Race Report: Frozen 5K Race, Cary, NC

This morning, I ran in the inaugural Frozen 5K Race at Bond Park in Cary. When I left home, the temperature was 11 degrees, colder than I'd like, but I'd aready registered for it, so I felt like I had to do it!

Bond Park is a pretty plan to run in in Cary. There's a lake, some ball fields, a ropes course, and probably other facilities there. I ran there a couple of times last summer with the North Carolina Roadrunners Club, as part of their summer trail series. The first time I ran there, I took a couple of wrong turns, and they ended up sending the course sweeper out to find me! Needless to say, I was a little concerned about wrong turns this morning, but fortunately, there were volunteers at nearly every place there were options of which way to turn. Thank goodness I guessed right at the spots that weren't manned!

The race was pretty low key, with early registration only, a cap of 185 runners, and no timing chips. In fact, there wasn't even a big clock at the end, just manual timing by someone at the end. Everyone was handed an index card after we crossed the finish line with our place in the race (I got #133), and we had to handwrite our names and bib numbers on the back of our finishing numbers! It felt very low tech and homey, rather refreshing, really.

I officially met Louise there, a lady I've seen at a number of races over recent years. I also met her friend, Jen, and a lady (no name) from Waterville, Maine. Nice to meet new folks and out names with faces.

I wore a long sleeve t-shirt over a short sleeve, and long tights, as well as cotton gloves. It all felt decent once I got moving. Once I started, I was glad I didn't have a hat on. I don't do caps well.

I ended up with a time of 40:34 for the 5K, pretty slow, even for me. I decided to take it easy because of the pre-shin splints (self diagnosed). No long run today, going to take it easy for the rest of the day. A Duke basketball game comes on this afternoon, so there's a good excuse for me to just hang out! :)