I’m not sure why they call these races the Freezeroo Series, so far the weather has been fantastic. 45 and sunny on January 1st? Yes please. Roadkill Racing had a small showing at this race, only Jeff and I were in town or up for running on New Year’s Day (I’m looking at you Rob and Ryan!) This is the largest and generally the most competitive of the Freezeroo races so going in I was only concerned with beating Jeff so I could move up in the series standings, but toeing the line I noticed past winners like Mark Andrews and Ryan Pauling were absent and thoughts of overall victory began stirring.
Jeff and I got out to an early lead. A down hill first mile and steady tailwind pushed us to a very easy feeling 5:20. By mile 2 we had turned into the wind, and started on what was to be a series of hills which continued for the duration of the race. We took turns leading which I thought was smart teammate cooperation, but which Jeff later informed me was a series of him trying to surge away from me and failing. Although the course is rather hilly, it is an enjoyable route to run. There are very few cars and the hills help breakup some fairly long straight stretches of road.
By mile 3 we were well into the groups of earlier starters, and had been pushing into the wind for 2 miles. My Garmin battery died just past mile 2 (turns out you have to plug the ac adapter into the wall) but they were giving splits at the odd mile marks and we came through the 3rd mile in 16:50. My goal was to run 5:40 so I was feeling hopeful at this point. Jeff and I were still running together and had opened a pretty big lead already as you can see from this picture taken just before mile 4.
We pressed on to mile 5 still running together but the hills were beginning to take a toll on me. Our pace had dropped to 5:45 by mile 5 but the bulk of the uphills were passed and we got our tailwind back for the final 2 miles. At some point between mile 5 and 6 Jeff made a very strong surge and over the course of maybe 600 meters took a huge lead on me. Looking back I’m not really sure how I let him get so far ahead so quickly, but it was a gap I was never able to close. We stayed about 15 seconds apart for last 1 and half or so of the race and finished in 1st and 2nd. It was another impressive finish for team Roadkill who is now 2 for 2 at the Freezeroo. It is actually Jeff who is 2 for 2, but since he is such a team first guy we are claiming the win in the name of Roadkill Racing.
Full Results Here