Frosty 5k, The Name Says it All

I woke up New Years Eve to 65º temps.  I woke up New Years Day to 10º temps.  What's going on here?  Maybe being in Houston the first morning and Wichita the next would explain it.  I enjoyed a little family vacation (and some running) in the Space City for the holidays, but had to cut it a bit short to return in time for the New Year's Day Frosty 5k in Wichita.

Before I go into the race details, I'd like to mention a song that I've gotten into lately that has a running theme titled, "I Just Wanna Run".  I think it has a good beat to workout to, and it makes me 'wanna run'.  If you like Top 40 Pop/Rock type songs, you might want to download this one to your mp3 player.



My highlight of the race was getting to met Fair Weather Runner for the first time.  She also introduced me to a few of her running cohorts, one of whom ran the race in a pair of Vibram 5 Finger shoes and gave me a dissertation on them since I am interested in trying a pair out for myself.  Not sure how he evaded frostbite.

Fair Weather Runner and I Post Race

Now, onto the race...  Despite the 20º temps, I wasn't very cold waiting for the gun to go off due to the  obscene amount of clothing I was wearing: Two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, 3 shirts, gloves, etc.  My first mile was a 6:30 split, which was a PR pace, but that mile was mostly flat with some decline.  The next 2 miles had some slopes to run up, and sure enough they slowed me down.  No PR today.

Less than a mile from the finish I saw this preteen kid wearing a shirt that said, "I Busted Mine So That I Can Bust Yours". At this point in the race, I felt the only thing getting busted were my lungs, but for some reason that shirt hit my competitive nerve and I set my sights on passing that little boy, and took great satisfaction when I did.  However, I spent the rest of the race trying not to give into my body's desire to slow down while worrying that I would have to see the back of that kid's shirt again as he out kicked me at the finish.  Well, I'm happy to report that I ended up leaving him in my dust even though I'm sure as soon as he grows hair on his balls he'll be so much faster than me that the only way I'll know what shirt he's wearing is if I see it at the starting line.

I was just a bit disappointed to cross the finish line in 21:16, but my expectations were fairly low thanks to several variables not in my favor, so I'm not surprised that I didn't PR, but it was nice to take home a medal for 3rd place in my age group.

My Frosty 5k Stats
Overall Place	23/382
Age Group.	3/21
Finish Time	0:21:16
Average Pace	6:51
Average Heartrate	193
Ending Heartrate	207

Afterwards, there was a small chili feed.  I ran into quite a few friends including a fellow blogger and an awesome runner named Lacy, whom I barely know.  She mentioned that I inspired her.  I was a bit taken aback how I could inspire someone who is much more of an accomplished runner than me, so I asked her what she meant, figuring she read something profound in my blog.  Nope (I doubt she even reads my blog), turns out because I gave her some crap at the last race about not keeping her blog up to date, she is now inspired to be more prompt about her posts. Oh well, at least my kids still look up to me.


My next race might be a 4 miler on Super Bowl morning.  Until then, back to marathon training.