Race Date: April 25, 2009
This would be my third Category 5 race, but my first long distance road race (as opposed to the previous criterium races).
I showed up plenty early for registration for the Wave 2 starters, about an hour and 15 minute prior to the planned starting time of about 1:30 for the Cat 5er's. Big line for registration, but it moved quickly enough to get back to the car and have plenty of time to get ready.
Something that I've noticed among us new riders is the complete inability to pin a race number/bib on our jerseys so they don't flap in the wind as you ride. In my first two races, I placed it lower on my jersey, right along the under arm seam, about halfway down the jersey. Each time, I still had flapping, and when actually sitting on the bike, it really restricted the stretch of the jersey and got all folded up and goofy by the end of the race.
This time, I placed it a little higher, basically on the lower part of my shoulder. I also used 7 or 8 safety pins placed both around the edge and a couple in the middle of the bib, and really got that thing pinned down. It actually worked much better this time, and will keep the placement up higher.
I was able to get ready to go pretty quickly and decided to take a small ride out to warm up. There was a pretty significant wind blowing from North to South, so it made for a direct crosswind when riding East-West. The sky was overcast, but it wasn't raining like the weather terrorists were saying all week, and it was around 45 to 50 deg F, so it was a really nice day to be out and riding, even with the wind.
Turns out, all the start times had been pushed back, so we didn't actually start the Cat 5 until after 2:00. There was a lot of sitting around, and we actually started about 100 yards from the actual starting line, coming right out of the church parking lot.
My goal for this race was to hang with the pack as long as I could, so I put myself right in the middle at the start. As we took off, we got up to the upper 20's mph pretty quickly, and before I knew it, I was at the very back of the pack, but comfortably hanging on, so I didn't panic. I tried to creep up a little in the middle before our first turn, but only made it 3 or 4 spots then just held.
Held until the corner anyway. At the turn, we turned right so the wind was at our backs. The leaders caught the wind before anyone, and kicked it down right away, causing us at the back to start the accordion right away to sprint to catch up, but we all made it. I put myself near the centerline of the road to try to push up the side, and made some progress back to the middle and held it for the whole stretch with the wind. There was a lot of braking actually as we went over the slow rolling molehills at about 32-34 mph, and there was a lot of moving around too.
Leading into the second turn, we all slowed quite a bit as it was at the bottom of another roller, and people seemed to be pretty white-knuckled heading into it. As soon as we hit the apex of the turn, everyone stood to sprint up the hill and there was an immediate stringing out and everyone was trying to catch up and reform.
We all reformed, but word came up that a guy went down coming out of the corner. Someone said his pedal broke and he went down, but I didn't see nor hear it. On the back side, the wind was coming from right to left, and I got trapped on the right side by accident. I tried to swerve into the pack to recover from the uphill sprint, but couldn't make my move, and found myself hanging on the back after about 2 miles. There seemed to be an attack at the front as it felt like we just kept gaining speed, and I lost it right away and couldn't hold the back.
Went solo with the pack just out of reach until the next turn - back into the wind - when I lost them as they slowly creeped away.
I wasn't the first to fall off the back and was soon reunited with a guy from the IC3 team. He said "Let's go catch 'em," and I gladly took his invite to take turns pulling. The two of us soon caught another straggler in a Rock Racing replica jersey and invited him to join. After a couple rotations in the pace line, and teaching the third guy not to sprint when it's his turn to pull, we formed a nice group and held a very nice pace through the rest of the first lap. When we hit the big 1-mile climb before the finish line, it was kind of every-man-for-himself, but we regrouped pretty quickly at the top and kept working it around the first turn.
We were passed by 2 of the leaders of the Women's 1/2/3 group and their support car right at the turn, and they cruised well ahead of us in no time.
We held the group together through the third turn up into the wind and twisted and turned through the way back, battling the cross and head winds the entire way. Our third Rock guy fell off for a while, but rejoined us after about a mile. We were soon passed by two more women, but then started to encounter a couple Cat 5 men stragglers again. The first was a Tonka Cycle guy. He was sitting up, just spinning slowly, and showed no interest in joining up. The second was another IC3 guy, and he gladly joined saying that the guy he was previously working with (the Tonka guy) gave up. Turns out he was a junior and wanted to try the Cat 5's today for a challenge. As he gave up, I guess he told the IC3 guy he wished he had stuck with the juniors, as they were only doing one 21-mile lap.
