Frozen Ass 50

I ran the 25k edition. I call it my half ultra. Thanks TONS to Gord from Gords Running Store and his awesome team of volunteers or putting on such a terrific race.

I met a bunch of new people, the least of not which is Ellie Greenwood.  Ellie is one of the worlds fastest Ultra Runners! Nice to meet you today! I asked if I could take a picture. She seemed a little weirded out by this giant unshaven freaky wannabe dude, but was a good sport anyway!

I ran into lots of my good running friends – Joanne and Darren, Laura, Ron, Barefoot Paul and then met a good number more during the race. It’s true what they say, Bacon at the 18km aid station is AWESOME Ultra Runners are the nicest people.

the race started with a ‘go’. The runners up front kinda looked at one another, ‘Right now?’… yep, GO! Ok! we were off and running 110 people in a really nice orderly single file line.

We went probably 2-3 k like this with very little opportunity to pass, what with the shin deep snow if you went off the packed trail. It was ok as I got into a 3 person train with Darren and a Girl who I cannot remember your name (even though I ran with her for 3/4 of the race, know that she is training for the Sinister 7 ultra, is in 3rd year Nursing at MRU and this was her first Ultra, give me a comment to remind me of who you are please!) The other person was Darren. We chatted a little at the start of the race when his toque got knocked off by a tree branch and I retrieved it for him, then again a bit later, but it wasn’t until about the 20k mark that we ran together and chatted about all manners of things and actually realized we live a couple blocks from each other. too funny!

Here is my unnamned friends ass (sorry, the view finder on the little green camera is unviewable in the bright light)

Here is the back of her head too!

And this is her in the Purple shirt at the turn around (my finish)

And this is Darren coming in for the 1/2 way snacks (He ran the full too!)

I had a really nice time out there. The last km or 2 got a bit tough, but since this was supposed to be a training run, I didn’t feel overtaxed at anytime. The scenery isn’t the best for a race, but with the company I kept for most of it, the miles just seemed to click by! there was a moment at about 15k where I thought I might make the turn and head back to do the full 50k, but I had planted my vehicle at the turn and would have to retrieve it later. I am happy I had the excuse to stop at the 25k mark, as I probably would have taken 9 more hours to finish. I also think I under fuelled, what with all the talking and enjoying the race, that I felt the start of some calf cramps with 1 k to go, and then again as I stretched out after the race.

I ran the 25k in 2:50, with probably 25-30 minutes attributed to the tough conditions where the path was not maintained or melted off. We actually ran on the canal instead of the path as the Snowmobile tracks were much better for running on! Pretty stark scenery hey? we ran down here for the better part of 45  minutes. (remind me to shave next time, OK?)

Here is Ellie Again coming back on the return trip, thanks for hamming it up for this weirdo's camera!

Ok, the stats.

First half :       12.5k in 1:24:55
Second half:   12.5k in 1:25:24

What does that mean? It means the extra minute I took at the 19k aid station to eat the 5 pieces of bacon cost me a perfect race split. Dammit that bacon was good, and really surprisingly palatable at that point of the race! The other problem at that aid station was I ate 3 frozen Ju-jubes and it took me 4 kms to pick the gluey bits out of my teeth. (would it kill the volunteers to keep the Ju-jubes in their pockets please?)

Here are the splits

It was a really terrific day for running! I actually burnt my face a little in the sun. nice tanline!

This was a really important confidence building journey as I have been feeling a lot of doubt in my running, what with the life events that are going on and the lack of training the last week and a half or so. This race is just what I needed to get a swift kick in the pants back to my usual dumb training self. (dumb training = just going out and pounding the miles as scheduled without much thought to the overall picture, just trusting in completing the run that is directly in front of me is the only thing in the plan that matters at the moment) Make sense?

That’s pretty much all I have to tell, I did put together a 10 minute video of my experience.

And here are the rest of the photos,

I took this shot of the 25k finish when I dropped off the car before the race. Thanks Dad for shuttling me to the Start line!

Hi Ron, Hi Laura

Gord gives us the state of the union prior to the run!

Hi Daren, Hi Ron!

Hi Laura

The Aid station food was left up to the discretion of the volunteers. There were mixed reviews on the Bacon and Peanut Butter Tortillas!

All in all a Fantastic Day! Did I ever tell you I love racing!