Winter Carnival 10.25K Race Report

Well, the race ended up shortened. We got an email from the race directors on Friday evening stating that due to the cold, we would be running a half-half marathon instead of a half marathon. I was briefly bummed, but even though we would be staying warm during the race, the volunteers really didn't need to be out there for 2.5 hours. On race morning, I was actually relieved that they cut it short.

Steve, Borsch, and I left our house around 7:30. We got to downtown St. Paul and ran to the registration building. We all got a chuckle at the "race day registration" table. It was -11 F with a who knows how low wind chill. I'm not sure I would have run if we hadn't pre-registered :)

After picking up our numbers, we met up with some fellow Twin Cities bloggers - Borsch, Baddapple, Bad's Son, Jen, Jeremy, Me, and Steve

I was freezing just sitting in the building. The total clothing count was: 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants, a tank top, my sport's bra, a turtleneck, a thick zip-up turtleneck, my super-heater fleece running jacket, 2 hats, and two pairs of mittens. I wasn't sure how my dress was going to fare once we started running.

Even a trip to the porta potty was chilly. To be honest, I was a little worried that my butt was going to freeze to the seat!

Walking to the very empty line of potties

We went out to line up for the 9 AM start, and there were actually more runners out there than I had anticipated. All in all, around 670 runners lined up for the long course, about half as many as last year. The horn sounded, and we were off!

At first, my toes were numb and so were my fingers and thighs. I had a lot of trouble gauging my pace. I was hoping to hit around 9s, but with the really cold weather and extra 10 pounds or so of clothes, I had no idea where I was at. Plus, all of those tight tops around my chest felt like a box of Saran Wrap!

I hit the lap at mile 1 - 8:55. A little fast, but I was feeling OK
I missed mile 2 - mile 2 + 3 - 18:28. Slowing down a bit, but I could already see the turn around
I also missed the 4 mile marker - 18:15. At this point, I was pretty toasty and had to take off my 2nd hat, 2nd pair of mittens, and outside jacket. I was working hard and heating up. The wind was at my back, too, so I had warmed up quite a bit.
I crossed the finish line in 57:38 for a 9:03 average. Not terrible given the conditions. Here's a pic of the frosty finish:

Running into the finish

See all of the frosties on my clothes? That's wicking at it's finest!

Overall, it was actually kind of fun in a crazy Minnesotan way. It was great to meet up with some fellow bloggers, and there was a coffee stop on the way home!