't the best, but that was mostly due to circumstances that the race couldn't control. Ben and the rest of his team did a great job with the cards they were dealt for this race. I have no doubt that the weather will cooperate next year, and the race will return to the single track.

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