Frostbite Half Marathon Race Report

Since I joined Daily Mile, I've been writing about my running on there, but it's just not the same.  I hope to be a regular blogger again even if no one reads!

I had a great end to the year with PR's in October in both the half marathon and 10K.   I also paced my husband for his 2nd half marathon, but the course was only 12.65.  Can we still count that?  That would have been my 11th half.   In November and December, I didn't really race, but I joined a Crossfit gym and worked on getting strong!   I finally achieved kipping pull ups and climbed the rope to the top and got to where I can do 4 or 5 double unders sort of in a row with a single in between.   I never quite mastered split jerks and such.  I did almost break my nose in a push press gone awry.  My nose was black/green/gray for 12 days, no lie!   That is hard to cover up with concealer.  After that, my heart just wasn't in it and I decided to focus on running instead.

In January, I started training for the KY Derby Marathon.   I'm also leading a training group for the Y for the Country Music Half Marathon with about 13 people.

Today I repeated the Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite Half Marathon that I ran 3 years ago, except the course was in reverse.  I learned that
A.  The course was better the other way, or at least easier! 
B.  I need to train more on hills. 
C.  Sometimes a race turns into just a training run. 
D.  My "you know what kind of day you are going to have by mile 4" rule still works.
E.  I have to run my own race.
F.  18 mile per hour winds and 30 degrees equal a windchill of 13 and that is painful on one's face.
G.  I cough a lot after being exposed to a windchill of 13 for approximately 2:14:30. 
H.  After 2 hours and 14 minutes, your hands are numb despite the presence of gloves.
I.  Adding in a warm up mile and a very, very slow (lots of walking) cool down mile lets you log 15 miles.  
J.  "Running Against the Wind" would have been very apropo.  But it never came on.  Is it even on my mp3?  
K.  Just because a race is only $6 (state parks series), doesn't equal a good buy if the course is kind of crappy, there are ZERO restrooms for 13.1, there is almost no food and drink at the finish, and they run out of coffee before you get any on a day when the wind chill is 13.  Did I mention the windchill was 13?
L.  Sometimes you don't have much fun in a race and no one talks to you.
M.  When that happens, you can always talk to God.   He listened and even gave me some lovely lightly falling snow between miles 7 and 8.
N.  I'm not doing the Frostbite Half Marathon ever again.

That is all.