Beresford Frostbite 4 Race Report

Since January is done, I thought that I better give a quick recap of my running and racing for the month with the highlight of this post being the Beresford Frostbite 4.  I ended the month with 431 miles!  I think this is my biggest month ever, I need to look at some old logs from the fall of 2011 to make sure.

I raced 3 times this month, pretty good for January.  My first race was a free 10k put on by the City of Sioux Falls.  It was 0 degrees at the start so the turnout wasn't huge or too fast.  I ran down to the park and then waited around too long before the race got started.  I was off by myself immediately and ran a comfortable 38" 10k.  Two big weeks of training later, I found myself on the starting line of the SDSU Alumni Mile.  I was feeling over confident in my abilities and that showed in my first lap time. I went through 409 meters in 64 seconds!  I was passed by Chris and Benny around the 1000 meter mark and gave up on the race.  I should have held on better and ran a faster time but I just preserved my third place.  I will be back on the track sometime soon to make up for my poor tactics.

My final race of the month came on the last day of the month.  It was a fairly nice day for January in the mid-20s for a temperature.  It was pretty windy out but due to the nature of the race, it was just a crosswind during the race. The race started out with 4 of us who knew each other.  We all were somewhat healthy but all had a little injury or illness baggage as well.  This resulted in a very slow early pace.  We ran the first mile in nearly 5:35.  Soon after, Jeremy VanVeen decided that he was to be the "sacrificial lamb" and up the pace. I ran about 5:10 for my second mile and he probably ran about 5:00.  Alex and Michael were behind me by a few seconds.  The gaps between us would grow as I maintained the same pace for the 3rd mile.  That one seemed like it took forever and included a few small inclines.  Overall the course was very flat and fast but the third mile was probably the slowest.  I was still feeling ok at 3 so I decided to push it to at least maintain my 2nd place.  I didn't think that I would catch Jeremy but you never know.  I ran 4:56 for my last mile.

The overall feel of this race was more of a cutdown tempo than of a race itself.  There were no big moves or sprint finishes.  I ran a long warm up and cool down and logged 30 miles in the 2 days before the race.  I don't remember there being much pain except a few of my fingers were numb in the early parts of the race.  I think I'll only race once during February.  It will be a indoor track 5k on the 13th at SDSU.  I'm trying to not be too optimistic but I think I can run near my collegiate times.  I'm going to run a conservative race so we will see how it goes.