The Short:
I busted the rust in the coldest conditions I've ever raced in at the aptly named Cabin Fever Reliever 20k on 2/12/22! When I saw the race morning wind chill of 5 degrees (19 degree air temperature with a 16 mph wind), my race goal changed from "beat last year's time" to ".........???" I was able to win overall female (not easy because my training partner Casey was also in the race), and set a new Missouri state record for the 20k for age 41. I ended up about 20 seconds off my 2021 time, but with a faster average pace on my Garmin on the new course - more on that below. My running group completely dominated the event! In the 20k we had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall males (Brad, Colin, Toby, and Spencer respectively, with Toby taking 1st masters male), 1st and 2nd overall females (me and Casey), and 1st masters female (Amy, as they took me out of masters). In the 10k we had 1st and 2nd overall females (Sierra and Christian), and in the 5k 1st overall female (Sarah)! Brad, Toby, Casey, and I all broke single age state records.
Results are here.
My Strava activity is here.
A video of me finishing is here.
20k state records are here.
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| Most of the Miles from Mentor 20k-ers |
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| Race wind chill = not a PR I want to improve upon |
Much like last year, I was really excited for this race to kick off a new season! I like this event as a rust-buster, because it's low-key and very close to home. It was more competitive than usual this year, since most of my Miles from Mentor running group members ran one of the races. It was a good thing I was so pumped about the race, and that I signed up a week in advance when I the forecast said 35, because I'm not sure I ever really wanted to race in a 5 degree wind chill! Luckily, we'd had one workout in a 7 degree wind chill in January that had gone better than I'd expected, so I focused on that. I didn't taper for this race, but it fell during a cut-back week, so I had 89 miles on my rolling 7 instead of 100+.
With so many friends at the race, it was laid back and really just felt like a workout. We warmed up together, lamented about the weather and especially the brutal wind, and hoped for the best. I ran 2.8 miles total before the race, including strides.
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| Pre-race group shot! |
Spencer and I have been running workouts together and hoped to work together in the race. Casey planned to try to stay with us for as long as she could, and Sarah wanted to run about our pace for her 5k so went out with us as well. We ended up having us 4 plus a super talented late-50's local runner named Matt and another man we know named Kevin together for the first mile or so, then Spencer, Matt, and I unintentionally gapped the other 3. I could tell Spencer felt really good and I hoped I could hang onto him. The effort level felt a little too spicy, but I kept telling myself "stay with him, it will be exponentially harder alone", which is what I tell myself every time Spencer is pushing workouts and I don't want to let him gap me, and which usually works! We dropped Matt around the 5k point, and I basically just hung onto Spencer until between miles 5-6. I wanted to help him, but I didn't have it in me to do so. The 20k did the 10k course twice, so we ran through the finish line then did a hairpin turn to go back onto the course. As usual I hadn't looked at my watch, but I saw the 10k clock at 39-mid and hoped I could even split for a high-1:18.
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| Our early group about 0.25 in |
The course changed from previous years, in good ways (a little less hilly) and bad (7 hairpin turns). The upside of all of the out-and-backs was that they split up the brutal wind. Navigating a hairpin turn kills your momentum and for me is mentally tough though. We also all thought they had the turn around that we went through 4 times out too far. Garmins aren't perfect, but everyone's read about 12.6, whereas last year's course read a little short for everyone, and anytime the turn around is marked by a Gatorade bottle in the middle of the road you kind of have to wonder... (if I did average 6 seconds/mile faster this year in much worse weather, I'm stoked)
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| 2022 |
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| 2021 |
After Spencer gapped me between miles 5-6, I was in no-man's land the rest of the race. Matt was next behind me, and Casey was after him, but I knew from the hairpin turns that I had a pretty safe lead. I had a lot of ups and downs with how I felt during this race. One minute it would be "I'm doing this, I'm strong!" then the next, "Are my legs going to hold up/this hill is terrible/this wind is killing me/just get in". The cold and wind got to me a bit on the second tour of the route. With this being a local race put on by my running club, Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners, I knew a lot of people on the route who were super kind in their cheering, which really helped. The OMRR President was at a spot we passed 8 times, and almost every time he yelled, "There's our hall of famer, Sara!" Seeing a lot of other runners everywhere on the course that was also open to traffic was a little bit of a cluster, but it was also really encouraging.
Every time I heard my watch beep during the second half, I counted down a mile..."okay, just 5 miles left...okay, 4 mile tempo...okay, 3 miles, you can do this...2 miles, bring it home...1 mile, kick!" and used all of the mind games I could. I think I should have taken a gel, because you burn more glycogen when it's that cold, but I couldn't fathom taking off my mittens to open one so hadn't carried one - this ended up being ironic because I tossed my mittens at the halfway turn around because they were too hot (though I did regret that when I went back into the headwind!).
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| Parking lot finish |
The last mile seemed to go on forever, plus it had a couple of hills that didn't play nice, but when I finally got within view of the finishing clock I could see it was on 1:19 and I wasn't sure if I could make it in under. I didn't - I finished in 1:20:08, so I positive split the thing - a reminder that I should have listened to my body instead of staying with Spencer! I don't run as fast when it's this cold (no one does, because physiology), but it doesn't hurt me as much as heat I don't think! The announcers gave me a hilarious shout-out as I came in (including, "Looking hot. Coming in hot!"), and one of my running buddies who was spectating caught it on video.
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| When race spectators have to wear parkas... |
After the race, I went out for 5 more miles for 20 on the day with Spencer and Colin - actually 20.3 total. I kind of felt like I ran the cool down in a dream state and in slow motion, and I could not get in grilled cheese and soup fast enough in the post-race area!
I was really proud of our Miles from Mentor group! Everyone ran their hearts out in brutal weather, and we had so much fun out there! Several of the athletes I coach in the group PRed (Colin, Spencer, and Casey). Races are wonderful, wins are a blessing, and competing is a gift - but the best part is that every day I get to do something I love with some of the best people I know! I'll race again soon, but tomorrow I get to run more miles and that is amazing.
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| Cute trophy on adorable hoodie |
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| This is pretty normal for this area but not the easiest racing terrain |
