Rendon emailed Ross, Sue and I in December asking us what we thought about entering the Frozen Nose Series of races in January and February. DG Productions, an OKC company that runs many races throughout the year in the OKC area produces this three race series each winter. They have two 10k/5k races and an 8k. In addition to the medals for each race they also have medals for the series overall winners.
Ross and I both took Rendon up and signed up for the series. Ross and Rendon signed up for the 10k in both of the 10k/5k races but I signed up for the 5k in the last race so I would be eligible for a series award if I performed well enough. Normally my expectations probably wouldn't be that high, but last year I ran the Elvis Run 10k (the first race in the series) and placed 2nd in my age group so I thought I may have a chance to place in the top three in my age group for the series.
Unfortunately, just a couple of weeks before the first race in the series, Ross and Rendon both came up injured. Ross' knee started bothering him after a weekend long run and Rendon developed a pain around his ankle. Rendon's got so bad he had difficulty walking so he went to get it checked out and was told his Achilles tendon was strained. He was also told he should not run on it since too much stress could tear it and then he'd really be down for a while. Of course since Rendon had already spent $75 for the race series he was determined to run anyway. He told Ross and me he'd run the Elvis run at an easy 9:30 to 10:00/mile pace. Ross' knee was improving rapidly for him so he just cut back on training runs and tried not to overdo things.
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| The Elvis Run 10k course around Lake Hefner. |
I worked my way into the middle area of the starting corral and stood on my toes looking for Ross and Rendon. I couldn't spot them though and so I waited by myself for the gun to go off. It finally did and we all surged forward. As I worked my way through the crowd at the start and found some open space, I worried a bit since I felt a bit winded and was only running about an 8:20 pace which I knew was slower than I wanted to run the first mile. I think the cold and the wind combined with no warmup before the start caused the breathless feeling I had early. And the course started out going north, right into the teeth of that wind. I pushed all that aside and tried to pick up my pace as I progressed. I ended up running the first mile in 8:17. I could live with that but felt like I really needed to speed things up.
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| Freezing runners wait for the start of the Elvis Run 5k/10k. |
On the second mile I got my pace to the 8 minutes/mile range. The crowd had thinned out significantly and I spotted Ross up ahead of me so I worked on catching him. I finally pulled even with him and we ran along together. As we neared the end of the second mile we began closing in on Rendon. It took us a bit to catch him...that was a really fast 9:30/mile pace he was running! We finally caught up with him though and all three of us ran along together. Ross and I began picking the pace up some and a quarter mile or so from the course midway turnaround Rendon began dropping off our pace. Ross and I finished the third mile in 7:53, a pretty good clip but at the turnaround we were suddenly running right back into that strong north wind and our pace slowed significantly.
Toward the end of the fourth mile we began picking the pace up again. By now I had settled into a pretty good groove but it definitely wasn't one of those runs where you feel great and your pace feels effortless. I tried to focus on the moment and not think about how far we had left to go. I worried I was on pace to finish with a slower time than I did last year so I tried to slowly pick up the pace. As we began the last mile I started really pressing and began pulling away from Ross. We had been trailing another runner by 60 or 70 yards for the last mile or so and I began gaining on him. I was really beginning to feel the strain of the pace now and looking at my Garmin I was running pretty steady between a 7:20 and 7:25/mile pace, really fast for me. With a half mile left I desperately wanted to slow down but felt I needed to try to finish at this pace. I caught the guy we had been tailing and passed him. Now I just wanted to see the finish line. Finally the Louie's restaurant near the start came into view and I knew the finish was getting close.
By now I was passing some of the slow 5k runners. With the finish up ahead I stepped on it mustering the best kick I could. As I neared the finish I saw Tayler, Cara and Molly beside the course cheering me on. I crossed the finish and slowed to a walk and just walked around for a minute catching my breath. Ross came in around 40 seconds behind me and Rendon finished a couple of minutes later.
They were posting results and updating them constantly so we we went to check them out. We saw that Ross had finished first in his age group! Then we found my name and I had finished second in mine. My chip time was 49:18, about 45 seconds better than my 50:02 from last year. Ross' was 49:57 and Rendon's was 51:53, not bad at all for a guy with an injured Achilles who had planned on running it slow and easy. I ended up with pretty uneven splits:
8:17
8:03
7:53
8:10
7:50
7:23
6:55 pace over the last .2
The 7:23 is my fastest mile ever and I was pretty proud to do that at the end of a 6 mile run.
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| Rendon, me, Elvis and Ross after the race. |
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| My medal for second place in my age group. |
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