At one point on the back stretch, there was a curve in the road that turned us heading east for a mile or two, making for another cross wind from the left. After taking my pull, I dropped back on the right side, out of the wind, then grabbed onto the back. Because of the wind direction, we really had to overlap wheels quite a bit to make the draft worth it. We were pretty much riding 3-abreast, with each others' handlebars right behind each others' hips. As I was grabbing onto the back, I had to spin a little faster to get into the draft. I'm not really sure what happened, but I think the crosswind grabbed my front wheel and pushed my body off-balance to the point where I felt the need to turn left to catch it. Well, I couldn't turn left due to the wheel-crossing, so I had to pull up and actually brake. As soon as I cleared his wheel, I was able to swerve and catch my balance, but felt like I was almost going down. My wheels actually skipped a little as I swerved. Yep, I was almost that guy that took out the back of a three-man paceline. But I didn't, and I caught back up without any harm done, aside from my bruised ego.
The four of us worked pretty well up the back stretch until we hit the last couple miles. At that point, we started to approach the last big climb, and the fourth guy decided to drop us, and did so quite quickly. At that point, we all went for ourselves again up the hill, and at the top, it was just me and Rock together. He latched on behind me for a bit, and I then dropped back to make him take a turn. As soon as we crested the last little false flat, the finish line came into sight. Rock dropped back to pull a draft off of me, so I hit it a little harder as I didn't want to pull him all the way in.
He did as I thought, and jumped with about 100 yards to go, but I held and stole 41st place from him. There was no standing sprint or arms in the air, but it did feel good to have that little competition at the end. We both sat up as we crossed and pounded fists. Pretty sure we both felt the same way: it's time to train harder.
So, 41st out of 50 starters. 42 miles in 2 hours, 4 minutes. About 21 mph average.
I completed my goal of finishing, but really wish I could have held onto the pack longer. I'm learning more and more the importance of being up front. Had I been closer to the front, I would have avoided a lot of the braking-and-sprinting accordion effect at the back, and been able to ride steadier and save a lot more for later. I didn't need to sprint as hard as I did up the hill out of the second turn either. I would have been better off saving a little more and hammering down after the top of the hill to catch up.
I learned a lot by being in an actual race paceline, as small as it was anyway. All three/four of us learned how to communicate to each other, and had a great chemistry going for the majority of the race.
I think the game breaker was the fact that I rode with my saddle bag the entire race (sarcasm/vanity alert). As we lined up at the start, I noticed that I completely forgot about my bag under my saddle. I then looked around to see if, by chance, anyone else felt the need to keep theirs on. I did see one other, and it was actually bigger than the one I had on, but it was just the two of us. In hindsight, I had plenty of time to ride back to the car to drop it off, but I wasn't sure how long we actually had, and I didn't feel like it anyway. Probably didn't make much of a difference, aside from making my experience level that much more obvious as I got spit out of the back, but there really wasn't a need for it in this race.
It was a successful race for me overall, but I'm really getting a gauge of my cycling fitness ability relative to other local racers. I have a lot of work to do to get competitive, but I'm definitely not getting discouraged. With a little more fitness, and a lot more knowledge on when and where to use it, I think I'll be able to hang a lot more.
I missed the LSC Crit series this week (didn't think that the pregnant wife would appreciate watching a bike race on our second wedding anniversary), and probably won't make it to the Marty Road Race or the LaCrosse Criterium this weekend due to my wife's work schedule and kid duty.
I might head up to SJU to watch the UMLL playoffs on Saturday, but that will be a spur of the moment decision. It sounds like the LSC Crits are getting pretty rough already, so I'm not sure if I'm going to risk it again, but as of right now, my next race would be next Tuesday at OPUS. I'm thinking I'll just show up at the starting line and hang at the back to get my 4th start on the books, then just get a good few laps at the back to avoid the wrecks.
The wife and I are expecting baby boy #2 any day now, so that will also play a factor in which races I sign up for.
Non-Statistically Significant Evidence to Support the Theory of Addiction to Exercise-Induced Endorphin Release
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Securian Frozen Half Marathon, St. Paul, MN - Race Report - 24 Jan 2009
3:30 PM - Day before the race. Receive an email from the race director informing all pre-registered racers that the race has been shortened to half the distance due to the extreme weather forecast. Reports were coming in of overnight temperatures in double-digits below zero Fahrenheit, with added wind chill factors making it feel well below -25.
