Jennifer Britz is a trail runner based in Bar Harbor, Maine. She spends half the year on Acadia National Park’s rugged trails and the other half perfecting her craft on lightweight running snowshoes built for speed. Over the past decade, Britz has dedicated herself to mastering this niche sport, pushing her limits across varied terrain. In 2022, she earned gold at the World Snowshoe Championships in Argentina.
Jennifer Britz is a trail runner based in Bar Harbor, Maine. She spends half the year on Acadia National Park’s rugged trails and the other half perfecting her craft on lightweight running snowshoes built for speed. Over the past decade, Britz has dedicated herself to mastering this niche sport, pushing her limits across varied terrain. In 2022, she earned gold at the World Snowshoe Championships in Argentina.
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Shelby Stanger:
On a quiet morning in the mountains of Bar Harbor, Maine, Jennifer Britz laces up her running shoes and heads out to the trails of Acadia National Park. For about half the year, she also straps on running snowshoes. Unlike the long, wide frames you typically see, running snowshoes are designed to be more compact and lightweight.
Snowshoe running is a niche sport, but Jennifer has dedicated the last 10 years to mastering it. In fact, in 2022, Jennifer even took home gold at the World Snowshoe Championships in Argentina. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.
When she's not on the trails, Jennifer works at her local YMCA, running youth programs and helping with fundraising. She also coaches cross-country and track and field at Mount Desert Island High School. As a lifelong runner, Jennifer gets outside whenever she can, which is what brought her to snowshoe running in the first place.
Jennifer Britz, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living, you're our first snowshoe racer on this podcast.
Jennifer Britz:
Very exciting. It is a pretty old sport, so I'm surprised you haven't anybody else yet.
Shelby Stanger:
So first of all, snowshoe racing, has it been round since the beginning of time? Since people put rackets on the bottom of their feet? Or tell me a little bit about the history of this sport.
Jennifer Britz:
The classic snowshoes, that kind of tennis racket-shaped wooden snowshoe, those been around since Native Americans used them here, at least North America. When the Europeans came over, they kind of... Hey, we learned how to use these. They used them for hunting and trapping. And they'd set up these kind of outing clubs and they went on their hunts and traps. And at the end of the day, it was like, "Hey, let's have some competition," and so they would... This is 1800s and stuff, and they would do kind of a snowshoe races just for fun, just to like, hey, how good can you do? How fast can you go?
And these would be sprints. So if you think of sprinting in those tennis racket shoes, it was probably really hard. And then it started to pick up the pace, and so you had places like Dartmouth College would hold winter festivals. And at these winter festivals, they would have snowshoe races and they'd be nothing super long like we do now, like 5K, 10K, more of like sprints. They would hurdle in snowshoes, which I find... There's some great pictures out there of old time people hurdling in snowshoes and-
Shelby Stanger:
That sounds like a way to wreck yourself.
Jennifer Britz:
I know, seriously, because those things are huge. So yeah, so it kind of came about that way. And then little by little, like Canada was a big leader in making snowshoe clubs where then they would organize races. The US kind of followed after that. And I believe it was until 1999 that they were still holding races in wooden snowshoes, like the old school snowshoes, which is crazy, I can't even imagine. Because I think the first aluminum snowshoe came out in like 1970s. And some people would use it just to hike around and people were trying to run in them. And then I think around 2001 or so is when the US finally had the first US championships and they allowed people to run in aluminum snowshoes and it kind of went from there. So yeah, it's been going on for a while, kind of unofficially and then officially.
Shelby Stanger:
Officially though 20 years, that's not that long.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's true.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you get into snowshoeing?
Jennifer Britz:
So I have a history, I was a roadrunner. I ran in college. I was a heptathlete. I got into trail running after I had kids, and I just love being outside and in the woods. That's just something that I love to do. And I ran a trail race series, oh gosh, it was years ago, and I won the series and they offered me as a prize a entry into their snowshoe series. And I was like, "Wait, you guys run on snowshoes?" They were like, "Yeah, how else would you run in the woods in the winter?" I had always been running in the trails, and then when the winter came, switching over to running on the roads and the sidewalks and kind of just dreaming about, oh, if I could only get into the woods. So I was like, "Okay, I'm going to try this."
