Many months ago when I was selected to run the Houston Marathon on January 19, I really didn't give it much of a thought, winters here for the last two years have been very mild. That wasn't the case after surviving the week with the coldest temps in over 30 years, and it's taken a toll on my marathon training schedule.
Signing up for the 14 mile Polar Dash was originally an after thought, but I realized that the Polar dash would actually be more helpful for training and race prep, for Houston which is a week away. I've never raced in January in Chicago before.
Racing in the wintertime in Chicago, is always taken with a grain of salt. You truly don't know what you're going to get until race time. Less than a week ago, the temps were -15 below zero, and we got 11 inches of snow. On race day for the Polar Dash, The temps were in the 30's, after a day of torrential rain. There was a lot of snow, ice, and puddles.
Great Odin's Navel, there were a lot of puddles. Deep, long wide puddles of ice cold water.
At first, you tried to avoid them, and at the end, you just didn't care. I was jumping and bounding over mounds of snow and running through mud, it was like running a very long cross country race. Several times I ran straight through mud, but at the end of the race, I realized my shoes looked like this:
(My shoes after finishing. Clean. And soaking wet. Probably forever.)
I finished in 2:03:43. Really not bad with the conditions and my lack of high speed long distance running in the last few weeks, but I felt comfortable, and pushed as hard as I could.
The Polar Dash was a bit of a mess, course was haphazard, not much organization, and a bit too long, but I really didn't mind it. It's not a big race, and it's relatively new. I got a nice fleece jacket out of it, and some well timed hot chocolate. And I was running with good friends. A really much more interesting running experience than I really expected.
How often as an adult do you have to run in ankle deep freezing water to get what you what really want? Sure, runners complained for the first few miles (but runners complain about everything), but as soon as you realized that there absolutely nothing you can do about it, you just got on with the task. The discomfort was gone with a change of clothes, a hot shower and a cup of coffee, and you are left with a great story to tell.
Though I have a fear of puddles now.
Observations:
- Race Temp was 37 degrees. I wore shorts. I was fine with the temps. Very comfortable. However, many people approached me after the race to tell me that, in fact, I was wearing shorts. Thanks for the update.
- Thumbs up to the Polar Dash organization for keeping runners up to date about how terrible the conditions were going to be, without making it sound like it was an update from Homeland Security (It's going to be RED conditions on the course).
- Had to hold my tongue walking behind a loudmouth out of Soldier Field parking who was explaining how the term "Redskins" was not an offensive term. This was coming from a man who was a) Not a Native American, and b) a Redskins fan, which for many reasons, the worst football team in the NFL (in my humble opinion). Bears and Packers fans should thank the NFL Gods everyday, that they are not Redskins fans.
- Ran six miles with a man who like the rest of us running on asphalt, but was wearing Yaktrax on his shoes which made a loud thwacking noise with every stride. He was wearing headphones, so he couldn't hear it, and he couldn't hear what we were saying about him.
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