19°F, 87% humidity, winds calm. It is freakishly cold today. Did I mention it is really cold today. Oh and one other thing. It's incredibly cold today. This was a tough race. Besides that it was very very cold, the trail was very hill, windy (and by that I mean that there were a lot of turns, not that the wind was blowing), rocky in spots (sort-of flat, slick rocks), and was covered with a light dusting of snow. And there was a little creek that I had to jump over twice. It was quite slippery and I very nearly fell down several times. I really did fall down once, in the 7th mile, just as I was approaching an aid station. More on that later. There were really not a whole lot of people at this race. I guess the smart people saw how cold it was and stayed home. It was funny at the start line. No one seemed to want to line up at the front. There was a handful of people at the front and then a gap and then everyone else. But we did close in the gap right before the race started. Because of the small crowd, people spread out pretty quickly right at the beginning of the race. I passed a couple of people in the first mile and then every one was pretty much set in their position. In about the second or third mile, I could hear a guy behind me but there wasn't room for him to pass me because we were on single track and we had just done a little loop and were passing runners going the other way who hadn't done the loop yet. We got to a place that was a little bit wider, so I moved over and let him pass me. He thanked me. I'll now call him blue jacket guy. I then decided to keep blue jacket guy within sight because it was pretty lonely on the trail and I was a little worried about getting lost. I stayed behind him for a few miles and noticed how he put his arms out on the turns and I figured he was a more experienced trail runner than I am, so I tried to emulate him. After a couple of miles, we caught up with a guy that I will call black jacket guy who then fell into step with us. For a couple of miles, blue jacket guy was in front, then black jacket guy, and then me. I just tried to stay up with them. After some time, black jacket guy went in front, so then it was black jacket guy, then blue jacket guy, and then me. That went on for quite a while. I was sticking with them pretty well, but then it must have been in the 7th mile, I was going up a little hill around a curve approaching an aid station, and I fell. It wasn't a bad fall. My legs slid to the right and I fell on my left side. I was able to get back up easily. There were three women at the aid station and they saw me fall and asked if I was okay. I said I was fine, but I stopped at the aid station for a minute and drank a cup of gatorade and commented to the three women that I guessed I would give up trying to follow those two guys. So then I got going again and before too long, I was able to see those two guys again. We went around a loop and so we passed the aid station where I had fallen again. As I went past the second time, I yelled to the three women that I had almost caught the guys. I kept following the two guys, and in the last mile, I actually passed blue jacket guy, but I wasn't quite able to pass black jacket guy, so I finished between them. I talked to both of them after the race and thanked them for being my pacers. I think the course was a little short. My garmin only said 9.93, but maybe it was because of the short cuts I took. There were 2 or 3 places where you could go one of two ways over a short distance and one way was a little shorter than the other and there were no markings indicating which way you should go. In any case, my splits were 8:42, 8:58, 8:07, 8:09, 8:47, 8:08, 9:18 (the fall and the stop at the aid station), 8:59, 8:11, 7:23. I was cold during the race, but not too bad. When I really froze was waiting around afterwards for the awards ceremony, so I could get my little medal. But they don't do anything for 2nd place overall. I hope that we have a freakishly warm day for the half marathon next month. Did I mention that it was cold today? Oh, and instead of giving you a t-shirt, at this race you get a hooded sweatshirt. That comes in handy. I had brought a dry shirt and another sweatshirt with me to the race. So after the race, before the awards ceremony, I went out to my car and took off my wet shirts and put on the dry shirt, the sweatshirt from the race, and my other sweatshirt. However, I was obliged to keep the wet bra on because I could change that much in my car.
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