It wasn't until a little after 7AM that Deric texted me to let me know that him and Fil were on their way to the 8AM race. That's when I finally woke up and jumped out of bed still half asleep.
Fortunately, I had nothing ready so getting race ready in under 10 minutes got my heart rate to race pace. I ate the dogs and walked the breakfast, and was out the door by 7:40AM for the 2 mile jog to the start.
Hot damn it was cold out! The official reading at race time was 4 degrees, but I think it was closer to 3 degrees.
I got to the school at 7:55AM and the same large crowd from last week (88 finishers - another record!) was already there and ready to go.
I decided to go Yak Trax-less as the roads on the run in were pretty clear, so there was no need for extra traction. Unfortunately, in my rush out the door I just grabbed the sneakers with the Yak's already on them (pain in the ass to switch them), and those sneakers were my much maligned Nike Frees.
Matt Germaine was back so it was a battle for second place from the get go. I took off with a lead pack that included 4-5 Tewksbury High runners, Frank Georges, and John Rheaume.
Frank, John, and I slowly picked off a couple of the THS runners through the first mile, but the cold air was definitely impacting our pace with a 5:58 first mile for me. John pulled out ahead shortly after the first mile.
Frank and I ran together towards mile 2 and that's when I realized that my race was literally coming undone.
I told Frank that my shoelaces on the Frees were coming untied. Any other pair of sneakers and I would have been fine, but the Frees have absolutely no support above or below the ankle. The faster I ran, the faster they were going to come flying off of my feet.
Rex Ryan was salivating at the thought.
(Go! Pats!)
Why didn't I just stop and tie the laces? Well, it was 2 degrees out, I had on gardening gloves, my fingers were still frozen, and the Free's laces were made for Smurf fingers. Stopping, removing the gloves, bending down, controlling my breathing, tying the damn kid laces, and getting back into race mode would have been futile.
So the next most logical thing that popped into my oxygen deprived mind was to kick them off at the Mile 2 marker (6:09). No, I was not suffering from extreme hypothermia. Nothing else was coming off other than my pace.
I knew that the rest of the course was pretty clear of snow and ice based on my warm up run through this stretch 20 minutes earlier, so the footing was going to be fine. It was just a matter of how my feet were going to handle the cold.
My pace over the final mile dropped to 5:51 (fastest mile on the day), and I managed to pass John and one other runner with a half mile to go.
I crossed the finish 4th overall with a time of 18:44, and two holes on the bottom of my socks to show for my effort.
I quickly jumped into Coach Jim's car and hid out there to warm up, help with the timing, and to wait for Fil, Cullen, and Rex to return with my Frees so that I could trash them when I got home.
Completed my running day with a 3 x Catamount hill workout with Jeff and Melissa. Nice job guys!
Of course it wouldn't be a GLRR sponsored event if food wasn't involved. After all of the running I headed over for the main course, breakfast at The Deli King.
The best part about today? It was only 10AM and I was able to do all of this within a 2 mile radius of my apartment!
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