Snowman Stampede 10 Mile Race - 1:09:41

Ran the Snowman Stampede at Chattfield Today. 1:09:41 a PR for 10 miles..


PR from same race last year were I did 1:10:32 on same course.
I finished 45th overall, 6th in my age group.

I felt good at the start, got into sub 7 mile pace which I could adjust with the Garmin. I ran the first 5 miles under 7 except mile 3. My goal was 6:55 I ended up 6:58.

I felt good going up the hills in the first half. I thought of Boston and also of my hill repeats. I had looked at my splits from last year and knew I was ahead of that.

There's a nice downhill as you turn onto the dirt road, I passed a lot of people there. I caught up to a lady in pink with pigtails that Alicia had pointed out before the race. She had recovered from a really bad bike accident. As I passed her she said "nice job". I talked to her after the race, she finished just a bit behind me. She was really nice and I admire her attitude and ability to come back from such a bad experience.

The dirt road had mud and ice on it, it was in bad shape and everyone had to slow down there both directions. I thought about how I'd been running on a lot of snow and ice lately, some people almost stopped, I though "Treadmillers". :)

When I hit the uphill and switchbacks after mile 5.5 I felt myself slow down and fatigue. There were some really bad ice and snow packed spots. One lady behind me kept yelling "Ice". I kinda bonked a bit. There was a guy breathing really hard in my ear, that I had passed on the downhill. I kept thinking come on pass me back, because I was sick of his breathing. This was my slowest mile. There was a snow packed section that slowed everyone down again.

As we got to the top and headed down, I was recovering and trying to get my pace back under 7 when I got passed by a pack of 4 guys, one of them was the breather. 2 of the guys were in my age group. I felt kinda down at this point that I lost pace on the hills and didn't recover quicker, I also thought a sub 1:10 was out of reach. I did get my pace back down to 7:00 but did not feel as good as before. The breather was a young guy and he pulled off the race about a mile ahead for a bathroom stop.

The last 2 miles was really sloppy and slick in spots, almost dangerous. I caught up to a lady running but could not quite pass her. I followed her through this section. There was a lot of water, mud, ice, floating ice and 5 mile walkers going really slow, a couple of strollers. We navigated through, I realized a sub 1:10 was doable with a couple of sub 7 minute miles. The lady I was following must of been on the same goal cause she sped up too.

With 1 mile to go I was right at 1:13. So I pushed it, the last mile was my fastest 6:34. When I got to the last quarter mile. Alicia was there, she had finished the 5 mile race. She gave me some encouragement and I passed the lady and had a good kick up the last hill (later told her good finish and great job). I saw Mark B there at the finish, he gave me a boost as I saw I was going to make my goal on the finish clock.

Race Results


Alicia Ran the 5 Mile and won her age group with a sub 38 5 mile. Congratulations Alicia.
Saw Mark there, he was doing a training run and knew a lot of people running, we chatted about running and Boston a bit.

Saw some other familiar faces there too, race season is starting and spring is around the corner, got that feeling today. Tera Moody won the women's 10 mile, didn't know she was there till I saw the results.

Garmin Watch Data for Race

Congratulations to Matt and his brother Mark who ran the Mount Cheaha 50k (31 Mile) Train Ultra in Alabama today. They finished 25th with a time of 5:45, a tough race. I will post something on the prostates site when they post the results.

Also got to see Zach run a mile time trial at SHHS He did a 5:42, finishing second in the mile wave with a strong kick at the end (there were a couple of strong milers that did not make it). This was after he ran a 2:29 800 time trail. Nice work Zach.

So a good day for Running!