The Snowflake Shuffle/My Worst Run To Date 12-12-09

I drove to St. Joseph today to run in a 5k called the Snowflake Shuffle. I woke up at about 6 am and arrived on the St. Ben's campus at 8:15 am. I looked at the temp display in my car and it read "2 degrees"!!! Holy Hannah, I was having second thoughts about this race. My daughter Kay was not able to run with me today because she had a basketball tournament. If she had been able to run I am pretty sure she would attempted to talk me out of it. I was already in the parking lot....to late to turn back. I walked in and got my running bib and t-shirt. I saw someone that ran in some of the same 5ks with me over the summer, so it was nice to chat with him. I also noticed that several of the St. Cloud River Runners were also running. Most of these runners are incredible athletes with stellar times that I can only dream of having. Also, the girl that I graduated with who introduced me into running 5ks was there. Pam introduced me to a few of her runner friends from the Cold Spring area. It was nice to talk to her and her friends.

With about 10 minutes before start time we all walked down the road to the starting line. Pretty much everyone was jumping in place or in some way moving to keep from getting cold. Well, it was frigging cold out there for those first few minutes and then some. I have decided that I hate running in the cold! I also hate running on snow and icy roads. This race sucked so bad for me. It should of been an easy run because it is a nice flat course around the St. Ben's campus and the town of St. Joseph. It was hard running on the snow...so many times I had to catch myself because I thought I was going to bite it. Running on the snow covered sidewalks was tricky because it was hard to pass people. Just a little after mile one Pam passed me. No shocker there, she is a way better runner than me. I was able to pass a few people as well but it was hard to just run normal because of the snow and ice. I was passed by a flipping Santa with a bag full of toys!! Seriously, there is no way that I could of run in a Santa costume and then to top it off actually lug a huge bag filled with toys over my back! I said, "Go Santa!" He told me that he lost his reindeer and needed to fly. I had to laugh, he took his role as Santa very seriously:) My hip started to nag yet again and I just couldn't pull it together for a strong finish. I am not sure what my official time was, but it was 25 something. Oh well, at least I was able to get a run in anyway.

I am hoping to get a few mill workouts in this week or maybe I can get to the club and run around the track. I have not been able to run as much as I want. Before it got cold I was running at least 30 miles a week. Lately, I am lucky to get 10 to 12 miles in....not enough for me.

My next race is the Team Ortho Polar Dash in Minneapolis on New Years Day!! I will suck it up and try to adapt to snow and ice:)