WILL YURMAN Tim Ratowski, left, and Mort Nace hatched a plan to bring snowshoe racing to the Rochester area. Gear guide As simple as snowshoeing is (if you can walk, you can snowshoe), the equipment has lost its simplicity. There are snowshoes for all walks of recreation -- from strolls in a county park to backcountry climbing. Of course, there are snowshoes for running and racing. The hottest models: the Redfeather Falcon 25, designed by Olympic gold-medal marathoner Frank Shorter and five-time world-champion snowshoer Tom Sobal (retailing for $230), the Atlas Dual-Tracs ($229) and the Northern Lites Elite ($200). Frozen Assets This 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) run will start at 10 a.m. Saturday at Harriet Hollister Spencer Park in Canadice, Ontario County. There is a $17 entry fee. Snowshoes must be a minimum of 8 by 25 inches, the regulation size for racing shoes. There will be a limited number of Redfeather loaners. For more information, call (585) 425-4627 or go to: geocities.com/goutnow Finger Lakes race The Finger Lakes Runners Club's annual 7.6-mile snowshoe race is at noon Jan. 26 at Finger Lakes National Forest in Hector, Schuyler County. Fees are $10 before the race and $15 on race day. The club and Cornell University's Outdoor Education department will host a program by Tom Sobal at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at Cornell. Sobal, of Leadville, Colo., is considered the Michael Jordan of snowshoe racing. For more information, call (607) 387-6281 or visit: ceeserver.cee.cornell .edu/flrc/FLRC.html

By Gary Fallesen
Democrat and Chronicle

(January 10, 2002) -- Mort Nace's introduction to snowshoe racing went more easily than he'd imagined.

''I had visions of a very long day when I signed up for this race,'' he says, recalling last winter's 7.6-mile run through the Finger Lakes National Forest in Hector, Schuyler County.

''My experience up until then was in much, much deeper snow.''

After enduring snowdrifts in Monroe County while training for the race, he didn't realize he'd be running on trails groomed by cross-country skiers and snowmobilers.

Nace, 35, of Brighton ran most of the way -- and won his age group with a time of one hour, 21 minutes.

Then he asked trusted sidekick Tim Ratowski, 29, of Fairport why on earth there were no snowshoe races in the Rochester area.

Ratowski grew up on skis and snowshoes in Canton, St. Lawrence County. The son of a snowshoe racer ''thought that to be a sin.''

So the pair -- organizers of the local Muddy Sneaker 20-kilometer trail run and the Sunset Paddling Series for kayakers -- have now cooked up the first Frozen Assets 5K. This 3.1-mile snowshoe race will be Saturday at Harriet Hollister Spencer park in Canadice, Ontario County.

''Most of our races are a joint thing,'' Ratowski says, explaining the brainstorming that precedes the start of an event.

''We sit around, have a couple brews and ask, 'What's needed around here? What are people going to enjoy that's beyond the road 5K?' ''

Nace and Ratowski agree that road running is ''poison,'' likely to ruin your body. ''We're more woodsy kind of guys,'' Ratowski says.

Though he sheepishly admits he's never actually raced in snowshoes, Ratowski is experienced in the ''snowshoes-saving-your-life-in-the-Adirondacks type of thing.''

He isn't surprised, though, that a winter transportation method evolved into a recreation and now a competition. ''It's a natural progression,'' he says.

Snowshoeing grew 17 percent in popularity last year, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. There are 26 events on the Empire State Snowshoe Racing Association schedule this month, including 10 this weekend. The Frozen Assets is a qualifier for the Empire State Games, to be held Feb. 22-24 in Lake Placid.

''The technology of the shoes is what has grown it the most,'' Ratowski says of the design of smaller, lighter-weight, better-gripping models.

Ratowski lent his Sherpa shoes to Nace for last year's Finger Lakes 7.6-mile race. It's one of four pairs of snowshoes he owns.

''I've run in them a couple times,'' Ratowski says. ''It's something you've got to get used to.''

Nace runs in snowshoes -- he now owns a pair of Redfeather Falcons -- whenever winter carpets his beloved trails in ankle-, knee-, even hip-deep snow. He runs loops in a field next to French Road Elementary School in Brighton, where one of his three daughters goes, and trains at Mendon Ponds Park and Hi-Tor Wildlife Management Area in Italy, Yates County.

''I can't go as far in that kind of snow,'' Nace says of the deeper snowfall that hasn't been packed down. ''It's more in intervals: intense efforts and take a break.''