The Frostbite 5K

"Uh hmmmm. M'aam? I'm gonna need a refund! There's no frost. "

I smiled and the two women working the registration desk joined in the laughter. The Frostbite 5K is a trail run to benefit the local junior college cross country team. The crowd was small. It looked like around 125 to 150 people showed up for race. The registration tent only had two lines but was otherwise very professionally run.

The race itself was being held at Al Bishop Park in the Cobb County Complex. There was a small line of people waiting to visit the jail when Dee Dee and I rode by. We went for a short, quarter mile run to get warmed and then moved to the start line. The weather was mostly cloudy and about sixty-six degrees. Perfect!


Mr. Announcer Guy announced that the race would start in one minute. Dee Dee and I moved to the far left at the front of the pack. Given the small number of racers, and the fact that everyone else was lined up on the right, I felt comfortable starting out there. Mr. Announcer explained that the route was 1.5 mile loop. On the way back we were to turn right, run to the end of the telephone poles and then loop back to the finish line. OK. That seemed easy enough. With a pop, the gun went off and the race was started.

If you ever hunted, you would kind of recognize the start of the race route. It was tree lined meadow with a line of telephone poles running down the middle. As you approached the end of the meadow, the tree line crept in closer and closer until the end of the meadow was concave. The only thing missing was a deer stand. The grass in the meadow was uneven but soft. That is why I was running to the left. The grass was a little firmer and little more even. As we ran through the end of the meadow, we entered a small dirt path that entered the woods.

Before the race, they had blown all the leaves from path, so the route was clear. Some of the roots had been spray painted yellow to clearly mark the route. As the route meandered through the woods, I settled into an easy rhythm. My breathing was strong, but my heart rate was already going through the roof. I believe at this point it had reached 162. I tried to moderate my pace a little, but as the trail went deeper through woods, we hit our first and only hill. My heart rate climbed into the high 160's. Halfway through the woods, we reached the top of the hill and began our downhill glide. I passed lots of people here. I allowed my body to pick up speed without any extra effort on my part. I glided down the hill and came out of the woods by the softball complex.

As I hit the grass behind the fields, I glanced at my HRM and saw that I was pushing the low 170s. It seems that this was where I would spend most of the race. The path around the softball fields was soft and flat, and it was there that I hit my first mile split: 9:08. My garmin, incidentally, went off a hundred yards before their mile split. The half mile run back to the start line was along a paved bike path and was slightly downhill. I wondered how Dee Dee was doing.

Once more around the route and I was done. I started to get tired on the second loop. I hit the hill in the woods for the second time and powered my way through it. I also passed the second mile marker while in the woods: 19:01. Not a negative split, but that was OK with me. I tried to take it easy on the way down the hill. I needed to catch my breath. I refused to walk. As I rounded the softball complex, I tried to pick it up for the final half mile or so. Unfortunately, I put to much into it too soon. As I made the right hand turn to make the loop around the telephone poles, I was out of breath. My heart rate was over 180 BPM, and I slowed down into a steady jog. Down to the end of the meadow. Left turn pass the last telephone pole. Pick it up. Nobody passes me in the last tenth of a mile. I crossed the finish line in 29:30. Not a PR, but I achieved my goal. I didn't walk an iota for the entire race.

Here are my splits: 9:08, 9:53, 9:08, 1:20 (9:30 avg)

Dee Dee and I ran into an old friend after the race. He used to play soccer with us and was a referee too. He gave all this up to run marathons, seven I believe he said. His name, coincidently was Wes, and he had lost forty pounds over the last two years. It was nice to see him again.

Alrighty then. I'm off to sign up at the gym today. Monday will be my first swim. Tomorrow I am planning a 16-20 mile bike ride. Won't that be a blast. Incidentally, I believe that this is my highest mileage for a week ever, 18 miles! That's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to the 10K next month. Bring it on!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Wes

ORN: 3.1 miles, 29:30, race pace, 9:30 avg, all run