So I actually went, I'm an REI member and I actually went to one of the local stores and bought myself a pair of running snowshoes, which I knew nothing about. I raced in, it was a three race series and absolutely fell in love with it. So that's kind of how I got started, which was kind of thrown in.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, so what was it like running in snowshoes for the first time as a race?
Jennifer Britz:
So running in snowshoes is very different than running just, say, on a trail, as in you have to go into it knowing that your time per mile is going to be much slower. You can't look at your watch. It's a much harder effort. I would say it's akin to running, if you ever run on a soft sand beach and your foots are kind of slipping in with each step. Plus a snowshoe weighs a little less than a pound, so it's about having a little bit weight on your feet, trying to run in deep sand. It's hard. Your cardiovascular, it'll feel like you're sprinting all out and you're only running like 10-minute miles. So it's a lot of effort.
And I think going into it knowing like, hey, I'm not going to try to run this pace I usually run while I'm on the roads. I'm just going to enjoy what I can do with whatever pace works for the situation and with the conditions, it can be really fun. I think a lot of people go into it thinking they're going to be like this super fast runner and it's like snowshoe running isn't really super fast. You're going to run a slower pace, like I said, than what you would run on the roads.
But one thing good is when you go up a hill on snowshoes, you always get to come down. And one of the best experiences on snowshoes is running down a steep incline in deep snow and just having snow fly everywhere. And it is the most amazing experience. Just doing that, if everybody could try that, they'd probably love it.
Shelby Stanger:
Just running downhill in snowshoes.
Jennifer Britz:
Oh, it's so fun, in deep snow is absolutely amazing.
Shelby Stanger:
Because if you fall, it's fun.
Jennifer Britz:
It's fun. Yeah, you just end up in a pile of snow and no one gets hurt.
Shelby Stanger:
Running downhill in snowshoes almost feels like you're flying. It's half running, half sliding, and once the speed starts picking up, it's hard to stop. You never really know how deep the snow is, which makes it both fun and challenging.
Running a 10K in snowshoes usually takes Jennifer about twice as long as it does on a regular trail run. Even though she can't move as quickly, she still loves being out there in the snow. Everything is so quiet and the sunlight sparkles on the snowy banks and ice-crusted branches. Jennifer was initially drawn to the novelty of the sport, but she quickly realized that she was quite good at it.
Was there a moment when you realized, oh, yeah, I'm good at this?
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, so that first series I ever ran on snowshoes, it was set of three races over three months that I had one entry to. I ended up winning the series and I was like, "I haven't really even figured this out yet, and I actually did pretty good." So I kind of started looking into what other races besides this series are there out there? And that's when I kind of started doing other races.
And then somebody mentioned, "Hey, the US championships this year is in Vermont." And I was like, "Oh, I can make it to Vermont." So I went to that first one and I was like, "Oh my gosh." That was 2014 and I just missed making the US team that year, after only racing for a little bit. So I was like, "Oh my gosh, my goal is next time the US championships gets close is like I want to make the team. That's what I want to do."
Shelby Stanger:
So you won. How did you make the team?
Jennifer Britz:
So every year, the US holds a US championships and it kind of moves around the country in different places. In 2018, I ran in the ones in Bennington, Vermont and I won the master's division there. So they take the top five and that's basically the US team for that year.
Shelby Stanger:
All right, so when you got notice that you're going to enter the world championships, tell me when that was and how old you were. If you're okay telling your age.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah. Okay, let's see. I've run in a few of them. The first I ran was in 2019, that was in Italy. So I'm 48 now, I don't... You have to do the math.
Shelby Stanger:
Rad. Good for you.
Jennifer Britz:
Thanks.
Shelby Stanger:
You're winning the snowshoe race.