So the race course is now a 1/4 marathon, or basically a 10K (10.25 to be exact). I find this somewhat disappointing as I've been mentally preparing for a big challenge. But deep down, like every other race I've ever done, I feel that I probably haven't trained as much as I should have to meet my goal of better than an 8:30 pace for the 13.1 miles, and it will probably be more enjoyable this way.
On the way home from work, I stop at the gym for a quick dip and stretch in the hot tub to loosen up a tight groin from hockey earlier in the week. Head home and have a healthy supper of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.
6:30 AM - Morning of the race. Alarm goes off and I only hit snooze once, then roll out and take a hot shower to wake up and warm the body up for the last time until after the race. The race starts at 9:00, and I need to drop off my son at the in-laws as my wife works nights and needs to go to bed when she gets home at 8:00 AM.
I eat some toast with peanut butter, with a small glass of milk, and another glass of grape juice. Son has his eggo waffles and we get dressed and head out the door.
7:30 AM - Arrive at the in-laws. Plans were to meet my brother-in-law there and I'd drive to the start of the race. Father-in-law offers to drop us off at the starting line. I decline at first, as I had some plans for after the race to meet some people at the Bulldog for some post race beers. He insists saying that I'll never find a parking spot. Not being in the mood to argue, I accept...at which point he heads downstairs to shower. Not in the playbook, and definitely not excited about his decision.
7:51 AM - Morning news reports a temperature of -11 degrees F, with a 10-15 mph wind out of the northwest.
8:00 AM - Original planned arrival time to the race. Actual time that my father-in-law turns off the shower.
8:10 AM - Habitually late brother-in-law strolls in.
8:15 AM - Actual time of departure from in-laws.
8:40 AM - Arrive at the race packet pick-up in the Securian building. No lines, swift pick-up and pin on the race bib without any snags.
8:45 AM - Head to an upper level of the Securian Building Atrium to get above the cold drafts to stretch lightly. I decide to buy a race t-shirt now, instead of after the race. I like the technical shirts that most races offer now, so I find it hard to pass them up.
Pull the shirt on over my under shirt, put my jacket back on and start the layer finalization.
8:52 AM - Race announcement stating 8 minutes until race time. I strap on my face covering (a small fleece scarf with velcro enclosures; I really like it!) and pull on the mittens.
8:54 AM - Start walking towards the door to head to the starting line. Surprised to see so many people staying inside until the last minute.
8:59 AM - Standing about 50 feet back from the starting line. Look around and notice the herd of people just starting to come out to the line. There's no way they'll line up in time.
9:00 AM - No gun. Race director decides to wait for the late-comers. My biggest pet peeve of mass races: waiting for people to line up. Especially when it's below zero. Everyone is starting to hop and shuffle trying to keep warm. I start to feel my toes go cold.
9:06 AM - Horn finally sounds for the start, and, of course, the accordion effect happens three times before we actually spread out and start running.
After crossing the starting line, we run about a block before approaching a steep downhill to Shepard Road. Because it's an out-and-back course, it's nice to see the monster that awaits us in the final quarter mile. Well, nice might not be the word I'm looking for...
View of the hill, looking out from the starting line to where the front of the pack drops off down the hill in front. Picture taken by my friend Jimmy:
The field spreads out very nicely within the first mile. Unlike most races, it seems like most everyone is calculating their pace accurately. Nobody sprinted all out at the start, and nobody seems to be dropping or passing noticeably.
Mile Marker 1 - Exactly 7:50 on my watch, and the pace is very comfortable. I notice that my toes are still cold, and my shoes seem very hard from the temperature. I occasionally curl my toes trying to get the blood flowing again. I chose to wear only one pair of socks, as I usually get blisters on my arches wearing any more. I begin to think that this may have been the only mistake in my attire.
Mile Marker 2 - There isn't a mile marker in sight, but judging from our pace I'm pretty sure of where it should be. I'm assuming a solid 8-minute pace, and the watch just turned 16:00. My toes actually warmed up, and I feel myself starting to sweat a little more. Overall, I feel pretty comfortable. The only skin that was exposed was the bridge of my nose and my eyelids, and those feel warm as well...except for the ice forming on my eyelashes. We were running west on Shepard road, therefore directly into the wind. The cold was causing my eyes to water a little, and the tears were freezing before they could even reach my cheeks. I didn't dare rub my eyes, so I just let the crystals form.
