Frosty's Frozen 5-mile 2008

My first race for 2008 was the Frosty's Frozen Five (as in miles) at Chatfield Reservoir on January 20. It also marked my longest run of the year (to date, but then the year was only three weeks old at that point).

It had snowed the day before, but Saturday (according to the national weather guessers) promised to be sunny. Nevertheless, it was bitterly cold when I awoke and headed out to the Reservoir, wanting to be there by 9 am to pick up my bib number and timing chip (the race was set to start at 10). Cold as it was, though, a quick half-mile warmup jog followed by some gentle stretching got my circulation flowing comfortably.

(As it turned, out, it was a good thing that I'd preregistered and showed up early to pick up my stuff. Apparently the event had oversold--they'd been expecting a hundred or so runners and had more than twice that! They were running out of tshirts by a quarter to ten.)

Not wanting to injure myself or wear myself out quickly, I set myself up towards the middle of the pack at the start. I told myself I'd run the first mile in 10 minutes, and pick up my speed for the last four. I was hoping to finish somewhere between 45 and 50 minutes (a 9- to 10-minute per mile pace, for those of you who suck at math). Admittedly, that was hard to stick to during the first mile--I had to fight the "urge to surge" (as in ahead) and burn up all my energy. That's been my cheif problem with all my races, and one of my goals this year is to get over it.

Cold as it had been before the race, once it started I warmed right up. Not only was my heart pumping at a good clip, but the sun had risen above some early morning clouds and was doing a pretty good job of bringing the temps up to somewhere in the mid-to-upper 30s (which only someone from Colorado could consider "warmish," I suppose).

The first half of the run was on the main road in the Reservoir, which meant that apart from a very few icy patches which I was able to avoid, it was completely dry. At the halfway point the course turned onto the trail, which wasn't quite as clean. The snowpack and icy patches (particularly along a narrow bridge in the third mile) made the back half slightly slower than the front. Even the finishing area was slightly icy, which called for some caution approaching the line. But for all of that I had a good finishing kick, and came in just under 48 minutes.

Special props go to my Dad, who braved the early morning chill to come out, hang out with me at the start, cheer for me at the finish, take some pictures, and buy me breakfast afterwards!