Winter Distance Series - Frosty’s Frozen Races

Amy talking trash to Matt after her victory.

Amy and I continued our dedication to the “Winter” Distance Series this weekend at the Frosty Frozen Five race.  I say “Winter” because in true Colorado form it was a 60 degree day, kind of like the last race.

The race was a minute from starting.  Everyone’s on the line sizing each other up, judging their shot at the win.  My teammate Josh Merrick was there and fortunately, nasty runner that he is, he was running the 10 mile option.  Also there was my friend Matt Kempton, Ryan Borger (Riptide’s new soon to be pro triathlete), and the always competitive triathlete Tim Hola.  Just when everyone thought they had a chance to win and the gun was seconds from firing, a Kenyan athlete comes sauntering out of nowhere to the start.  “This guy will shake things up,” I thought.

Now I usually run a race strategy that I’ve crafted since my college running days of going out in a controlled manner and either holding pace or dropping it down slightly.  I decided recently that, although that may be the ideal way for me to race, I should really be prepared to race with a variety of tactics.  If I get off the bike down 30 seconds from a pack I want to be comfortable bridging up hard in the first two miles.

With this in mind I hit the mile in 5:08, tied for the lead with said Kenyan.  He looked mighty comfy and I asked him what race he was doing.  “Ten.”  “Phew, nice, Josh would have to deal with him,” I thought.  Now there was no way I was going to hold 5:08 pace but having this guy was a great opportunity for me to push early without blowing my chances of winning since I wasn’t even competing with him.  Getting towards the 2 mile I had to let him go, I wasn’t going to blow up but the pace was getting tough.  5:12 for that one and he pulled away, running even faster.

Nicely, by holding onto him, I had carved out a nice lead by this point and I held right around 5:20 for the rest of the race to run 26:33.  Matt finished up around a minute back in second.  He’s usually stronger at longer distances.  We’re going down to Austin this coming weekend for the Austin 3M Half Marathon and he should be strong over the 13.1.

A few minutes later Amy came cruising in for the win in the women’s 5 mile race.  Later came the triumphant Kenyan, Sammy Nyomungo, making me look like a chump by running 5 seconds faster per mile over twice the distance.  Impressive.  Josh took 2nd.

I’m very happy with my run fitness at this point.  I’ve focused so much on the swim the last few years that I’ve been a bit sloppy on my feet.  The last few weeks I’ve been getting in consistent tempo runs at just slower than theshold, just under 6:00 pace.  At that pace I can get some run strength while not tiring myself out for swims which are still the focus.  I’m feeling strong on the run though and hopefully next weekend I can run under 1:10:30 and get a PR at the half marathon.

Gulliver warming down with us post-race. Shockingly, he was disallowed from racing by event organizers. He'll be suing for damages, the free pair of shoes he surely would have won.

Celebrating with a coffee. Amy ponders life while Matt calculates what his 5 mile race pace would have been over 5.236 miles. Such a runner.