Mile Marker 3 - The race leaders pass us on their way back after the turn around. We clap, cheering them on. They look so cool and make each stride seem effortless. We can see the turn-around approaching, and veer to the left of the road so as to avoid the sweeping turn of everyone else. We confirm with each other that we're not stopping for water, so our move to the left was even more justified as the water stop was to the right. I notice a race volunteer throwing sand down after the water stop. It had already become an ice slick from spilled water. Solid ice about 3 feet wide and 20 feet long. Glad we moved left.
There aren't any mile markers for the remainder of the race. Because we were no longer running into the wind, I thought it should be okay to pull down my face covering to expose my nose and free up my airway a little. I decide to keep my mouth covered to keep my lungs from burning completely with the cold air. The fleece had frozen solid with frost, and I couldn't really move the scarf that much without taking it off completely.
We pass the turnaround for the 5K race, so that makes 1.5 miles left. Our pace has held steady, so we kicked it down just a little for the last mile.
As we approach the monster hill, many people just stop running to walk it. Nobody moves over, so we sidestep a few people and chug our way to the top. It actually felt steeper running down, and I was pleasantly surprised how good I felt on my tip toes running up. My calves were definitely burning when I reached the top, and I didn't feel up to exerting a kick to cross the finish.
The final block is always the best part of any running race. This one in particular, because there weren't more than 50 people along the rest of the course cheering...including volunteers. There were actually quite a few people cheering at the line, and the music was blaring. The race announcer was calling off names of people as they crossed the line. I'm not sure if mine was called or not, but I think I crossed with a small group of people, so I doubt it.
I waddle through the finish chute to get my timing chip clipped off of my shoe. There were about 6 or 7 people on the ground ready to clip, and they were spread out nicely so there wasn't any wait. I hate it when there's a back up of racers just steps from the finish line for something trivial like the race chips.
On a side note: the race chips used in this race were different from any I had ever used before. They were just like a small credit card (about half the size of a normal credit card) and had four holes so you could zip-tie them to your shoe. They were very convenient, and were a lot lighter than the normal circular magnets that I've used before.
My brother-in-law's phone goes off just after we cross, and it's my father-in-law calling to see where we're at. He can't hear himself talk as we're standing directly in front of the speakers, so to resolve the problem, he hands me the phone to talk to him, like I can hear better or something.
I utter something, still trying to catch my breath from the hill climb, and lean against a building to stop and talk and arrange a pick-up. We agree on a spot and I lean forward to start walking, but my hat and shoulder both froze to the marble facade of the Securian sky scraper. It was kind of funny, but I pulled off pretty easily and went inside to grab the post race goodies.
Upon entering, I start to unwrap some layers. I peel off my face covering, and it stays molded in the shape of my face. I turn it over, and my BIL immediately turns away. There's about an inch-long snotcicle hanging off of the mold of my nose. It was kind of awesome if you ask me.
I try to unzip my jacket, but all my zippers were frozen solid. We wander around the line, pick up our mugs and grab a few complimentary energy bars and bottles of water and head out to meet my FIL. He couldn't get any closer than a couple blocks from the finish due to the road being closed and one-ways, so we just decide to walk out to him.
While we're walking, I feel my hat and mittens refreeze. It felt a lot colder now that my heart rate had lowered, and I could really feel the wind biting through my jacket.
We find him parked illegally on the corner of a nearby intersection waiting for us. The warmth is refreshing. We head back to the in-laws place and my FIL makes us some excellent scrambled eggs and my son eats a PB&J with us for lunch.
I decide to change quick and run back up to downtown to meet a few people for a beer at the Bulldog, as my original plan could still be salvaged. I was delighted to find a free parking spot right on the street in downtown, just two blocks from the bar. My friends were there, and I enjoyed a delicious red beer (can't remember the name of it though, unfortunately).
I really enjoyed this race, and plan to do it again next year. It was very well organized, and could accomodate a much larger number of racers. It's a very nice route on a divided highway type of road, with a generally flat (except for the hill at the start/finish) and well taken care of road. Runners utilize both sides of the median, so it never feels crowded along the route at all. Not much scenery despite the fact that you follow the river. Had we run the full course, we would have gotten a little more of the riverside. But then again, it was pretty hard to see anything other than the road directly in front of my feet with ice covered eyelashes.
I'll post more photos soon.
Race summary:
Weather: Partly cloudy. -15 F official race temp. 10-15 mph wind.