Jennifer Britz:
So yeah, I ran one in Italy. It was my first Worlds. They actually had no snow that year in the Val di Non. So they actually have some crazy amount of euros saved up so that they can always put snow down if there's no snow. And this is January, and we were running in shorts beforehand. And what they did is they hauled snow from a place that they were making it, and they laid down a track of snow that was probably as wide as a road and about two feet thick for a 5K loop. So we had to run the loop twice for 10K. And then they dumped snow into the streets so that we could finish how they traditionally finish in the village.
And that was my first world and I was just like, "This is crazy amazing that people are so into this sport that they're going to spend millions of euros to make a snow track for us to run on." It was crazy.
After the world championships on that year, they actually have a citizens race and there were like 3,000 people running in the citizens race on snowshoes. So that was my first, I think, show of what the rest of the world actually does snowshoe racing and how much they love it too.
Shelby Stanger:
So it's big in Italy, big in Europe.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah. It was great.
Shelby Stanger:
That first world championship felt electric. It was exciting to see that this niche sport was actually respected and loved and Jennifer wanted more. She knew that she couldn't really go pro as a snowshoe racer though. The sport isn't officially recognized by USA Track and Field, so there's really not any money in it. Still, that hasn't kept Jennifer from continuing to race.
So there's 2019 and then do you just keep going back every year? Well, there's the pandemic, so-
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, so actually I ran in Tokyo in 2020 right before the whole world shut down. So we had flown over there in February and the race... We flew into Tokyo where the race was up in Myoko, which is the Japanese Alps. They had the most snow I've ever seen in a place. The snow was over the first floor windows of all of the village that we stayed in. And they were worried that it wasn't going to be enough, and we were like, "This is the most snow we've ever seen anywhere."
Bad thing about that race is that it actually started raining in the middle of the race, which kind of was crappy. The snow kind of turned into a mashed potato we call it. It's like that heavy wet... It wasn't great, but they still held it. It ended up being a great experience anyways, running in that part of the country, seeing a different part of the world that I've never been to.
Shelby Stanger:
What's it like running in mashed potato snow? Is it just sticky and like you can't...
Jennifer Britz:
So the bottom of your snowshoe has a big metal cleat on it, and when you get that mashed potato kind of snow, it'll pack into that cleat and refreeze and so you end up running with snow slammed into your cleats, you don't get any traction anymore. It's-
Shelby Stanger:
It sounds slippery.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, it's not great. You always have to look at things like that where it's the weather and you can't control it. It's like everybody's dealing with those same issues. Nobody's got any advantage. You just run your best for those conditions. That's probably the best way to look at it because if you let all those outside factors influence your race, it's just going to be a negative impact. So you have to look at it like everyone's dealing with the same thing. How can I make this better for myself?
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. Okay, so you're in Japan and then the next year, 2021, is it on or did they cancel it?
Jennifer Britz:
It is off. Yeah, it is off because of pandemic. So the next race they hold is September of 2022, and that was in Argentina.
Shelby Stanger:
And what was that like?
Jennifer Britz:
That was really hard to get to, so it was, gosh, a 14-hour flight to Buenos Aires and then another two hour flight to this little village called Neuquén, and then a six-hour bus ride to the mountains of Patagonia. And on our six-hour bus ride, our bus broke down. So we have a bus full of runners and we're all looking at the sign and we're like, "20K, we could easily run that. How can we get to the village faster?" So that was kind of funny.
But yeah, this was way off in a little village. Basically, they don't plow the streets down there, they just pack the snow and people just drive on top of it, which I thought was crazy. So the streets just get deeper and deeper as more cars just go on top of the snow, which was nuts.
It was at this little ski resort on the border of Chile and totally different experience. Like I said, the trip down there just was the most I've ever traveled to get someplace. And we got to hang out down in this little village for a few days, and then we took a run on the course with the team the day before. And last minute, like the night before the race, they changed the course on us.
