Frostbite 5 Miler – 2016

Today could not have been any better planned.

FB-Site-Header-LeftI’m by no means a great runner. Today was one of those times I would say I ran as good a race as I could. At my age you are not running to win the race. You set a personal goal and try to achieve it. As Sam would say, “I’m a lifetime 17:30 5k” and that’s what I strive to be.

I’m a fair weather runner and when the weather gets cold, I head to the treadmill. Sam said he was doing the Frostbite 5 miler and I said I would too. This gave me a purpose. I would go to the gym and run exactly 5 miles on the treadmill. The goal for me was always 6 minute miles. Some days I would be under it by about 30 seconds and others I’d struggle to hit it on the nose. This past week I hit the 29 minute mark and I knew I was ready to race.

Not this year's.

Not this year’s.

My pre race routine is standard to me but I have no idea how others act. I googled “what to eat before a race” and got results to avoid coffee, don’t eat too much in a sitting, and random specifics on what works for that person. I said fuck it and ordered Domino’s Cali Ranch Pizza. I ate 4 slices and went to sleep at 12am after watching Butterfly Effect.

I woke up at 6am in a weird state and realized I was running today. I shit and showered. I then went to Dunkin Donuts and got a medium coffee and a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese. I ate the bagel (except for the middle because they spread too much cream cheese there) and drank the coffee slowly. I arrived 27 minutes later to my parents house and had to take another poop. Perfect. I lightened my load and talked with Sam before having to poop yet again. Even better.

FS-FBAny runner knows you poop out as much waste as possible to run good times. I took a water bottle and drove to the race. I met up with some people I know and then went for a pre-race jog. I did 800 meters on the track which to me is more than I want to do. My legs only have so much mileage and I don’t want to waste it warming up.

I met Sam and the eventual race winner at the starting line and was happy how warm it was. The race started and Sam and I were together. He said people were going out too fast and made a nice call that that bro with headphones and hair would fall. The 1 mile split was 5:20 and the 2 mile 10:50. Sam left me at this point. I’ve been in this place in previous years. The drawn out hill at the 2 mile mark was an awakening that I trained on a treadmill. Huffing and puffing, I made it up to subtle downhill. I didn’t get a clock on mile 3 or 4 but I had a feeling I hadn’t dropped off pace that much. At 4 I got a side stitch and that was fairly severe. On the treadmill I never pushed myself past the point of exhaustion. Fortunately I had speed in my legs and didn’t let the cramp knock me back to bad. I even, barely, kicked it in for a time of  28:39 and good for 19th place. Sam was 12th.

frostbit

At 32, it’s still fun to race. I like challenging myself and realizing that age is only a number, not an excuse. With a greater effort I could probably get to 28:00 minutes but what’s the difference? I trained about 20 miles a week and ran a time that was faster than I did at 28. As Sam would say, “I’m a one trick pony.” I’m ok with that.

 

By |2016-10-28T15:36:28-04:00February 20th, 2016|Running|3 Comments

Frostbite 5 Miler 2013 Experience

frostbite 5 miler

The Frostbite 5 Miler is a very well run race hosted by the Ambler running club. Ira Meyers, winner of the 1986 Philadelphia Marathon, is the race director and keeps everyone up to date with info. Supposedly we were going to get some snow and ice last night but luckily everything held off. I slept at my parents house so I wouldn’t have to rush to race. I got there at 8:15 or so and there were already a good number of people. The race started at 9am and was expected to get 1600 runners. I met up with Ck4 and Nikkii and other people looking to recruit runners for the American Odyssey Run come April. We are looking to get 2 teams of 12 runners and are 4 short so if anyone who reads this blog wants to participate in a 200 mile relay run from Gettysburg to DC, let me know. The highlight being you get to spend 24+ hours in a van with me.

