Freezeroo #1: Don Curran Memorial 5K

I've never tried writing one of these race reports before, so we'll see how this goes.  This past Saturday was the first race of the Freezeroo Series, the Don Curran Memorial 5K.  This race was the final race in the series last year, but it was changed to the first race for this year.  Coming off of two lighter weeks of training, I was not sure what to expect.  I figured I would not be in PR shape even in ideal conditions, but I also didn't think that I lost all of my gains from the fall racing season.  As is usual before races, I couldn't sleep amazingly well, but enough, so I got up and got into school to get some work done before the 10AM race.  

I enjoy running and racing in the winter weather, and it's only been this year that I've gotten smarter about dressing well for races (yes, the slightly extra weight of more layers outweighs being lighter but freezing for the duration of the race).  Josh's report of the coldest Freezeroo race last year shows my previous, not-so-intelligent school of thought.  Saturday's race was roughly the same in terms of temperature, but the wind chill brought the real-feel to sub-zero.  This time, I caved and used a long-sleeved spandex shirt.  It'd have to be a little colder for me to break out the pants for a race.

The course itself is a pancake.  It starts on roads/parking lots for about half a mile, goes along a "bike path" for a quarter-mile, then returns to roads to the turn-around. Despite a fair number of turns, this course could be a pretty fast course...if run during the spring or fall.  Both this year and last year, the course had slush on the roads and snow on the bike path (I didn't realize it was actually a bike path until looking at the map after the race).  In addition, even though it wasn't snowing too hard yet, it was enough to keep the roads slick and slushy.  I won last year in 16:50 under less windy and warmer conditions than this year. 

I ran the warm-up with Dave Rappleyea and two of his athletes to preview the course, and it was about as messy as expected.   Getting ready to race, I found two other RoadKill teammates, Matt Roberts and Joe Williams, and we were pumped to kickoff the series (but mostly, it was freaking cold and we wanted to run).

The siren to start the race rang, and we were off into the slush.  Right from the start, it was a battle to gain speed and maintain traction simultaneously.  By the time we got to the bike path, Dave, Matt, and I had started to break away, and I took a slight lead.  Once we got out of the park, I looked for a less slushy part on the road to try to speed up, but these attempts were quickly thwarted.  The course traveled on the shoulder of a main road for about a quarter-mile before turning onto a sideroad.  The mile mark was along this stretch of main road; I was through the mile in about 5:30, with Dave and Matt fairly close behind. 

I thought that the second mile would be somewhat faster, seeing as though we were now on roads that had been plowed at some point.  However, the slush on the roads made things tricky, in addition to running into a headwind for about a third of a mile along the side road.  From the turn onto the sideroad, I could see the turnaround, but it was a battle to get there as quickly as possible.  The turnaround killed momentum before heading back the same way we came.  Dave and Matt were still about the same distance behind me.  I made it back to the two-mile mark (along the same stretch of main road as the mile mark) in about 10:55 (5:25 mile).  

At that point, I just wanted to be done, and the cold and slush were unrelenting. Weaving back through the park and parking lots, I was through the three-mile in about 16:50 and "sprinted" home to finish first in 17:25.  Dave and Matt both finished soon afterwards before a large gap to the next finisher. At that point, we ran a short cooldown before getting some hot post-race food and drink.

It's blurry because I'm fast. Or that's what I like to believe.

It was nice to see a great turnout (181 finishers) for a race on a day with such unfavorable conditions. On a normal day, the time would not be anything special (time-wise, the last time I ran a slower 5K, cross-country or otherwise, was the summer of 2010).  Saturday was not a normal day, though.  One misstep could have wrecked anyone's day/week, derailing future goals.  Overall, it was a solid effort and an enjoyable race. Fortunately, no twisted ankles for me.

Full results here. Thanks to Rochester Runner Pics for the photo!