Saturday, January 6 was race #2 of my Winter Race Ladder running program. Back in November, Coach Kelly and I decided that I do a lot better with my training when I have specific goals so we put together a little 5k/10k/15k/21.1k race progression from December to March.
The Joe Davis 10k Run for Recovery is in support of addiction recovery and in memory of a young man who lost his battle with addiction. It is a good cause and seemed like a good choice for a 10k January race. I live in Charlotte, NC, which is very close to the town of Fort Mill, South Carolina, where this race is held. This part of the Carolinas is by no means warm in January, usually between freezing and 10-15 degrees F above freezing. So it's usually anywhere from pretty cold do decent cool running weather.
But this is the year of the "bomb cyclone" (the whaaaa?) so on race morning it was 12 degrees F (-11 degrees C). I've never trained outdoors in such cold weather, never mind raced in such cold weather so the word of the day was "layers". I wore merino wool socks, a Patagonia base layer (top and bottom), lined run pants, a long sleeve t-shirt with hood, and a lined run jacket, ski neck warmer and hat and my Gore bike gloves, which is the warmest gloves I have.
And this is where I discovered what is tough about cold weather races. Even with all those layers I was still cold for the hour-plus before the race but then I got super hot after the first mile of the race. Even in normal cold races I'm always unsure how cold I'm supposed to be in the first mile in order to not feel overheated after I get running, but in 12 degree F weather I really layered up and paid the price. The hat came off at the end of mile 1 and the gloves came off in mile 3, and the jacket zipper came down in mile 4. I kept the neck warmer on but all the way down after mile 1 and that caused its own problems as I was breathing cold air into my lungs but was too hot to pull that wool neck warmer over my mouth and nose. I was a really weird combination of really hot through my core and cold everywhere else.
On the second 5k loop of the run, I noticed that I was feeling some shortness of breath even though my heart rate was on target between 160-165. I needed some way to warm the cold air going into my lungs but couldn't handle the wool over my face so was forced to slow my pace a bit in mile 4 and then again in miles 5 and 6. It was a little frustrating as I had some solid splits of 10:35 and 10:38 in miles 1 and 2, had to slow in mile 3 where there were a concentration of hills and then the whole second loop was slower. So total time for the 10k was 1:09:54 with an average pace of 11:24 mins/mile.
I've only run one other straight 10k (i.e. other than as the run leg of an olympic/international distance triathlon) and I finished in 1:05:34, which felt like a great race and a great time. I was hoping to beat the time today with some consistent 10:35 miles but conditions were tricky and I definitely overdressed for racing in that weather (although underdressed for standing around in such cold weather before the race). I learned for next time that what I need is a thin bandana to wear around my mouth and nose (like a wild West stagecoach robber) that doesn't provide heat, but that does warm the air I'm breathing before it goes down to my lungs. Lesson learned!
After the race, the organizers had to cancel the awards ceremony and couldn't post results because the computers were frozen. Usually, to say that the computers are "frozen" is a euphemism, but in this case the computers were literally frozen and could not boot up!
Next up in the race ladder, the Hot Chocolate 15k in Charlotte and then in March, the New York City Half Marathon!
Splits from my Garmin.
With my friend Erin after the race. She dressed more sensibly than I did.