Total distance: 10.25k (13.1 miles shortened to ~6.5 miles due to extreme weather)
Race time: 50:28
Race pace: 7:56
Place: 239 of 663
So the race course is now a 1/4 marathon, or basically a 10K (10.25 to be exact). I find this somewhat disappointing as I've been mentally preparing for a big challenge. But deep down, like every other race I've ever done, I feel that I probably haven't trained as much as I should have to meet my goal of better than an 8:30 pace for the 13.1 miles, and it will probably be more enjoyable this way.
On the way home from work, I stop at the gym for a quick dip and stretch in the hot tub to loosen up a tight groin from hockey earlier in the week. Head home and have a healthy supper of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.
6:30 AM - Morning of the race. Alarm goes off and I only hit snooze once, then roll out and take a hot shower to wake up and warm the body up for the last time until after the race. The race starts at 9:00, and I need to drop off my son at the in-laws as my wife works nights and needs to go to bed when she gets home at 8:00 AM.
I eat some toast with peanut butter, with a small glass of milk, and another glass of grape juice. Son has his eggo waffles and we get dressed and head out the door.
7:30 AM - Arrive at the in-laws. Plans were to meet my brother-in-law there and I'd drive to the start of the race. Father-in-law offers to drop us off at the starting line. I decline at first, as I had some plans for after the race to meet some people at the Bulldog for some post race beers. He insists saying that I'll never find a parking spot. Not being in the mood to argue, I accept...at which point he heads downstairs to shower. Not in the playbook, and definitely not excited about his decision.
7:51 AM - Morning news reports a temperature of -11 degrees F, with a 10-15 mph wind out of the northwest.
8:00 AM - Original planned arrival time to the race. Actual time that my father-in-law turns off the shower.
8:10 AM - Habitually late brother-in-law strolls in.
8:15 AM - Actual time of departure from in-laws.
8:40 AM - Arrive at the race packet pick-up in the Securian building. No lines, swift pick-up and pin on the race bib without any snags.
8:45 AM - Head to an upper level of the Securian Building Atrium to get above the cold drafts to stretch lightly. I decide to buy a race t-shirt now, instead of after the race. I like the technical shirts that most races offer now, so I find it hard to pass them up.
Pull the shirt on over my under shirt, put my jacket back on and start the layer finalization.
8:52 AM - Race announcement stating 8 minutes until race time. I strap on my face covering (a small fleece scarf with velcro enclosures; I really like it!) and pull on the mittens.
8:54 AM - Start walking towards the door to head to the starting line. Surprised to see so many people staying inside until the last minute.
8:59 AM - Standing about 50 feet back from the starting line. Look around and notice the herd of people just starting to come out to the line. There's no way they'll line up in time.
9:00 AM - No gun. Race director decides to wait for the late-comers. My biggest pet peeve of mass races: waiting for people to line up. Especially when it's below zero. Everyone is starting to hop and shuffle trying to keep warm. I start to feel my toes go cold.
9:06 AM - Horn finally sounds for the start, and, of course, the accordion effect happens three times before we actually spread out and start running.
After crossing the starting line, we run about a block before approaching a steep downhill to Shepard Road. Because it's an out-and-back course, it's nice to see the monster that awaits us in the final quarter mile. Well, nice might not be the word I'm looking for...
View of the hill, looking out from the starting line to where the front of the pack drops off down the hill in front. Picture taken by my friend Jimmy:
The field spreads out very nicely within the first mile. Unlike most races, it seems like most everyone is calculating their pace accurately. Nobody sprinted all out at the start, and nobody seems to be dropping or passing noticeably.
Mile Marker 1 - Exactly 7:50 on my watch, and the pace is very comfortable. I notice that my toes are still cold, and my shoes seem very hard from the temperature. I occasionally curl my toes trying to get the blood flowing again. I chose to wear only one pair of socks, as I usually get blisters on my arches wearing any more. I begin to think that this may have been the only mistake in my attire.
Mile Marker 2 - There isn't a mile marker in sight, but judging from our pace I'm pretty sure of where it should be. I'm assuming a solid 8-minute pace, and the watch just turned 16:00. My toes actually warmed up, and I feel myself starting to sweat a little more. Overall, I feel pretty comfortable. The only skin that was exposed was the bridge of my nose and my eyelids, and those feel warm as well...except for the ice forming on my eyelashes. We were running west on Shepard road, therefore directly into the wind. The cold was causing my eyes to water a little, and the tears were freezing before they could even reach my cheeks. I didn't dare rub my eyes, so I just let the crystals form.
