A quarter-mile? That's easy — easy to misjudge

It was when I was careening down the hill at Snowbasin that I realized I might have misjudged my abilities.

When a colleague asked me to represent the Deseret News in an Xterra Media Race last week, I really didn't give it much thought. I've been running all winter, so I'm in decent shape, and it actually sounded like fun.

All I had to do was show up. The organizers of the Xterra Winter World Championships, who obviously hoped to provide us desk jockeys with a better understanding of what the race entailed, provided all the training and equipment needed.

The course, I was told, would include riding a mountain bike on a quarter-mile loop in the snow. Then I would trade my bike for snowshoes and set out on the same loop for another quarter-mile. After that, I'd switch from snowshoes to tennis shoes — with ice grips on them, of course — and run the same loop.

And finally, I'd come back to the "transition area" and take off my tennis shoes, put on ski boots and do a little Randonnee, or mountaineer skiing.

"A quarter-mile?" I thought. "I can do anything for a quarter-mile."

When I got to Snowbasin, defending Xterra Winter World champion Brian Smith was saddled with trying to help me. He lent me all of his equipment, showed me how to use it and gave me tips on strategy.

Yeah, Brian could have saved his breath on that last part — the whole strategy aspect — because once I got on the bike, it was all about survival. I'm not sure how many people have ever tried riding a mountain bike in the snow, but I had never done it. I'm not sure what I expected, maybe a bulldozed path, but I really should have given more thought to what I was getting into.

I let most everyone start before me, and then I slowly got Brian's bike, moving in the snow. Immediately, I realized the seat was too high. My second thought was that I'd snapped my shoes into the pedals, and this would be a problem should I need to stop.

The course started on a pretty steep downhill, which meant a mean hill at the finish. But I wasn't thinking of the return trip. As the cold wind blasted my face and I watched other media types flip head over heels, I just started worrying about my safety.

"What was I thinking," I said aloud. "I do not want to get hurt!"