Frozen Heart Race Recap

**9 March 2015, edited to add:**  Oops, thought I already published this. That explains why no one has viewed it. :-)

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My main contribution to last year's Frozen Heart 50K came from my kitchen. Well, and on the interwebs, designing and buying custom CBRC Frozen Heart M&Ms. Thank you, Amazon local deals. I also spent about two hours at the mid-way aid station, giving high-fives and food to the runners, and eating aid station food. Sharing is caring, right?

Delicious fresh or frozen, With or without a frozen heart.

I had to order a 2 lb bag to get custom M&Ms, so was under the mistaken impression I'd freeze the rest of the M&Ms to bake cookies for the February 2015 Frozen Heart race. Yeah, right. Those M&Ms were gone by April.

Didn't last long in my freezer.

This year, I decided to run the race. I'm not real into trail racing, as I prefer to run / walk / hike trails (less prone to tripping over tree roots that way), but my trail running friends assured me trail racing isn't really racing. So I signed up for one loop of the Frozen Heart 50K, and was ready to do 10.5 miles of trails on race day.

I merrily did the 10.5 mile course a week before race day. The ground was frozen solid with just a few icy patches. Frozen = no mud. Pretty good trail conditions.

Then this happened.

Crappy picture of lots of snow.

What to do, what to do? I knew I'd be near the back of the race pack, so the 8"-10" of snow would be nicely tamped down into a single track trail by the time I came through, but where's the fun in that? I decided to bring my snowshoes on race morning for a little something different, and recruited two random, but enthusiastic, strangers from the race's Facebook page to join me. I was pleasantly surprised to see a friend in the parking lot with borrowed snowshoes, so had company for the whole loop.

10.5 miles on showshoes? Sure. No problem.

10.5 miles in snowshoes was ambitious. I think the farthest I'd previously snowshoed was about 4 miles. The much anticipated tamped down single track trail wasn't all that tamped down due to powdery snow, and proved to be a bit narrow for snowshoes. As my legs got tired, I found myself kicking the insides of my ankles when I tried to go faster. Still great fun, though, and I'd do it again, given the opportunity. When I saw two of my friends walking about three miles from the end, I took off the 'shoes and had a nice snowy stroll to the finish with them. 

Bottom of my snow-caked showshoe at the mid-course aid station.
We were full of zest and zeal at that point, and posed for photo in some sort of lunge / squat / dip pose.

Same as last year, the aid stations at Frozen Heart were well stocked. Baked goods, candy, hot soup, hot and cold drinks, you name it... The race director and volunteer bakers and soup chefs outdid themselves. As expected, the volunteers were also wonderfully enthusiastic, especially given the frigid temperatures, even chillier when standing still. This year's race premium was an insulated travel mug, I'd take a picture, but then you'd see the water spots because I lazily put it in the dishwasher instead of hand washing it, Overall, Frozen Heart was a good experience. I definitely recommend this race if you're in the mood for a well supported winter trail run. 

Eating My Words for Six Hours (Last July)

Last summer, when I was all gung-ho about blogging, I started this blog post. I pretty much rewrote the whole thing this morning, though, because it was all OBE.

Anyway, there's this event called the Endless Summer Six Hour Run fairly local to me. For years, I said I'd never do it. Whenever one of my friends signed up for it, I went on about how they were begging for injury, heat exhaustion, or worse. Tick bites, lime disease, you name it, it was sure to happen on their six hour jaunt through a wooded park. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, I love the woods and hiking, but six hours on a paved four mile loop? Ewww.

Then Mother's Day weekend 2014 happened. (Read all about it here.) Over coffee, one of my training partners put a bug in my ear to sign up for the July 2014 event. I pondered it for several days. I was tired of running races for distance and time. By then, I'd stopped wearing my Garmin, or any watch, on most of my runs. I was just running for enjoyment, with no real goals in mind. But I kind of wanted a goal, or at least an event, to train for. Six hours, with no real distance? Six hours, with the option to walk, or even take a break and sit down, whenever I wanted? Sure. I decided to give it a try. After signing up, I joked that I'd be eating my words for six hours. Years of going on about how it was a bad idea and how it didn't sound fun? Umm yeah, I'd be eating those words. For six hours.

May, June, and most of July went on without any unusual events. Also without much training. I went for a four hour trail hike one day in June. Surely that was sufficient training, right?

No

To say I was undertrained is an understatement. The first three laps were fun. Then the suck factor increased along with the heat and humidity. My walk breaks got longer. I sat down and rested a few times. (There were benches along the path, begging me to take a rest.) In a futile attempt to alleviate the pain in my feet, I changed into flip flops for my final lap. I completed 22 miles and change.

The day wasn't a total wash. The ride there and back was fun, Five of us kept each other company in the Van of Regret. I ran parts of several laps with my friends. The food was good. Unlimited gummy bears, M&Ms, and pretzels every 4 miles? Yes, please! There was a post-race cookout in a pavilion. Grilled burgers and more gummy bears? Cookies? Homemade blueberry cream pie, that one of my friends brought? Sign me up! And the race swag couldn't be beat. I got an awesome silicone pint glass and singlet. It did take me several weeks to wear the singlet and use the pint glass, though. I had to get over my regret. Plus, the race supports a very worthy cause, the Semper Fi Fund.

Worth running for six hours on a paved path for? Probably.

And look, now you know what my bed sheets look like. Creep away.

Last weekend, my friends started talking about this event again. Although the groundhog saw his shadow yesterday, July 2015 is right around the corner. This time, though, several of us are forming relay teams. While waiting around between legs sounds boring, it won't be. We'll have each other! Lemonade, magazines, and pedicures!

Maybe I'll still be blogging in July and you'll get a race report. I'm sure you'll be holding your breath for it.