Back to the run. The weather was perfect for this run as it is sometimes extremely frigid. I got in behind the first few rows of runners and the race began promptly as scheduled. I had trained entirely indoors this year and this was my first time outside since the fall. Sometimes treadmill training can be deceiving with no hills so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first mile is a gradual decline and I finished the first mile at 5:15. I read last year’s post and was at 5:30 so I knew I was at a pretty good pace. I still felt good and was running mostly with myself and came across the next mile at 10:50. Still feeling good I started running with this bro for the next mile and we were at low 17 for 3 which I knew would make it difficult to break 29 which I would say is my goal. At this point I still had strength in my legs and was expecting to pick up the pace. Wrong. At 23:15 crossing the 4 mark I knew I was toast. To quote Sam, “I started rigging up.” My stomach was hurting even though I still had strength in my legs, I just couldn’t get a kick going. With 400 a female started coming up on me but even a deathly ill TC can outkick a girl and I finished with a 29:15 or so. I was pretty pleased as I didn’t know what to expect. It was 10 seconds off of last year and I assume I’ll lose 10 seconds every year following.

I talked with Ck4 at the finish line for a while and then jumped in my car and headed off. I had to drive through some runners but they made it out alive without getting hurt. I got a vanilla milkshake from McDonalds like last year and headed back to Philly. I arrived back at 10:30 which should make this one of the first posts in any blog out there about this race.

By |2013-03-15T02:57:23-04:00February 16th, 2013|Running|0 Comments

Frostbite 5 Miler 2/18/12

Tonight is one of the few weekend nights I will spend completely sober. I will be racing in the Frostbite 5 miler in Ambler tomorrow and I trained somewhat for this race. Running is such a weird “sport” because the only thing you have to worry about is staying in shape. You can’t make up for running with skill. It’s strictly how good of shape your in and how hard you can push your body. What I’ve found interesting in these past few weeks is that I was in my best shape 3 weeks ago and the times I was running this past week weren’t as good. I can’t explain it because I’ve been consciously aware of this date to be in peak performance. Nevertheless, I think that diet comes into play sometimes when you eat something unhealthy, go for a run, and are disappointed because you didn’t think you were where you thought you should be. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be in as good as shape as 3 weeks ago but that’s just how it feels. It won’t really matter though because I know I’m going to run a strong 5 miles and whether it blows 29 minutes out of the water or I barely break 30, I’ll be somewhere in that range. I’m excited to see because it’s such a question mark in my mind of how good of shape I’m in. Things like “should I eat this doughnut” are popping into my mind like it will really make a difference.

The other thing to note was the unbelievable event that is called the Broad Street Run. I knew registration started at 10am and I sat there patiently as thousands of other runners would be signing up at the same time. It took me about a half hour to complete the registration while I probably waited 5 minutes on each screen. 30,000 runners signed up in a 5 hour period which is just incredible for a race. I feel bad for anyone who wants to do this and has no idea what type of event it has become. It’s the biggest 10 miler in the country which gives the race some prestige. I missed it last year but hopefully will turn 12′ into a PR.

By |2013-03-15T03:39:21-04:00February 17th, 2012|Running|4 Comments

Frostbite 5 Miler

Tomorrow at 9am the Frostbite 5 miler will start. I probably drank a bit too much on Wednesday but I don’t think that should effect me for Saturday. I’m feeling pretty good and did a short run today to confirm that. I’m looking to go sub 30 minutes and anything better would just be a bonus. The weather looks like its going to be beautiful which is awesome for me and my aversion to run in the cold. Based on last years results that should get me about 20 of 1500. I had a pretty lackluster year last year and hopefully this run will start me off on a good note for the season. I have maybe 6 runs on the agenda this year with the Broad Street and Distance Run being the main ones with some 5k’s tossed in there. I’m in good shape from a speed perspective but I think I could use some longer runs in my repertoire to increase the endurance. I am healthy and expect to turn some heads with a nice time at my old age. I’ll bring a camera to get a picture or two.

I still apologize for the ads on the side now but I don’t think they are too distracting and if anyone finds them annoying, please let me know. The benefit of the ads is that if I am able to make some money for doing something so easy and stupid, I’ll probably post more and try to build the most traffic possible. I still flounder when it comes to specializing in something. When serious sites try to build traffic they focus in on creating content. My content is so random that it really doesn’t fit in anything. Hence my problem. I’m just hoping to be entertaining and hope that works.

By |2011-02-18T17:51:31-05:00February 18th, 2011|Sports|0 Comments

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