I wake up at about 5:45 in the morning, sort of. My brother sends me a text wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving and a brief description of his day. I wake up to wish him well and, since he is a meteorologist, ask him if today's weather conditions will really consist of 0° wind chill values. He tells me bluntly that I will freeze a certain couple parts of my anatomy off. Time to get up.
I do not have a lot of experience racing in cold weather, and no experience at all running in this kind of cold, so I am going to go heavy on the coldgear and de-layer if at some point it seems like I overdressed. Winter hat, alpaca headband, running gloves, old school balaclava, a face something that my son gave me, everything is going along for the ride.
A forty-minute drive sees my anxiety level increase dramatically. I am unsure of the course, I am unsure of my general fitness level, and I am unsure about how to deal with the cold effectively. Luckily, I arrive at the Seekonk YMCA a little early to get in a warm up and get the lay of the land. The first thing I notice is that none of the other runners seem to be overdressed for the cold. It seems like most have planned for a general cold, not a brutal cold. I am in and out of the bib pickup, and ready to try a warmup run.
I head out of the parking lot and go north on Arcade Ave., which is the course route. The first thing I notice is that I feel pretty good, unlike my warmup runs in Georgia. I end up doing about a kilometer at a quicker than expected 6:48. When finished, I am shocked to find that I am rather warm with the headband as a neck gaiter, so I ditch it in the car and head inside (with pretty much all the other runners) for some water and warmth.
After twenty minutes or so, the race is about to start. I don't really have that pre-race rush today, due to the conditions and fear of failure. At exactly 8 o'clock, the starting gun goes, and we head out the parking lot north on Arcade Ave. My pace is pretty good, just over 6:15km. I'm finding the cold bearable and the scenery kind of interesting. Houses of various age and architecture, Seekonk High School, and the Turner Reservoir. First turn at 2k, time at about 12:30.
We go right unto Newman Ave. After a short distance, the runner's split occurs, 5k to the right, 10k straight. While my pace is still holding steady, I think this is my first sign of mental weakness. The thought of "if you did the 5k, you would be about fifteen minutes away from the finish line and a nice warm room" dances around my head. The 10k'ers bear right onto Woodward Ave., which we will be on for the next 2k.
Woodward Ave. starts off looking a lot like Arcade Ave., but changes quickly into sporadic large houses, fields, and the occasional body of water. I put in splits of around 6:25k while jostling with other back of the packers and my thoughts, mostly of worst case scenarios. The director said that he would be patrolling the race course in case anyone did not think they could finish, while I did not think I was close to that point that fear was definitely on the mind.
We take a right on Prospect Street which is about at the 4.5k make, and my time is a somewhat respectable all things considered 29:08. Prospect Street is the most rural part of the course, nothing much to see except woods and farmland. I also notice some not very steep at all hills, which are now seeming like 10% grade. Halfway home at 5k I am at 31:26, which is still under 6:20. It is here that I start noticing that I am feeling very warm from the run. I start to strip off some of the headgear, but it does not help too much. Then at about 5.5k, I decided to take a walk break. It was short-lived but just enough to see anyone I was in sight of shoot away. I pick it up again after about thirty seconds, but I don't seem to have the same speed or intensity that I had before. I also decide to take off my gloves and store them in my pockets. Guess what fell out of my pockets? Guess who didn't notice?
We take a right onto Jacob Road for about .5k, then a sharp right unto Ledge Road. The Ledge Road turn is about 7k in, after splits of about 7.00 for the last two kilometers, my time is up to 46:05. There is a water station at the turn with young ladies shouting out things like "you're doing great" which makes me chuckle since I am clearly not doing great. I do find that Ledge Road is slightly downhill and a little bit more inhabited and developed, but by this point, all I want to do is finish. I have a pretty decent split at 8k (6:20), however, I choose to take another short walk break for a 7:04 split at 9k with a total time of just under an hour.
This brings us back to Newman Avenue and the homestretch. I am feeling much better since I am somewhat familiar with this part of the course, and it is looking like a "DNF" is not going to be next to my name. After some very slow and not too straight running, I turn into the YMCA parking lot at about 1:04:00. There is still a little ways to go, thru the parking lot and into an odd sort of narrow dirt pathway in the rear of the property. I am struck by the fact that there does not seem to be a finish line, or any kind of marker indicating a finish line. I just run through to the coral, while the time clock gets blown over, landing with a big thud. The volunteer at the end of the coral implores me to rip the tag off of the bib, which I don't fully comprehend due to my cold, fatigued state. She pulls it off herself (probably thinking I am some kind of an idiot) and I collect my medal. I am figuring my time to be just south of 1:06:00, and, woo-hoo, I am not in the last place.
Checking my phone to shut down the Wahoo, I am horrified to find that my iphone shut down due to the cold. My watch seems fine, however, and I am thrilled to find that my backup tech plan worked. I spend the next few minutes mulling around the warm gym, trying to get my phone to work and warming to human type level. I do manage to get it working again, just in time for me to beg one of my fellow runners to take a picture. The ensuing, obligatory facebook entry takes about two minutes to post.
I decide to take a post racecourse ride to see if I could locate my gloves, and to my surprise, I find both of them, nowhere near each other. I then treat myself to a Honeydew Donut Vanilla Chai, where I find the customer in front of me telling the cashier about the road race. I chime in, telling both of them this was my first race since the accident and how happy I was to finish. Bring on that application for the Peachtree 10k. I have a time. And I really don't care if you put me in group Y or Z.
The ride home was relaxing, and the nap I took upon was short but satisfying. I even got my stats to transfer to Strava, albeit taking quite a bit of effort. I also have great things to say about the race itself, nice course and well organized. It will be great to try it again, hopefully in better shape and a few degrees warmer.
STATS
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Time official
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1:05:17
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Time unofficial
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1:06:09
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Overall place
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55/65
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Overall age group place
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4/6
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Pace metric
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6:36 kilometer
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Pace imperial
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10:38 mile
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Strava Score
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196
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Best Kilometer
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6:13
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Best Mile
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10:12
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Average heartbeat per minute
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151 bpm
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