Snowman Shuffle

The Snowman Shuffle is a 4-mile race that is the third leg of the Polar Bear Grand Prix. The other two races consist of a 4k and a 5k. Today's race just happened to fall on the same day that I was to do a 9 mile training run with the Fleet Feet group, so I got out to Cherokee Park about an hour early to go ahead and get my 5 extra out of the way before the race. (That, and parking can be a bit of a nightmare if you get there too late, so it was a win-win for me). I hit the course and was keeping a pretty good pace throughout, even with the 6:1 intervals that I decided to do to ensure that I would have something left for the race. On the way back I looked down at the Garmin at what should have been the 3.8 mile mark to discover that it had somehow magically stopped working and was now back to the "real time" screen. Since I had wanted to make sure I got in the full five, and wanted to also couple this training run pace/mileage with the Snowman Shuffle, I was a bit pissed. I think I ended up doing a total of about 4.7 for the training run in 45:32 with splits of 9:56, 10:36, 10:31, 9:27 and 12:51 (this last bit of mileage ended with a recovery walk before the race). I was feeling pretty decent after the training run, and wasn't too worried about being able to complete the 4-miler, although I did expect that I may have to walk - especially with the few big hills. I downed a Gu and some water at the car as I grabbed my bib, met up with my running partner to walk to the start, and off we went. Lisa, the gal I had run the two previous races with, is a slow pace like me, but she tends to run throughout rather than do intervals - something that pushes me to continue to run on these shorter races. Because of the previous training run that morning, however, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up and fully expected to have to walk a few times. The conversation helped keep my mind off the fatigue in my legs, and at about 1.5 miles in my left knee started to tweak a little bit, but I ran through it and was able to keep up without having to walk. I just KNEW I was going to have to walk Dog Hill, especially when Lisa mentioned that she had walked the hills during a 10k she completed the weekend prior, but alas, we took baby strides all the way up, and my heart-rate thanked me when we reached the top and were on flat ground again - after having ran the whole thing. Whew. We had a bit of a break going downhill, but another long hill was up ahead as we headed back towards Hogan's Fountain for the finish. Again, I thought I may have to walk a bit on this hill, but the baby steps as well as the knowledge that the finish was just around the corner kept my motivation up, even though my quads were really feeling the burn by this point. With the finish line in sight, I actually got a bit of extra gumption in me and half-sprinted to the end for a finishing time of 42:03 and splits of 10:09, 10:21, 10:43 and 10:59 - pretty darn good for me considering a) a near-5 mile run just prior to the race b) the hills, and c) I'm a fairly slow runner to begin with. Overall, this was probably an A- race for me, and probably could've been an A+ had my knee not been bothering me. Mentally I was in it the whole time - even during the training run. I don't always enjoy every run I go on - but for some reason this morning just happened to be one of those times that I enjoyed it immensely and feel so blessed that I have the ability to run. It felt great!