Freeze or Fog 5k & Quarter Marathon

Today was the Frost or Fog 5k/Quarter Marathon in Chico, CA. It does make me wonder, why 1/4 Marathon? It seems like an odd distance to me. Why not 8k, or 10k?

I did the 5k. My PR for the 5k is 25:09, my goal was to break 25:00. I didn't, but I came close: 25:13. You can tell I was trying in the first mile, but the route was funky, getting down to one-runner width at times. They tried to keep us off the street, and in the process took us on some skinny trails.



You can tell how wacky it was from the Google Earth map (click for a larger version).



Mile 1: 7:53.01
Mile 2: 8:32.40
Mile 3: 8:10.64
0.1 Mi: :37.40 (6:34/mi)



Now if only I could have maintained that 6:34 for the whole run, I would have jammed! :)

In the end it all turned out ok. I was 8th in my age group, out of 12, and 17th place overall. Average pace was 8:09/mi. Official time was 25:16, which is pretty darn close to my Garmin's 25:13. Click here for a complete list of times, and here for age group. Interestingly, with me being #8 in 30-39, and #17 overall, 8 of the top 17 finishers were in my age group.

Afterwards, they had Knudsen Recharge as a sports drink. It didn't taste all that great, only had like 50mg of sodium, and 30mg of potassium. I would have preferred a Powerade Zero, but I left that at home.

They did make up for it for food though. They had fresh bagels, peanut butter (I don't do cream cheese), this apricot coffee cake that was DELICIOUS, and all sorts of rice chips. They also had organic rice cakes, which I got for my wife.

The organizers were very friendly and forthcoming with things. I watched them do the timing, which I hadn't seen before. They didn't use chips, they went with a system you runners are already familiar with. One person sat at a laptop clicking the lap button for each runner. People at the finish line were grabbing the tags off the bibs, which they put in the same order as the laps. Then they just input the bib numbers in the order they were stacked, and printed it up. Easy to get wrong, but they had times posted pretty quick.

All in all, it was a good morning. A little chilly at first, but certainly not anywhere near some of those lows in places like Chicago. By the time I was driving home, it was well into the 50s.

Tomorrow's my long run. 10 miles. I'll have to do it in the afternoon, which I really can't complain about. It's going to be a nice day.

Today's Tweets

05:45 Wt: 165.6, RHR: 51 #

07:59 Good morning, all. I'm at work. I'm sure you're glad. #

08:01 OH man, I just overheard the accountant tell Janitor that he needs a raise to make 3, no, 4 times what he makes now (cont) #

08:02 (cont) but when they give it to him, the catch is he'll have to stop asking if the checks are ready, and stop refusing to get direct deposit #

08:02 That made my morning, man. :) #

08:21 Frost or Fog 5k tomorrow! I'm angling for a PR, gotta get under 25 min. #

09:21 I need to reduce my tweets.93 Updates/Day: Tweets 36X more than the Twitter founders! 60% Conversation Chatty 8%. Yipes! Links Linked #

09:58 Testing out TweetDeck. Eh, not too bad. #

10:02 Well this is much nicer. Beats the webpage all to he-double-hockeysticks. #

10:16 On the lighter side of things, ladies, can you do this? SFW: tinyurl.com/9p6qrb #

10:24 Ooh, ooh, BSG's back tonight! Frakkin' ay. #

10:27 Hey look, Diet Dew! *gulp* #

10:35 Just got an email: new Dharma Special Access video, dharmaspecialaccess.com/, pass: bharosa #

12:14 At the gym, because it's Business Time. #

13:39 Back from the gym. HOO-WEE, was that good. Weight workout + 30 Day Shred Level 3 on the Treo. It worked out VERY well. #

13:40 250 calories in 20 minutes with 30 Day Shred! #

13:51 I love you too, evaporated. You're so much more colorful here than on TCF! #

13:51 Much more odorific, too. #

13:57 I wish users would figure out the term "multitasking" as it pertains to a computer. #

14:12 But I'm with you, we need more Lois. Preferably in a bikini, in slow motion, coming out of the water. #

14:21 What I said: "Unplug the cable from the wall." What he heard: "Unplug the cable from the computer." English, people! English! #

15:22 MapMyFitness.com: Completed 1/16/2009. 121 (kcal). 00:24:15 #

15:25 MapMyFitness.com: Completed 1/16/2009. 250 (kcal). 00:20:23 #

15:28 I wish MapMyFitness would post a link to the workout when it posted to twitter. Minor beef. #

16:13 I gotta say, I'm diggin' TweetDeck. I gotta get it installed at home. #

16:43 And with that, I just realized, it's time to head home. Narf. #

17:06 As I bought my Diet dew a guy in a Firefox t-shirt walked in. As got in the car a guy with a Transformers shirt walked out. #

19:20 back from eating dinner #

20:19 It's not a cool car that I drive, barely well but still alive, you might laugh when I arrive, it's not a cool car that I drive. #

20:20 It's now -24 haha #

20:20 It's not a cold couch where I sleep, 10 feet wide, 11 feet deep. Pray the lord, my soul to keep, it's not a cold couch where I sleep. #

20:24 well much anyway #

20:27 My wife's stopped making mashed potatoes, and has replaced them with mashed sweet potatoes. And I like it. #

20:28 Oh geez, I still have week 3, day 3 pushups to do. #

20:28 After the walking pushups in the 30 day shred, I dunno #

21:30 Well... 100 Pushup Challenge Week 3, Day 3 FAIL!!! 22, 30, 20, 20, 5... 3... I'm done. Does this mean I repeat Week 3 next week? #

21:43 That's it for me. I'm off to bed. Nite all. #

21:46 MapMyFitness.com: Completed 1/16/2009. 00:10:00 #

22:04 New post on my blog: Weight Workout + 30 Day Shred + 100 Pushup FAIL!: Gee, Wally. How can w.. tinyurl.com/85np83 #

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