Leader of the pack

A Palmer teen recently returned from Squaw Valley, Calif., where she captured the junior title at the 2004 Nike ACG National Snowshoe Racing Championships.

Palmer High School senior Mary Brown won the national championship to give Alaska two national champs in the junior division -- Anchorage's Nathaniel Grabman won the boys' division. He was the person who got Brown started on snowshoes.

"It's kind of funny, actually," Brown said of her snowshoeing career. "Nathaniel told me I should try it because nobody else really does it. He said it would be an easy thing to win."

And win Brown has. Last year, she took second place in the junior national championship in Salt Lake City, and this year she took first place at Squaw Valley.

"The course was really challenging. It was at a ski resort, and you basically had to run up and down groomed ski trails. First, you had to go up this massive skiing hill and then way downhill. I got all bruised up," Brown said.

According to the course description from Squaw Valley, the course begins with a 75-foot climb and then heads through unpacked powder that isn't groomed. After two miles, the course "makes a drastic turn down through the woods, zigzagging around trees" until competitors hit an open stretch that continues across frozen ponds and leads to the finish line.

Snowshoe racing is essentially the same thing as cross-country racing -- it's a demanding race through the woods, with terrain and elevation major influences. The big difference is that instead of running shoes, you've got snowshoes on, which makes things quite a bit more challenging.

"Somebody once told me that to compare it to regular running, it's like running twice the distance when you are wearing snowshoes," Brown said. "It's definitely twice as challenging."

Brown said she really didn't train a lot for the race.

"I ran a lot, and called it good with that," she said with a chuckle.

Brown is a senior at PHS. She has run track all four years at Palmer, and has run cross-country for three years. She also cross-country skied at the school for two years.

"Skiing is more stressful than snowshoeing because you have to wax, and you have to figure out which is going to be the best wax for that day and that race," Brown said. "You don't have to worry about that with snowshoeing."

Next year, Brown will be at Dartmouth College, which she is very proud of. She does plan to compete in next year's national championship race for one big reason -- she gets to come home.

"I've got one more year left in the juniors, and next year, the national championships are in Anchorage," Brown said. "Hopefully it coincides with my spring break and I can save an airfare and come home."

After she turns 19, Brown would enter the women's division -- a move she said she doubts she'll make.

"When you get into the open divisions, they are really, really serious about it and are really, really fast," Brown said. "Unless I get a lot better really quick, I think juniors will be about it."

Eagle River resident Julie Ubchachon won the open women's division, securing not only the national championship, but also an All-American title. She was the only other Alaskan to compete at the national championships.