A Freezeroo worthy of the name

I was instructed by my teammates to use lots of adjectives in describing this race.  As I don’t consider myself a very flowery writer, probably because of my journalism training, I decided I would front load the story with an appropriate number of descriptors.

1. Cold
2. Windy
3. Slippery
4. Snowy
5. Fridged
6. Fun
7. Stupid
8. Sloggy
9.  Numbing
10. White
11. Tiring
12. Different
13. Frosty

Freezeroo #3 is the Don Curran Memorial 5k.  RKR fielded a 5 man team, too bad there was no team scoring.  We did a warmup running the course in reverse, on a nicer day it is probably a fairly fast course.  On this day it was just about 10 degrees with a strong wind and a several inch covering of snow on all the roads save a 200 meter strip just after the start and before the finish.  I brought 3 pair of racing shoes: xc racers with 5/8″ spikes, AdiZero Adios, and Asic Piranha.  I decided to go with the Asics covered with Yak Trax.  This was my first time running with Yak Trax and even though they were a bit tight, I thought they would give me the edge over the other runners who were just racing in normal unspiked or yaked flats.  I quickly learned that once the metal springs were caked with snow and ice their effectiveness is greatly diminished.

While I did manage to get off the line fastest, Jeff and Chanse went by after a few meters.  In his usual racing style Jeff opened up a big lead by mile.  I was happy to sit behind Chanse and wait out the first mile or so which was primarily uphill.  I figured once things flattened out I could use the speed provided by my super grippy Yakers to run Jeff down.

At some point during the 2nd mile my hands and face went totally numb.  I guess my body was sending the blood to my muscles and not bothering to try and warm my useless extremities.  Luckily I had more important things to worry about, namely running down Jeff and staying ahead of everyone else.

By this point in the race RKR had established its position as the 1-4 runners with Ryan just a bit further back.

For some reason all of Matt’s photos are blurry.  i suspect it is the majesty of his developing breadcicle which prevented a clear picture from being taken.

It is unsurprising that Ryan and Matt, the 2 runners who grew up in western NY saw no need to wear a hat despise a sub 0 windchill.

Jeff held on to the 15-20 second gap he opened up in the first mile to win his 3rd straight Freezeroo Series race.  Baring some truly shocking bad performances in the next few races he has pretty much wrapped up the series win.  It was great to have 5 teammates come out and race in what might be described as less than ideal racing conditions.  It is a testament not only to our team, but the Rochester running scene that 230 runners showed up for this race.

Top 15 results below.  Full results here.

As always thanks goes out to the Rochester Runners Pic crew for the photos.