Mile Marker 3 - The race leaders pass us on their way back after the turn around. We clap, cheering them on. They look so cool and make each stride seem effortless. We can see the turn-around approaching, and veer to the left of the road so as to avoid the sweeping turn of everyone else. We confirm with each other that we're not stopping for water, so our move to the left was even more justified as the water stop was to the right. I notice a race volunteer throwing sand down after the water stop. It had already become an ice slick from spilled water. Solid ice about 3 feet wide and 20 feet long. Glad we moved left.
There aren't any mile markers for the remainder of the race. Because we were no longer running into the wind, I thought it should be okay to pull down my face covering to expose my nose and free up my airway a little. I decide to keep my mouth covered to keep my lungs from burning completely with the cold air. The fleece had frozen solid with frost, and I couldn't really move the scarf that much without taking it off completely.
We pass the turnaround for the 5K race, so that makes 1.5 miles left. Our pace has held steady, so we kicked it down just a little for the last mile.
As we approach the monster hill, many people just stop running to walk it. Nobody moves over, so we sidestep a few people and chug our way to the top. It actually felt steeper running down, and I was pleasantly surprised how good I felt on my tip toes running up. My calves were definitely burning when I reached the top, and I didn't feel up to exerting a kick to cross the finish.
The final block is always the best part of any running race. This one in particular, because there weren't more than 50 people along the rest of the course cheering...including volunteers. There were actually quite a few people cheering at the line, and the music was blaring. The race announcer was calling off names of people as they crossed the line. I'm not sure if mine was called or not, but I think I crossed with a small group of people, so I doubt it.
I waddle through the finish chute to get my timing chip clipped off of my shoe. There were about 6 or 7 people on the ground ready to clip, and they were spread out nicely so there wasn't any wait. I hate it when there's a back up of racers just steps from the finish line for something trivial like the race chips.
On a side note: the race chips used in this race were different from any I had ever used before. They were just like a small credit card (about half the size of a normal credit card) and had four holes so you could zip-tie them to your shoe. They were very convenient, and were a lot lighter than the normal circular magnets that I've used before.
My brother-in-law's phone goes off just after we cross, and it's my father-in-law calling to see where we're at. He can't hear himself talk as we're standing directly in front of the speakers, so to resolve the problem, he hands me the phone to talk to him, like I can hear better or something.
I utter something, still trying to catch my breath from the hill climb, and lean against a building to stop and talk and arrange a pick-up. We agree on a spot and I lean forward to start walking, but my hat and shoulder both froze to the marble facade of the Securian sky scraper. It was kind of funny, but I pulled off pretty easily and went inside to grab the post race goodies.
Upon entering, I start to unwrap some layers. I peel off my face covering, and it stays molded in the shape of my face. I turn it over, and my BIL immediately turns away. There's about an inch-long snotcicle hanging off of the mold of my nose. It was kind of awesome if you ask me.
I try to unzip my jacket, but all my zippers were frozen solid. We wander around the line, pick up our mugs and grab a few complimentary energy bars and bottles of water and head out to meet my FIL. He couldn't get any closer than a couple blocks from the finish due to the road being closed and one-ways, so we just decide to walk out to him.
While we're walking, I feel my hat and mittens refreeze. It felt a lot colder now that my heart rate had lowered, and I could really feel the wind biting through my jacket.
We find him parked illegally on the corner of a nearby intersection waiting for us. The warmth is refreshing. We head back to the in-laws place and my FIL makes us some excellent scrambled eggs and my son eats a PB&J with us for lunch.
I decide to change quick and run back up to downtown to meet a few people for a beer at the Bulldog, as my original plan could still be salvaged. I was delighted to find a free parking spot right on the street in downtown, just two blocks from the bar. My friends were there, and I enjoyed a delicious red beer (can't remember the name of it though, unfortunately).
I really enjoyed this race, and plan to do it again next year. It was very well organized, and could accomodate a much larger number of racers. It's a very nice route on a divided highway type of road, with a generally flat (except for the hill at the start/finish) and well taken care of road. Runners utilize both sides of the median, so it never feels crowded along the route at all. Not much scenery despite the fact that you follow the river. Had we run the full course, we would have gotten a little more of the riverside. But then again, it was pretty hard to see anything other than the road directly in front of my feet with ice covered eyelashes.
I'll post more photos soon.
Race summary:
Weather: Partly cloudy. -15 F official race temp. 10-15 mph wind.
Total distance: 10.25k (13.1 miles shortened to ~6.5 miles due to extreme weather)
Race time: 50:28
Race pace: 7:56
Place: 239 of 663
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