Shelby Stanger:
Of course they did.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, of course they did. So I guess there was a few spots of snow that was starting to melt at the very top of the... Basically, it was on a volcano and the volcano was steaming the whole time, which was kind of unnerving. So basically a few spots had kind of started breaking through and they didn't want people to break their snowshoes or bust a cleat or something, so they changed the course slightly and they took out a lot of the climbing. My preference, I love climbing. That's what I trained for, I trained for steep ascents and steep descents, so I was kind of bummed that they took a bunch of the climbing out. But it was still a great course. The next morning, we all got up there and yeah, the race went off on a bright bluebird sky day and everything just clicked that day.
Shelby Stanger:
And you won.
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah. So right off the start, it was a very fast start. It was a packed snow start, so basically groomed. So it was easy to get going quick and it went right up to the first climb. And I remember looking up on that first climb and being like, "Oh, I know this. I know climbing." And looking up and seeing a woman in front of me and being like, "All right, I'm just going to work to get up past her," not knowing that she was actually the first female, and also that was her home course, she was from Argentina. So I caught her on the uphill and never saw her again.
And I didn't even know it because we run a race, it's both male and female together in one race, so sometimes it's really hard to figure out where you are. You're like, "I don't know if there's another woman up in front of me, I don't know who's behind me." So I'm running, there's some people in front of me. I'm just figuring there must be somebody else. And then I get to about two miles to go and in Spanish, I start hearing people saying like [foreign language 00:15:31] and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I think I'm in first place."
I did catch up to another man from Argentina by the end, and he even said, he's like, "I think you're first." He's like, "I'll run in with you," which was super cool. So yeah, I ran with him and then he just backed off and let me cut across the tape first, which was absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Shelby Stanger:
Snowshoe runner Jennifer Britz won first place at the Snowshoe World Championship in Argentina in 2022. Training for the event was particularly challenging for her because the race took place in September. Jennifer lives in Maine, near Acadia National Park, so she hadn't run on snow in months.
How do you train for a snowshoe race, especially in the summer when it's not snowing?
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, so I spent all summer training for the Worlds and basically did a lot of trail mountain running. I do know people who will take their snowshoes out onto the beach and try to get some workouts in that way. I didn't want to wreck my snowshoes. So yeah, I spent a lot of that summer running a lot of mountains, try to get a lot of vert in and doing a lot of, snowshoe running takes a lot of core work, so core not just your abs, but hips, glutes, all of your core. You're going to be taking a lot of sharp corners and also having to lift your feet a lot with a lot more effort. I didn't have like, oh, it's going to be negative 15 degrees with lots of wind and all ice and I have to go drive someplace to train. I just ran mountains all summer.
It gets really humid in the northeast in the summer, and so I think training in the humidity where cardiovascular is very taxing, that almost helped when I got to the snowshoe race down in Argentina because my lungs were primed to deal with really hot, humid air. And I got down there and it was crisp and dry and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I can breathe so well down here." I think that helped a lot. People I know do altitude training and we always joke that we do humidity training here because it can be rough.
Shelby Stanger:
That's so interesting. And you're not 20, so-
Jennifer Britz:
No.
Shelby Stanger:
... how have you maintained not getting injured?
Jennifer Britz:
I do get injured, but I think one of the biggest points, and we kind of talk about this when with my training partners and stuff, is getting into the weight room. I know it sucks because I love being outside, but I think making sure you get all your muscles in a strong sense so that you're not ripping stuff, you're not tearing stuff, you're protecting your joints. And I think that's one of the biggest things is keeping your strength up and doing a lot of trail running. Trail running is great because it has... You're not just moving in one direction like you would on a road. You're taking corners, you're stepping off on rocks, and so that kind of keeps those muscles kind of in tune also. And also running on the trails is a lot easier on your body.
Shelby Stanger:
So what do you do day to day to train?
Jennifer Britz:
So I usually get up very early because it's quieter in the park here in the morning. And then I'm usually out there for, gosh, two and a half, three hours. Trail running right now, that usually is about, because it's a lot of climbing, it's usually about 15 miles or so, maybe 20. Then I have almost a second workout because I run with a cross country team in the afternoon at practice. I lift two to three times a week, so I've got it down where I can get in and out of the weight room in like 35 minutes and get everything done. Which, like I said, I'm an outdoor person, so not my favorite place to be, but I know it keeps me not injured, but I get everything in just squeezing it in between my other schedule.
