Race Review! Frosty's Frozen Five Mile

I look so serious.

LOVED this course!  I have done a couple other races from the Winter Distance Series in previous years when it was at Chatfield, and the change to Hudson Gardens was perfect. In addition, the weather was great at about 45 degrees and sunny, and all of the snow and ice had melted from the course.

There were over 500 finishers for the five-mile race and around 300 for the 10-mile. 

The morning started a little slow for me.  I woke up feeling a little under the weather, like a bad cold might be setting in (which, of course, it has today).  But I made my coffee, put on my running clothes, ate my peanut butter English muffin and hit the road.  As I was driving down there, I started panicking, thinking maybe I was wrong about the 9:15 start time I had in my head.  I peeked at my Blackberry (at a red light!) and realized I was wrong.  It started at 9.  I started hurrying, and then started giving into the negativity.  I wasn't feeling that well, I was now running late, and it was cold outside, plus, I had promised a friend that I would come to his Body Step teaching debut later that day, so I knew I had another workout yet to come.  Etc, etc, etc.  I seriously almost had myself talked out of going.  By the time I got there and was directed where to park, I was feeling kind of lame and ready to go back home.  The parking guy said, "Just drive past that loop, flip a u-turn, and then come back and park right here next to me"  I seriously almost kept driving.  As in, no u-turn, no parking right next to him, I just wanted to go back home and nurse my cold.  But I did make the u-turn, and I did park, and I did run the race.  And I loved every minute of it! 

I walked about half  to three-quarters of a mile out of the 5.  I was feeling kind of breathy, probably from being stuffed up and having a seriously sore throat.  I finished in 1:06.  Not a good time for me, but with walking some and not feeling so hot, I'll take it. 

The good things:
The weather, the course, and running PAIN FREE, thanks to the awesome girl who works at Runner's Roost in Lone Tree.  She sat with me for almost 45 minutes letting me try on every kind of insert they have until I found the right ones.  And those inserts rock! Also, the Winter Distance Series is super organized, but not huge.  They really have a good thing going with these races.

The bad things:
Really, I can't think of anything that was bad, except for my initial bad attitude and my sore throat.

Can't wait to do The Snowman Stampede 10 miler in February!  Next year, I want to do all three races.

And by the way, after doing this race, the Body Step class kicked my butt later.  But still, so glad I went to both.  Isn't it funny how when you are dreading working out, you always feel bad and regret throwing in the towel and skipping, but you NEVER end up regretting forcing yourself to do it?  I almost skipped this race, but by the time I was standing at the starting line waiting for the gun, I was in it and so glad I was there.  I love running!

Because I am doing Run for the Bling of It, I am supposed to show my race bling. There wasn't a medal for this race, but we got a cool long-sleeved t-shirt with this logo:
I wore it with pride to Body Step and sweated all over it.