Half Marathon; no, Quarter Marathon; no, 10K; no 10.25K Race Report! Whew!

We found out the day before the race that the Winter Carnival Half Marathon was going to be shortened to a Quarter Marathon because of the cold. Regardless, we were ready to go.

I sat down in the living room with all the clothes I as going to race in. I weighed myself before and after - the difference was nearly 5 pounds of fabric!

Borsch showed up to take Pharmie and I to the race, and we were off. When we got downtown, we saw a sign that said the air temp was 12 below with a wind chill of about 20-25 below. Sweet. We got out of Borsch's car, and Pharmie started adding more layers:

We got inside and went to get our race packets. Here's Pharmie and Borsch riding up the escalator. (One thing to note in this photo is how there's hardly anyone in the background - last year, the place was packed at this time. We knew that some people had stayed in bed on a cold, cold day like this.)

We started to hear them saying that the Half Marathon was shorted to a 10K, not a Quarter Marathon. "Whatever," we thought - it's all about the same.

We got our stuff, and then ran into Jeremy. Shortly after, Jen showed up. We all duct taped our shoes with the tape I brought along. Here's Jen taping her shoes:

The duct tape helps seal the heat in your shoes - when you tape over the mesh top of your shoes, your toes will stay warmer in cold conditions. Here's 4 of us with tape over our feet:

We had to make a couple of porta-potty runs, but that was no problem, because there was NO LINE! Here's Pharmie headed to the potty. She was afraid that she was going to freeze to the seat (seriously, she was):

When I went, I just had to go #1, so I didn't have to sit down. I was pretty amused at the amount of steam coming off my pee-stream. I contemplated taking a photo. I didn't. (Yes, I took my camera into the porta-potty incase a photo moment arose.)

So, here's the whole bloggy gang getting ready to run:

From left to right, that's Borsch, BaddApple, and Badd's son: these 3 were running the 5K. Then it's Jen, Jeremy, Pharmie, and I, who were all doing the 10K.

Pharmie put on a few more layers as we were getting ready to run outside to the start, and we grabbed one more photo:

So us "10K-ers" ran out into the cold. I kissed Pharmie and wished her luck. (I didn't kiss Jeremy and Jen.) I hopped in line near the front. Here's people bundled up getting ready to run:

Check out all the steam coming off these people:

Before we knew it, someone came on the loud-speaker, and said "Everybody on their marks... GO! We were off! We ran a few blocks before headed down a steep hill. Here's the race map and elevation chart:

Check out that downhill in the first half-mile! Then the course is mostly gentle rollers. After that downhill, we turned to run along the river. It was a true out-and-back course. When I rounded that corner, I realized I was running in 5th place. That was a problem. I'm not that fast. I felt just fine, but I knew I must be going too hard.

Mile 1: 5:56. "Yep, too hard! Slow it up, Steve." Over the next half mile, I dropped back to about 25th. I could already see little ice crystals forming on my upper cheek just below my eye. So I grabbed my camera and took a photo of me huffing and puffing:

Smith Street High-Bridge in the background

I had trouble turning my camera off because of the 2 layers I was wearing over my hands, and I accidently took another photo without knowing it. It might just be the most horrible photo of me ever:

I haven't asked Pharmie, but I HOPE this isn't my "O Face." Lucky girl.

Mile 2: 6:29. "Better pace."
Mile 3: 6:38. "Umm, that's getting a little too slow." My legs were fine. I was warm enough. But the biggest thing I noticed was that my breathing was REALLY forced - the cold air was not going in and out as easy as "normal" air. I was hurting.

Turn around: 20:23. (Later, we were told that it was officially a 10.25K, so that's my 5.125K split.)

After turning around, we turned back WITH the wind. So we all got a little warmer. I saw Jen first: "Go Jen." Then Jeremy: "Alright Jeremy." Then Pharmie: "Go Hun!" I really didn't think I'd see all 3 of them - we all look the same when we're bundled up so much.

Nearing mile 4, I grabbed the camera again. I was REALLY hurting. I took another HORRIBLE photo of me working way too hard:

Notice the ice up my nose

That photo shows the peak of ice on my stubble. After running with the wind for another 2 miles, I warmed up a little and some of it melted off. If you don't run in the cold, you might not know this, but that ice on my face DOESN'T mean I'm cold. I was about the right temperature throughout the entire race. That ice is just condensation freezing on hair. No biggie. If you're from somewhere cold, you totally know what I'm talking about.

Right around mile 4, I started tasting blood. I wiped my face on my sleeve, and there was blood. Damn. The cold, dry air made me get a bloody nose. What could I do? I just powered through. I missed the "mile 4 marker," so here are my splits at mile 5:

Mile 4 and 5: 12:35
(6:17.5 average for those 2 miles)

From mile 4 through the finish, I REALLY wanted to stop and walk. I was hurting. I had gone out too hard, and I was paying the price. The bloody nose was making me feel a little weird too. "Steve, you're just looking for an excuse to walk. The bloody nose isn't that bad. Get over it. Keep running!" OK, internal thoughts, you're right.

Once I hit the base of that final killer hill, I knew I wouldn't have to walk. I knew I was around 20th place, and there were 2 guys just in front of me. I passed one of them up the hill, and caught the other one on the final 2 blocks to the finish.

Mile 6 and last 0.3ish: 8:31

Official Time: 40:10 for a 10.25K
Pace: 6:19/mile
Place: 18 out of 670
Age Group: 6 out of 43

I got through the finishers chute, and I snapped this great photo that I showed in the last post:

I cheered for other runners. After a few minutes, Borsch came running by as he was finishing his 5K:

Then Jen finished her 10K. She wins the "least epic finishers photo" of the day. Sorry Jen:

Then Jeremy came in:

Finally, Pharmie came in:

We all ran inside to warm up. After standing around for a while, Jen started quivering so bad! We all split up and headed home. I started documenting the blood that I got all over myself during the race.

Blood on my sleeve


Lower down my sleeve


On my pants


On my gloves

Despite temps of about 10 below with a wind chill of about 20-25 below, we all still had a great time!! Back in a few days with official race photos (they said they were out there, but I didn't see any photographers standing around in that crazy cold... we'll see...).

In the meantime, swing by the other runners blog's to see what they have to say: Borsch, BaddApple, Jen, Jeremy, and my cutie Pharmie.

Happy Monday!