It's Snow Joke, the annual midwinter half-marathon on roads of patchy ice around Seeley Lake.
The 28th Snow Joke starts Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Seeley Lake Elementary School. Sponsored by the fun-seeking Cheetah Herder's Athletic Club, the 13.1-mile run is expected to draw more than 300 entrants.
The midweek forecast called for neither sun nor blizzards. The race-time temperature was predicted to be a few degrees below freezing, with a slight chance of snow.
Snow Joke features a shotgun start; i.e., someone fires a shotgun. Carey will be that someone this year.
"It depends on who comes up with the best costume," he said.
Last year it was race director Pat Caffrey, who dressed up like Dick Cheney a couple of weeks after the vice president's fabled shotgun incident in Texas.
In honor of last summer's Lewis and Clark activities in the area, Carey will become a descendant of explorer/trapper John Colter for the day. Not that he'll wear Colter's most renowned suit.
"We quit running naked with great-great-great grandfather John," Carey deadpanned.
There's a new shotgun too. At the LeGrizz Ultramarathon at Hungry Horse Reservoir last year, veteran runners presented Caffrey with a new Browning automatic.
"It was so much different from the old one, Pat thought maybe to anoint it he'd wrap some duct tape around it, so there's still a little bit of authenticity to it," Carey said.
The course follows roads, all plowed (and all uphill, to hear experienced Snow Jokers tell it) around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction. Runners leave the school and head north on Highway 83 for more than five miles, then follow Boy Scout Road down the west side of the lake for most of the rest of the race. Watch for "Hippo Crossing" signs on the backside.
The finish line is back at the starting line in front of the school.
Road conditions are iffy.
"I honestly can't say. I haven't been around there," Carey said. "But I know most of the side roads right now are pretty icy. That's a major maintained road, so I would expect a good share of it will be all right. On the shady sections I'm sure there'll be some icy spots."
Aid stations are posted at the 6- and 10-mile marks.
The awards ceremony are out of the ordinary. Female and male division winners are inducted into the Royal Order of Cheetah Rangers.
"Caffrey's got quite a twisted sense of humor," said Carey. "He gets this cheetah cloth from somewhere and makes sashes. We pin them on and try to embarrass those people. It's a pretty solemn ceremony."
There are three age divisions - Pygmy, Bushman and Zulu, for runners aged 0-15, 16-39 and 40 plus, respectively. There's also a canine division, whose winner becomes proud recipient of the coveted soup bone.
The race has swollen from fewer than 200 entrants for many years to 259 in 2004, 304 in 2005 and 285 (not counting dogs) last year.
"When we first started it was pretty small. We called it the Snow Joke because we were always hoping for really nasty weather," said Carey. "Not many people would attempt a half marathon in the middle of winter if they weren't serious runners."
Now that it's an established, certified half-marathon, Snow Joke is attracting runners of all levels.
"Last year we had people who were out there for three hours. It was a leisurely stroll," said Carey, who serves as a timer for the race.
"Caffrey stays until the last dog is dead," he said. "Last year there were five or six people still out there. Pat stayed. The rest of us went to the bar."
Registration time has been expanded by 30 minutes. It runs from 8:45 a.m. until 10:30. Cost is $5 for runners under 20, $10 for everyone else.
Reservations for Snow Joke T-shirts at 10 bucks a pop closed on Thursday. Unclaimed shirts will be released for sale at 10:45 a.m. on Saturday. As usual, the shirts will have a map of the race on them - "in case you get lost," Carey said.
The first runners generally complete the course by 12:15 p.m., the last ones sometime after 2 p.m.
The course record of 1 hour, 8 minutes and 10 seconds was set by Jim Hatcher in the second race in 1981. It was an adjusted time because the courses for the first two Snow Jokes were about 100 yards too short.
Last year's overall winner, in a time of 1:15:14, was Jim Rucker of Spokane, who edged Isaac Barnes of Ohio by three seconds. Rucker went on to win the Coeur d'Alene Marathon in May and finish third in the Portland Marathon in November. Barnes was fourth in the Columbus (Ohio) marathon in October.
Jamie Schuster of Plains was Snow Joke's top female finisher in 2006, in 1:34:06, after winning the Governor's Cup Marathon in Helena in 2005. Jennifer Boyer, director of the inaugural Missoula Marathon this July, was the second female and won the cheetah sash in the Zulu Division for the second straight year with a time of 1:34:58.
The women's record of 1:25:25 was set in 1999 by Bay Riley.
Other 2006 winners: Jake Roske of Missoula (1:31:25) and Hannah Hostetler of West Glacier (2:00.30) in the Pygmy Division; Marvin Speece of Butte (1:25:12) in the men's Zulu Division, and Mrs. Skins Weick (1:26:50) in the Canine Division/Dogs.
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