Frosty 25k Recap
Note to self, please cut down on the sweets during the Holiday
season. Of course, maybe running a Trail Marathon had something to do with it as
well but today, I just didn’t have much under the
hood for the Frosty 25k.
hood for the Frosty 25k.
I do want to give a shout out to Danny K. He was down from
WV doing another race in the Carolinas. Mark and Alana, she was doing a steady
state run this morning. I’ll share more about this later. Carolyn and her husband
were knocking out some miles around Salem Lake. There were a few others that I know
from FaceBook, but I didn’t see them in person. Chad and Danielle, not sure about Danielle but
Chad was rocking the race course. He was in 2nd during the first lap
and had cleared through the out and back section on the second lap before I entered it.
To the race, right from the start, my breathing was labored. I didn’t feel
smooth and relax. I felt like I was forcing each stride to happen.
Mark had mention that Alana was doing a steady state run
between 6:20 and 6:30. I told him that I was hoping run 6:30 but it was all
depending on which of my legs that showed up. (Yep, the old and tired ones –
anway).
Ok, side topic, with the demise of my 310 XT, I switched to
the Garmin 620. Having only run with it a couple of times, I am still figuring
it out. Today was one of those days where I learned something new. Without going into all of the boring details,
I somehow changed it into lock mode and didn’t realize it. When they said "go", I
clicked the start button but nothing happen. I clicked it again and still
nothing. I tried changing the display, and it said "locked". Crap, I didn’t know how to
unlock, and I am running a race so I didn’t really have time stop and fix it.
So, I just forgot about it and ran. Does it really matter
that I know what pace that I am running or how far. Well, today, apparently, it
didn’t.
Back to the race, Alana jumped out to 30 to 40 meter lead on
me. Much it owed to me attempting to start my Garmin.
Slowly over the next couple of miles, I whittled down her lead
until I caught her about 3 miles into the race.
We ran together for a while and she let me pull in front for
a few miles on the sunny side of the lake. But youth and talent have their
advantages. She went back by me while we were pulling up the long hill by the boat landing. By
the time we went through the start/finish for the first loop, she pulled out again to 30
to 40 meters on me.
My first loop split was 49:42. By my calculations, I had to
run the equivalent to break 1:40 and stay close to my desired 6:30 pace. I wasn't having the postive feelings, and running faster the second half wasn't likely.
Over the next 7 and ½ miles she extended her lead out to a couple
hundred meters, but I never truly lost sight of her. She was wearing a blaze
orange shirt so it tended to a beacon in the grays and browns of the winter
colors along the trail.
I did notice at the start there was one guy wearing a jersey
which had the computer generated print for camouflage on the back. Having never seen him
during the race, I don’t know how effective it was.
So pretty much after settling in on the first loop, I was
passed by one runner and passed one runner so my position was pretty much status
quo.
I finished up in 1:41:28. Yes, it was slower than I wanted.
I don’t know where I finished overall. They have not posted the results.
I do want to mention a couple of things. One they didn’t
have anyone passing out finisher medals when I completed the race. This seemed
rather odd. Although, I was able to go up later and ask for one.
Then, there seem to be a total mix up with the age group
awards. Their website says that they were giving them out. Yet, when I
questioned one of their race resources about it, she said she didn’t know when
the awards were going to be given out i.e. what time and they were only doing overall awards.
Apparently, there was some disconnect here. I didn’t even wait around to find
out.
Having run both the Frosty 25k a couple of times and the 30k in the fall, I am big fan of TCTC runs there. Here’s hoping they get their act together before September.
The Cool Down Runner.
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