As we took off in this crazy cold race, I was at the front of the pack. We made our first turn in the parking lot and the first 3 or 4 guys went down on the ice. They popped back up and kept on trucking though. There was no way to get your full speed stride going, without risking falling down. Wearing track spikes would have helped I guess. Breathing was a problem because of the cold and I was coughing a great deal the first 2 miles. Most of the first mile was on a snow cleared path that was just one person wide, so passing was a problem unless you wanted to go in 4 or more inches of snow, which most people didn't. I stayed in 4th position, trading into 3rd after the first mile, then back to 4th, until there was a place to pass easily. My first mile split was 6:22, which is about 40 seconds slower than normal for me on this distance, but since I was in a good overall position, I figured I must be doing ok. Before the turn around, I passed a guy to take 3rd place. I was feeling really good and hoped I could hold on. At the turn, I was able to see about 4 or 5 guys only about 20 yards behind me, so I didn't have this in the bag quite yet. The number 1 and 2 guy were so far ahead, I couldn't even see them, so I was no competition to threat to them. I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder until there was a sharp turn at about 2.7. I didn't see anyone for over 70 yards back at least. I don't know if I slowed down or they sped up, but when I jumped off the path and back to the road at about the 3 mile mark, a group of 3 or 4 were only 15 or 20 yards back. CRAP! So, when I hit the roadway, I shot off, knowing that I had plenty of speed left in me as long as I didn't fall on my ass. I pushed to the end, and apparently so did they, since the #4 guy was only 6 seconds behind me! YIKES! I felt great about my place, but unhappy about my time, while still knowing it was mostly the weather conditions to blame....Silly me wanted to see what I could do a 5K in, but this was NOT the race to find THAT out. What I was VERY happy about was that Mary and I got to do this race together, which rarely happens since having kids. Hopefully, now that they are getting a tad older, we can correct that issue.

I can't imagine going much faster than I did with the weather like this. It was almost painfully cold.

Blast my inhaler so I didn't end up in the hospital, walk around, watch my Mary finish, put warm dry cloths on, find Starbucks.


Ice
Snow


As my wife is fond of saying, "It is what it is."