Time to Read: ~5 minTraining
I didn’t officially train for this race. I used to be very focused in my training efforts, but have settled into just being an active person with a focus on hitting a lot of different activities. I do plan to start focused training again in the future, but for this race my weekly preparation can be quickly summarized with:
- 2 days of Bikram style hot yoga
- 2-7 days of Vinyasa style yoga (January was daily for a challenge)
- 1-2 days of indoor spin class
- 1-3 days of indoor rowing
- 3-5 of strength training
- 10-15 miles weekly running
- 0-10 miles weekly hiking
Before the race
We signed up for this race just to have a motivation to run in the winter and because it was scheduled on the day that Xander had to go back to college after spring break. We had to take him to the train in Syracuse already, so why not run a race and have a family experience before he had to head back to school. We all signed up!
Elizabeth hurt her knee mid-winter and mentioned she may drop out, I struggled to run for a variety of reasons, but reasoned I’d muddle through, and Scott and Xander had a reasonably strong winter training cycle. Xander loves running in Boston, often using it as a stress relief. For me, it felt like an added stress this winter, so I gave myself grace and focused on well-rounded fitness and staying clear of injury.
Weather
Packet Pickup
After a very moderate early March with temperatures in the 50s and sometimes even 60s, the forecast dipped down into the 30s and 20s for the week prior to the race. The starting forecast for race day was 16 degrees, and the prior day a foot of snow fell on the area! Since we had only signed up to motivate ourselves to run, and we hadn’t run all that much, I wasn’t keen to follow through with the race. I figured we could skip this all together and just bring Xander to his train the next day. The family wasn’t on board with this, especially Xander! So, we hopped into our car and headed up to get to packet-pick up before it ended. We brought road shoes and a decent amount of layering items for whatever the weather brought our way for race day.
Dinosaur Barbecue
Our family has a history with not planning ahead for a meal before this race. In prior years, we have wanted to have a pasta meal, but without reservations or a willingness to wait over an hour, we’ve found ourselves wandering about, finding a restaurant with less traditional pre-race fare. This year was no different, except that it was COLD! Luckily, we started discussing dinner pretty early, and our hotel was awfully close to Dinosaur Barbecue. Dinosaur is a fun family outing place for us, something we hit every year or every other year. Xander noted that he hadn’t been in two years so it was time to go!!
Dinosaur Barbecue!
We started our slog, wondering aloud how this race was going to be the next day. Less than a mile of tromping through snow, we were all speculating about how much snow they’d be able to remove from the streets before morning. Surely all of it? Most? We hopped into the queue at Dinosaur, and were seated within a half hour. Enjoying our fun, very early, pre-race meal, we felt grateful for the opportunity to enjoy this family time before Xander was back off to college after the race.
Overnight Excitement & Pre-Race
The hotel we selected was right in downtown Syracuse so we’d be able to easily walk to the start of the race. This made for a trade-off - it was LOUD. A Saturday evening near bars and restaurants. At 2 am, there was some excitement in the neighborhood with police sirens - we later heard there was some sort of bar dispute. We didn’t sleep terribly well and woke up early for our peanut butter toast and pre-race coffee.
Bundled in our hotel
Soon, the four of us were walking over to the start. I had hand warmers for the walk over, and was pretty well dressed with double gloves, a buff and a hat. We walked zippily to stay warm, hitting a porta-potty close to the race and then dispersing to get ready to run! Xander and Scott had goals of running quickly, while Elizabeth and I hoped to finish without misery.
And just like that we run!
The pre-race time went very fast this year. We arrived so close to the start time that it felt like mere minutes that we were waiting. I started my music as we stood in the queue to begin. They had said that 30% of the course was not clear of snow and warned us to watch our footing. I briefly wished I had popped trail shoes into my bag!
In the queue
The first mile on snow covered streets was very slow. I had a 12:03 pace for this mile. It was also clear right away that I had over dressed. Luckily, I had pockets that could hold one of the pairs of gloves I had on, and the other set were mittens that lifted up and were stored on my wrists. This allowed me to pull them on and off throughout the race as needed.
Miles 2 - 7
These miles zipped along and I was in a positive mental space, despite large swaths of snow covered streets. My pace was consistent and I felt happy in the not so windy, suddenly not so cold feeling day. I felt strong and happy to be here. It helped that it was sunny, and that I love this portion of the course.
Positive Splits
When mile 8 hit, it became apparent that I needed a little more oomph than I felt this particular morning. I was starting to feel cold and tired, and my pace was dropping. I found myself throwing little walk breaks in and not feeling strong on the hills. I started to worry about finishing strong. I knew my training hadn’t been stellar for this race, and these positive splits were positive proof of that not so disciplined winter training. I continued to put one foot in front of the other, looking forward to the very long downhill around mile 8.
One foot in front of the other!
The last few miles
When you don’t train very well for a race and it is very cold, the last few miles are more challenging than they ought to be! I comforted myself on these miles by working on staying in a positive headspace and practicing forgiveness to my prior self. You didn’t train as well as you could have? No problem. You are still here. Tired? It will be over soon and you can say you pushed through and finished! I did push through and finish and I was proud of my effort. It was the best I could give that day, and MOST of it was fun for me!
Finished!
A surprise gift
At the post race party there was a table of Ka'Chava. They had an entire table full of very large bag of this for the taking. People were grabbing multiple bags. Elizabeth and I came upon the table and noticed it looked like a protein powder. Scott and I had recently started taking Wegmans protein powder in the morning and while it was good enough, neither of us loved it. We’d tried vegan and whey styles. So, we grabbed a couple of bags to try. It turns out that we LOVE this product. I am finally completing this post nearly a year later and have been enjoying Ka’Chava every morning for most of the year. I prefer the chocolate flavor, while Scott enjoys their vanilla.
Post-race with Elizabeth
Results
Overall time: 2:10:21
Pace: 9:57
Age 50-54: 24 out of 93
Gender: 434 out of 1067
5K split: 29:00
10K split: 59:43
15K split: 1:31:31