Photos from the Polar Dash (Pharmie's first 10K!)

Yep, it's true: the Team Ortho Polar Dash was Pharmie's FIRST 10K! She's done 12 marathons, 9 half Ironmans, and 2 full Ironmans, but NEVER a stand-alone 10K! And she picked a DARN cold day to do it!

(Oh, and if you want to see more photos, CLICK HERE to read my Examiner article about the race and flip through the slideshow.)

The start was just under 2 miles away, so we planned on just jogging down there. We ran along the river to the start, and gathered among the masses in the parking ramp, near the "warming tent" and porta-potty line:

Pre-race Sharkies


Frozen faces

We went out to the start just a few minutes before 11 am (race time). Here's the mass of 1,800 people heading up to the starting line:

Jenny and Guy starting out


Debbie and Beth just 200 feet into the race


Pharmie running towards me!


Pharmie smiling (you can still tell she's smiling under all of that!)


Pharmie (in the middle) running out of MPLS towards St. Paul


Shirtless dude

I cheered the 5K runners to the finish. (There was a 5K and 10K going on at the same time.) I watched Kristy take the win in the 5K by MAJORLY outkicking this girl in the black:

Kristy in the yellow, ready to kick some butt!

Shortly after that, my camera battery was so frozen that even though it had a full charge an hour before, it was now DEAD. I put it under my coat to warm it up and hoped that it would have a few shots in it by the time Pharmie was going to be finishing the 10K!

I cheered on all the runners, and then started to slow down cheering because my fingers were starting to freeze. I cheered on Jennifer V, Steve H (swimming buddy), Guy and Jenny, Beth and her friend Debbie, and then saw Pharmie coming in the distance!! She was smiling big as she was nearing the finish line:

YAY PHARMIE!!

I ran after her through the finisher's chute, she grabbed a cup of hot cocoa, and we started our jog home. We got home and I grabbed a different camera to snap a shot of my frozen wife and her medal:

Then she made HOMEMADE hot cocoa, grabbed the new Runner's World along with our cat Ella, and warmed herself by the fire:

Fun way spend New Year's Day!

To see more photos from the race, CLICK HERE to go to my Examiner article.

Back with my report from my first indoor 5000 meter race tomorrow! (25 laps, baby!) Happy New Year, everyone!!