Frosty's Frozen Five Mile (Race Recap)

Saturday, January 17
Littleton, CO
Weather - Windy (but not terrible), warm

A has decided that she wants to run with me at least once a week. When I saw how nice the forecast was going to be, I gave A the choice to run a few trail miles with me, or to run the "flat and fast" Frosty's Frozen Five Miles. She chose to run the race since there would be a medal. There is also a ten mile run, which starts an hour and fifteen minutes after the five mile run, so I offered to watch H so L could run the ten miler.

We all headed down to Hudson Gardens in Littleton around 8:00. That would only give us an hour for the drive, parking and packet pick up. The drive took a little longer than expected. We had to park in the further lot and I didn't think we would have enough time to get back to the car before the race start. We got to the pick up about 15 minutes before the start (and still needed to use the bathroom). They were not able to locate A's registration, so we had to go to the "trouble table" to get her a bib. I was attaching shoe tags while in the bathroom line. We had less than 5 minutes to the start before snapping this picture and heading outside.

A has been running more than she did in preparation for her 10K, but we knew she would need to finish in about 70 minutes or less in order for us to grab H before L had to start HER run. We lined up towards the back. LOTS of people out on this gorgeous "winter" day.

The race advertised three aid stations - miles 1.25, the turnaround at mile 2.5 and 3.75 miles. A was keeping a pretty steady pace. Around a mile she said she was starting to get tired, but I convinced her to keep going until the aid station.

Only... there WAS no aid station. She managed to make it almost two miles until she needed to walk. She was thirsty and a bit mad that there was no water as advertised. It was sunnier and warmer than I expected. Other than everything being brown, does it even look like winter?

You can see the fasties on the other side of the river on their way back.

FINALLY, I could see the bridge where we were going to cross over. A was doing great. She was running at a substantially better pace than I expected. However, we still had a ways to go. A was starting to wilt a bit. The walk and Gatorade helped, and we did a "mostly run, walk some" plan for the back half of the course. Seriously, the sunniest sun EVER:

A struggled a bit during mile 3. At least the last aid station was there (which helped). Once we got to mile 4 she kept asking "are we close???" I never really know how to answer her. To ME, a mile is close. To her, it's pretty far. She had a lot of support of the ladies near us who kept telling her how great she was doing. When we finally got near the gardens she got excited. I asked her if she was going to smoke me at the finish (like she usually does - she has a FAST sprint). She said, "probably not, my legs are tired."

LIAR:

A had a goal to run under 80 minutes... and she SMOKED IT:

Official Time - 1:01:29
Overall Place - 537/679
Division Place - 53/82
Garmin Time - 1:01:31
Garmin Distance - 5.05 miles
Garmin Pace - 12:11 (!!!!!!!)
Mile 1 - 11:28
Mile 2 - 11:55
Mile 3 - 12:25
Mile 4 - 13:05
Mile 5 - 12:13
Mile 5.05 sprint - 8:08

Me and the kids hung out at the finish line eating cookies and drinking coffee (for me) and hot chocolate (for them). Then we watched the 10 mile finishers. L, of course, did a super speedy run and got a new 10 mile PR.

Thoughts:

• A did REALLY great. I think the first aid station not being there really messed with her head though. If we run this course again I'll remember to bring something - it's a psychological thing for her. (Her pace for the 10K was close to 15 minutes, so this was a substantial improvement. Maybe the "training" is not all a myth?)
• The course is SUPER flat. There were some small rollers, but at A's pace they didn't bother me.
• Shirts are ok (no picture, like usual).
• Love the medals - so cute!!
• Finish line food was great. Loved the cookies (there were also giant muffins) and then the coffee and hot chocolate was nice as well.
• Weather was PERFECT. Who can believe this was January??