Shelby Stanger:
What about the mental training? How do you train for that? Or is it just time?
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, so mentally, I go into it, I always go into it, I have goals. My first one is always have fun. Like I said, if you're not running for fun, then why are you doing it? So it's always have fun.
The second is always finish the race. Don't get injured. Don't get injured training for it. You want to finish and put out a good effort.
And then the third is always getting into that uncomfortable place where you're like, "This hill is really hard, but I'm going to keep moving forward," and mentally talking yourself into being stronger.
Shelby Stanger:
You said you like climbing up and you love running down.
Jennifer Britz:
Yes.
Shelby Stanger:
Is your technique to run down a hill like a little kid as fast as you can? What's your technique about running up?
Jennifer Britz:
So running down, the snowshoes I run in have two cleats that kind of go parallel to the length of the snowshoe, so it keeps your snowshoe from sliding out to the side. So what I tend to do is just lean back and almost ski run down them so you're sliding with each step. It's really fun. You know that you have a big cleat in the front that you can always break with if you have to, but you use the gravity as much as you can.
And climbing up, I just do it so much, I think. Like I said, here in Acadia, to get mileage and to get vert, you have to go up and down a bunch of mountains. There's no super long one ridge that you can climb for seven miles and then come back down. Everything's going to be a short, steep climb. So we do it all the time, and I think that's just what I train to do. So when I see a course that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, yes, we're going to be climbing a lot," I'm like, "That's just my home. That's what I do."
Shelby Stanger:
What are you wearing for shoes? Your snowshoes aren't shoes, they're like things that you put over your shoes, so what are you wearing?
Jennifer Britz:
So in running snow shoes, you wear a regular pair of running shoes. You're not wearing boots. That would be way too heavy. For training, I have a pair of Gore-Tex shoes to keep my feet a little bit warmer because usually I'm out there for way longer than I would be in a race. So I have a pair of regular running trail shoes that are Gore-Tex. I throw a pair of gaiters on, just low cut gaiters, like the kind that people usually wear for trail running, just to keep the snow from packing down into my shoe. I always wear over the calf tall Darn Tough socks because they're so much warmer and your ankles and your calves will get so cold being packed in the snow for hours on end. So keeping your lower leg warm I think is super important. You'll be so much more comfortable than if your toes go cold. But yeah, so it's like you're wearing your regular running shoes and just strapping them. They fit right into a running snow shoe.
Shelby Stanger:
And then when you race, do you wear a different shoe?
Jennifer Britz:
I just have a pair of a more lightweight running shoe. I know I'll be out there for about an hour or so. I'm not too worried about my toes freezing, so I'll just wear a regular running shoe. And just not my Gore-Tex ones, they're kind of heavy.
Shelby Stanger:
Any advice on getting into snowshoeing? Just plain snowshoeing and then snowshoe racing?
Jennifer Britz:
Yeah, so if you want to get into snowshoe running, probably want to start with being a runner. That's always the good base. If you're a runner, it's pretty easy to make that next step. Like I said, snowshoes for running are much narrower, so you don't really have to change your stride much. You just have to acknowledge that you don't try to go the same pace that you're going to be going on the roads.
I suggest if you first are trying it out, find some place that has a packed trail because it's easier, to kind of get the gist of, okay, this is what it's going to feel like, this is the weight of them, before you start going off trail on deep snow or anything like that. Only because you'll get frustrated, I think, if you go right to the deep snow right away.
Shelby Stanger:
I may not be in love with the cold, but snowshoe running sounds really fun. I'll definitely try it on one of my winter trips to Mammoth or Colorado this season. If you live near some snow, you should try it too. Let us know how it goes in a review wherever you listen. This year, the Snowshoe World Championships are taking place in Wisconsin. All of us are cheering Jennifer on.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paola Mottola and Joe Crosby.
As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.