Psssst.. That's me in the front!
Anyhoo, I ran the 2nd Annual Frostbite 5k on Saturday. It's held in North Park, which is about a half hour drive from where I'm located in Pittsburgh. I was kind of nervous about how the roads would be driving out there since we got smacked pretty hard with snow on Friday night, but I didn't have a hard time. Fortunately the race started at 10. Any earlier and it might have been a little sketchy.
Regardless of the late start time, the temp was still pretty balmy:
A toasty 24 degrees when I pulled into the lot.
And yes, I was listening to Bump N' Grind at 9am.
I have to give a serious, serious shout out to the DJ they had in the "barn" before the race started. He was awesome. According to the event's website, his name was DJ L-A. The dude was spinning some 90's jams and I was all about that.
I totally appreciated the fact that all of the race sponsors, registration tables, and food was INDOORS in a heated environment. They had food both before and after the event, as well, which is always a nice surprise. Kudos to everyone who helped put this race together. While it was relatively small compared to most of the races in Pittsburgh (I'd say there were about 250 people max), it was one of the more organized I've seen.
The snow was coming down when the race first started, but it cleared up pretty nicely about halfway through. Wind wasn't too bad either, so that helped. There were some parts of the course that went across small "trails" I guess you could call them, and those portions were totally snow covered. There was also a pretty significant layer of slush on some of the roads. Since the course took an "uphill then turn around and go back down" route, the variance in road conditions was a little annoying when trying to maintain a steady pace and/or pick up speed. Do-able, but annoying.
My GPS app also plotted the course at 3.57 miles, not a 5k.
Intriguing.
Overall I had a pretty good run given the conditions. I came in around 26:50, and ended up finishing 9th in my age group, 68th overall (out of 250 people). Pretty good way to start the first timed race of 2013.. Excited to go nowhere but up from there.
Also, I had some people inquire as to what I wore in the crazy cold. My ensemble included:
- Black Under Armour Cold Weather Gear Turtleneck
- Lined "Swishy Pants" from WalMart (that's the best way I can describe them)
- Reebok Compression Tights Underneath the Swishy Pants
- Lightweight Reebok Running Jacket (not lined or anything, just an extra light layer)
- One More Mile Arm Warmers overtop of my Under Armour
- Ear Warmer Headband
- Gloves (Cheapo ones from Target with the touch screen fingertips)
I also want to seriously take a moment to shout out the rapper who performed at the after party right before they announced age category winners. They made everybody sit down and be quiet and then they brought out this dude to perform. It just was not a hip hop audience, and this kid was putting his all into this performance with not much of a response. I found him on Facebook. Please go like his page or something to compensate for what may have been the most awkward performance of his career. Either way, he did a good job & I did like his music!
I also wore my FlipBelt for the first time during the race. Look for a review on it sometime this week. I just want to test it out a few more times before doing a write up :)
Congratulations to everyone who ran in the Frostbite 5k or any other race this weekend. The first month of 2013 is almost behind us, and I hope that you're off to the start you were hoping for.
Keep Running,
Kelli
