race: frozen 4 mile run, 1/17/15
finish time: 36:27 / 9:07 min/mile pace; official results here
location: ephram white park, bowling green, ky
weather: 40*/breezy/sunny – really great race conditions!
gear: brooks pureconnect 3, lululemon mesh speed tights, lululemon swiftly tech long sleeve scoop shirt, nike feather light visor, jaybird bluebuds x wireless headphones and “30 minutes” playlist
swag: a nice fleece sweatshirt for participating and a mug with hot chocolate for AG award

this is my 3rd time doing the frozen 4 mile run. i knew going in to the race it was going to be tough because the course is a 2 mile gravel loop with big fat rocks and lots of divots. it isn’t fine, smooth and packed.

i woke up around 6:45 to eat blueberry belvita biscuits and some coffee. jenny picked me up at 7:30 so we could get to the start in plenty of time for her to register and run a 2 mile warmup. i wasn’t sure what to wear, so i packed a variety in case the warmup proved i’d made the wrong choice with tights and a long sleeved shirt. turns out i only needed to ditch the ear warmers and gloves.

after we warmed up we had about 10 minutes until the 9:00am start time. we took one last trip to the bathroom and i ate 1.5 clif shot bloks. i had caffeinated nuun in my handheld water bottle to keep me going along the course. once we saw people lining up we headed down to the start.

jenny’s training plan dictated 4 x 1 mile repeats @ 8:56 with 1 minute recoveries, so i let her set the pace and kept close to her.

the first loop felt good, but we definitely had to bob, weave and dart around people. i was also struggling to find my playlist. i had created the most awesome playlist and of course selected the wrong one at the start! jenny finally pulled her phone out around mile 2 and i thought it would be a good time for me to do the same since we would both be slowing down. i got it playing, but for some reason it played in shuffle mode, and that was not cool. oh well, i just let it be.

the second loop was definitely when i was just praying for it to be over. my calves and thighs were burning from the uneven surface and i kept tripping in the divots because my form was getting really sloppy. i was really hoping that jenny would turn and say, “let’s walk the next recovery”, but she didn’t haha. it was for the best, because it made me push through the pain. i know for sure i was making some horrific breathing noises during the last tenth of a mile. i could hear myself over my music–how embarrassing! we didn’t have much of a kick left, but we still finished strong.

so trax does not use a chip timing system yet. they just use the numbering system and a stopwatch. that means everyone gets the same start time no matter where they are in the pack. even though the official results are 16 seconds slower than last year, i would like to think that i met my goal of finishing faster than last year given that my garmin pace was much faster. of course, i added about a tenth of a mile to the race somewhere, because i will never learn how to run tangents–even on a gravel trail! garmin says we did an 8:56 pace for 4 miles, which is 35:44, so i’m quite content checking that goal off my list 🙂 our splits from the garmin were: 8:46, 8:58, 9:02, 8:56, 0:49 (.09). i also managed to not shit my pants or get hurt. what a great race!

we grabbed some water and chocolate milk and then started our 1 mile cooldown. after that we waited for awards since i was pretty certain we had placed. jenny and i came in 2nd and 3rd in our age group, respectively, and each got mugs with hot chocolate in them.

the only thing i would change about this race is move it to a different course 😉 i know that’s not fair, and i need to strengthen my skills on different surfaces. overall i am pleased with the performance, and eager to do it again next year! gotta work on those tangents though…