Reindeer Run Race Report

Or, “I Got Third! No...Not in the Race...”

Or, “Good Day For a Run in a Blizzard.”

First of all, thanks for all the comments and notes about Pharmie’s and Steph’s stolen cars. Pharmie’s car is being fixed, and there’s still no word on Steph’s car – it may just be gone for good. Pharmie is a little bummed, and Steph is coming to terms with the fact that she may not see her car again. Losing a car is no fun matter, but overall, the 3 of us know that things could be MUCH worse. We live a pretty good life.

On to the race report...

Last night, I had my typical pre-race crappy meal. It wasn’t that bad for me. I just ate too much. I made a HUGE quesadilla that was filled with oniony, garlicy, beany, sausagey, corny, and cheesey goodness. Then I polished off a half bag of beef jerky. Yummers.

I headed off to the Reindeer Run 5K early this morning. It was 17 degrees, with a lot of wind. They were saying that we were going to be getting A LOT of snow today, but there was no sign of that this morning. Matt was kind enough to lend me his car, as I was the only one home and we are suddenly running short on vehicles. Here’s Lake Harriet as I got out of the car:

I was dressed to impress. Allow me to show you a few photos of what I wore, as well as predict what you are currently thinking:

“Oh, that’s funny.
I mean, you’ve done better, but it’s still good.”


“Oh my God, is that...
no, it can’t be...did he really?...”


“OH MY GOD!! He f*cking did it!!
I don’t believe it! He f*cking did it!!”

Yep, I’m pretty proud of this one. It was actually (get this!) suggested to me by my Mother-In-Law! It was her idea! She’s come to terms with how random and strange I can be, and now she embraces it. She makes AWESOME quilts out of old blue jeans, and those “shorts” were leftovers from cutting up a pair of jeans. She gave them to me, hoping that I would wear them in a race.

At the individual costume competition before the race, I placed 3rd! People thought my outfit was funny, and then I’d turn around and show them the bum. THEN they’d REALLY laugh! This is the guy who came in first:

If his costume and my costume got together, they would
make the SWEETEST and most hilarious costume babies

Because I got third, I was given these sweet Reindeer Run mittens:

The announcer didn’t know what to call me. He kept referring to my “jeans thong.” I told him that my costume was “a married guy who’s wife is out of town and he couldn’t dress himself.” The women in the group liked that description.

Oh, I liked this group, who dressed like “Mario Carts:”

After the costume competition, I ran into Jumper. We were just able to say hi, because he was off to find his family, and I was off to drop off my jacket and pants in Matts car. Jumper, as they say, sure is a tall drink of water! I dropped off my excess clothes, and got to the starting line. This is what it looked like:

People EVERYWHERE!!

I was near the front of the pack, a few rows back. I was chatting it up with a few people who were asking about my costume. Then we were off. It had started snowing about 30 minutes before, and the course was packed with about a half inch of snow. We now couldn’t even see across the little lake that we were running around because of the falling and blowing snow:

It was a little slick – it wasn’t slippery, it was just hard to get traction on the push-off of each stride. I knew my time wouldn’t be spectacular, but I was hoping that it wouldn’t be my slowest 5K of the year.

Well, it WAS my slowest 5K of the year. Yep, I ran a PW. I finished in 19:34. That was a few seconds slower than the Monster Dash 5K that I ran on the same course in the same suspenders, undies, and socks. Oh well. I figured that I finished around 20th overall, which was a little better than I figured I could do. As I was running down the chute, the announcer said, “Here comes the guy in the thong again! That’s gross! I’m just kidding...” For what it’s worth, I was the fastest costumed runner. Here’s a quick photo from right after I finished:

I stuck around a little bit, cheered for a few more finishers, and then headed back to the car, which was along the race route. I snapped a photo as I was nearing my car, which shows the mass of people still running. These would be about 30- to 40-minute finishers:

I drove back home. The weather was sucking:

My day wasn’t done yet. I had to get Matt’s car back to him. I drove to his place, thanked him and gave him his keys, and took off on foot for a “cool down” run back home (about 3 miles). It was getting windier and snowier. Here’s the scene as I was getting home on that run:

I got in the house, looking like this:

I was a little chilly, but pretty happy with my snowy run. There was about 2 inches of snow out there, and some swirling winds, but I was just fine. What a great day for a Minnesotan run!

p.s. I would have posted a little sooner, but I was wrapped up in the Ironman Kona coverage on NBC. It was sweet! It makes me want to do it again...