Winter Series #1

This past Saturday marked the first race in the 36^th annual Colorado Springs Winters Series, and the first step towards getting back into shape and less fat.

With a Snowday graciously bestowed upon us the day before, all of Colorado Springs was blanketed in a solid layer of ice. The morning of that Snowday, I went out for a quick jaunt: just an easy pre-race 30 minutes to flush out the legs and mentally prepare for Saturday’s 7-miler. However, that short ‘yog’ quickly turned into a horrifying death march on skates. As I glided in and out of traffic, even my “trail” shoes (trying out the Newton BOCO Sol) couldn’t get any grip on the ice (I may have performed my first ever splits, not by choice). Thankfully, I managed to make it back home alive, if a bit scraped up (I’ll spare you the pics, but my tush took a spanking). A couple hours after my run, I received a notification that the El Paso County intelligently decided it was not worth timing Saturday’s race, thereby reducing much of the competitive edge.

This pup knows what's up.

 So, swathed in a wooly cocoon of blankets, I awoke to my alarm Saturday morning, emerging from my Tauntaun of warmth to meet up with Dan Vega, a local runner who was kind enough to carpool with me. I was surprised by how many people were at this race – I’d say there were easily 200 people – but even more surprised when Dan introduced me to Alex Nichols and Peter Maksimow, two local pro runners who I’ve been hardcore stalking since well-before my move out here.

So you can be sure that, when the four of us started running together on our warmup, it took all of my collective willpower to not bust a nut. Thankfully, because I was bringing up the rear of our group, Alex and Peter couldn’t see the massive nerd-boner I had, but holy effing ess, I could’ve broken both my legs and still called that day a success.

After a couple easy miles together, we all went our separate ways in the minutes preceding the start of the race. Dan and Peter were running the Short course (5k), while Alex and I were in the Long course (supposedly 7 miles, but my GPS logged 6.6 miles). With about a minute before the gun would go off, though, it hit me: I was hot. Like, really hot. Boiling. In the past month, I hadn’t felt any temperatures above 40 degrees (I’m poor and refuse to turn the heat on in my place). So my fellow IWU runners wouldn’t be surprised when there I am, next to runners bundled in scarves and tights and gloves, shirtless and in short-shorts.

It was a pretty "chill" race.

My fellow racers only had a few seconds to bask in my awesome nude beauty, though, when the gun went off, and I found myself racing right up to the front. Alex and another runner took the quick lead, and I trailed ~5 seconds back with two other runners. The raced started downhill on the road, but after 400m soon turned to snowy single-track, forcing everyone into single file. While I felt good, I knew I was probably pushing a bit too hard – the race’s first 2-3 miles were primarily uphill, and I always tend to do best with a slow start. But soon I was passing those two other runners, sneaking into 3^rd place behind Alex and the other runner, who were soon too far ahead to see.

I ran mile 2 in no-man’s land, slipping and sliding in the mud, but quite thankful I opted to go shirtless. I was hot, and with the sun out, temps must’ve been at least 50 degrees. That quick first mile also seemed to catch up to me, and without much downhill, I was sucking wind, hard. On top of the fact that these muddy hills were just like wet cement, I wasn’t surprised when one, then two people passed me. In fifth place now, I focused on keeping the 4^th-place runner in sight, and was able to shadow him for miles 4-5. After an excruciating hill (what turned out to essentially be the last), I lost sight of that 4^th-place runner, but without the constant uphill gradient, I was finally able to open my stride. I bombed the downhills with reckless abandon, finally getting into that groove where things seem to click.

At the same time, I heard another runner start to catch up to me, but with less than 2 miles to go, I started really pushing. In retrospect, my form was pretty atrocious here, but trying to run fast down muddy/snowy single track (no doubt hiding rocks/sticks/etc.), I was doing all I could to stay upright. Finally, with the end in sight, I threw in a final kick from ~600m out, surprising myself with how fast I could go. Kicking mud errywhere, I finished with some awkward cheering for ‘that naked guy’ in 51:08, good for 5th.

Sample of the day's conditions (insert Obama 'Not Bad' meme)

There was a lot to learn from this race. According to Strava (race found here, for those curious: http://www.strava.com/activities/239298688/overview), my GAP (Grade Adjusted Pace) for my first mile was 5:55 – probably a tad too fast for such a hilly and technical course. I definitely need to work on my climbing, and including some hill repeats / hilly fartleks would be of utmost importance. Because this race wasn’t scored for the overall series, January 24^th’s race at Bear Creek (literally two minutes from my house) will be the race’s first real race, and I’ve got a lot to do to prep for it!