Feel the (freezer) burn

When I lived in Rochester, NY I ran  in the Freezeroo Race Series every year. Seeing as they were run in Western New York during the winter they were often, as the name implies freezing cold. Nothing however, prepared me for the weather on January 1, 2018 in Londonderry, NH for the Millennium Mile Road Race. It was 9 degrees and sunny, which is doable, but the sustained winds of 15 mph gusting up to 35 mph made it feel like the flesh was burning off your skin. It is the only time I’ve ever finished a warm up colder than when I started. The only positive about the weather was the wind was kinda sorta at our backs, when it wasn’t trying to push us off the left side of the road. I ran this race last year when it was a balmy 35 degrees. It’s a silly race. 1000+ people line up at the top of a hill and race down it for 1 mile. The total elevation drop is 84 feet.

Last year I had no idea what to expect or what to make of my 4:33 finish. I knew it was faster than I could run on the track, but I came away thinking I didn’t not run it nearly hard enough and I left a lot on the hill. The second half of the race is basically an exercise in keeping your legs spinning under you as fast as you can. If you can avoid the urge to lean back and break, it is sort of hard to be tired by the end. My goal for this year was to be tired at the end, be the first masters runner (last year I was second by 2 seconds Casey Carroll ) and to break 4:30.

I only managed 1 out of my three goals. I was the first masters runner, and 13th overall, but I didn’t break 4:30 and I wasn’t tired at the end of the race. I finished in a lung searing 4:30.4, but even that wasn’t enough to make me feel truly tired like a mile race should. I must need to work on my downhill running technique, I’m not pushing off enough or something going down the hills.

This Sunday I’ll have a chance to see how a 4:30.4 down hill road mile in Arctic temperatures coverts to 65 degrees on an indoor track when I race at the GBTC Invitational. Anyone want to take a guess?

Results Here