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January 15, 2005
Brrr its cold out here! (New PRs)
This morning's race conditions were quite chilly. The Deer Park Winter Festival Frostbite 5-K lived up to its name. As I was choosing my running gear my thermometer read -8 F. While watching the news the wind chill at the race site was -19 F. I tried to find my face mask, but couldn't so I had to stop and buy some bandanas, which worked surprisingly well. The temp measured -4 F during my warm-up and +2 F during my cool down. These temps are all well below my previous personal bests for cold weather running. Officially I'm calling my new PR -4 F with a wind chill of -17 F. I really should make the wind chill even lower because when you're running into a head wind its colder! By the end of the race I had quite lengthy icecicles on my beard and eyelashes.
Despite the adverse conditions, the race went pretty well. I found a good mix between warmth and movement with my running clothes. The first mile of the race was fully into the wind so I tucked convieniently into second place. We hit the mile about 5:41, it was hard to tell for sure though because my watch was buried beneath so many layers of shirts and gloves. I felt completely comfortable but still remained in second. Just before the two-mile I made my first attempt to move into the lead. I tried to pass and get a gap but didn't quite have the strength to pull away. As I was surging we passed the two-mile in 11:26. The third mile is a slight downhill and I continued to push the pace as much as I could in my tights and three layers of shirts and ski gloves. Despite my surges I could get no more than a 3 m lead and turned the final corner even for the lead. This was the moment I had feared the whole race. I knew the "kid" I was running against had about 1:54 800m speed and my chances of winning in a sprint were slim. He opened up a 5 m lead with about 150 m to go and it was all I could do just to keep it that close. In any case my time of 17:08 was as good as I expected given the conditions. My next race is February 13th, another 5K.
James' Running (week 2 of 5) -> 48.5 of 60 miles
Sat: AM 6 miles - Frostbite 5-K, 2nd place in 17:08 (5:41, 5:45, 5:14)
PM -
Fri: AM 3 miles TT, PM 6 miles TT
Thur: PM 6.5 miles TT, 4x1 mile w/ 60 sec rest (6:00/2.5%, 5:52/2.0%, 5:40/1.5%, 5:24/1.0%)
Wed: 5 miles, Snowshoeing and FH
Tues: 7 miles, TT
Mon: 15 miles, Lincoln and Market
Posted by at January 15, 2005 10:35 AM
Comments
that is so amazing racing in those temps. that is seriously awesome. tough race. great job on placing so so high and hopefully you'll see that "kid" again soon for a rematch (in warmer conditions!!!)
Posted by: Audrey at January 17, 2005 12:07 PM
Also a second congrats from me, for both running well and running well in very cold conditions. Brave and talented, altogether!
Meghan
Posted by: Meghan at January 17, 2005 8:15 PM