Notes
Official Splits:
LAP1 55:30, LAP2 55:34, LAP3 56:48, LAP4 57:18, LAP5 57:18
Frozen Gnome is a pretty low key trail race is Crystal Lake Illinois. You might think there is no way decent single track or hills exist 60 miles north of Chicago… but they are real and on par in terms of difficulty with the hillier sections on the southern portion of Ice Age trail, you just need to run a lot of loops. The race is also “green” which means they didn’t have cups of water for the runners. You were expected to bring your own hand held or hydration pack, and get water or sports drink at the two aid stations on the course (at the start and 4 mile point of the loop).
The toughest decision for race day was what to wear. I ended up going with tights, two pairs of windblocking briefs, and just a single long sleeve shirt under a soft shell jacket. It ended up being perfect for the zero degree weather and I was on the razors edge of cold and hot off and on throughout the race. To keep my water from freezing, I brought an ice chest filled with hot packs at the aid station and kept my hand held in there since there was no way I could keep it from freezing even if I am running with it.
I got to the start 5 minutes beforehand and found Paul, Francesco, Todd, and Keith. It was freezing (literally 0F) and the RD tried to start early but people were streaming to the start line trying to get there at the very last minute. The first loop was tough, for the most part we were breaking trail and within the first two miles everyone went the wrong way (including me).
I looked at my watch and saw we were running mostly 9 minute miles and that still felt too hard knowing I had to maintain that for 50k. I hung with Francesco and Paul as best as I could because I knew if I didn’t have some idea where they were, I would have no chance of catching them later even if they slowed down. I came through the first loop pretty close behind them, but they built a gap on me during second loop.
At the end of the second loop Paul dropped saying if he went on it was going to be a recipe for injury (duh, Paul has some cojones to even start this thing after his 4:53 mile Friday night). That put me in second place behind Francesco.
The 3rd loop Francesco seemed to pick up the pace but I could tell he was suffering on the hills as he was walking up most of the steeper ones. Even so, he added close to a 2 minute gap near the end of loop 3. Most of loop 3 was catching glimpses of him through the trees but not being less than 30 seconds behind him. By that point I was already suffering pretty badly on the steep uphills. I got a report halfway into loop 3 that Francesco is 40 seconds ahead of me and 3rd place is 3 minutes behind me. As I came into the aid station Francesco was leaving and I stopped for maybe 30 seconds trying to keep him in sight.
We finish loop 3 and it seemed like Francesco had backed off the pace a little, which was good because there was no way I was going to be able to hold the pace we did for the first three loops and it seemed like the trail had gotten worse. I kept him in sight most of the time and as we were leaving leg bone (and out and back section with a loop) I caught up to him walking down the trail. I asked him if he was okay and he said he twisted his ankle. He said go on, he would be okay. Luckily there were volunteers at the intersection who could help him if he needed it.
The last part of the 4th loop I tried to haul ass so I could put a gap on anyone behind me. I run into the aid station for my final loop and don’t stop for water. I try to push the pace as much as I can the last few miles but I am exhausted and every few steps I am slipping on the snow. As I come out of legbone again, Jeff, who is directing runners tells me that he still hasn’t seen second place yet, which means I have at least a mile lead if not more.
From there to the finish it is just about finishing strong (about 2 miles), don’t be a wimp and keep running. I am counting the number of hills left to the finish, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… and then I am finally running into the finish area. I loop around and some dude is loping into the finish probably on his 4th lap. I put on as much speed as I can to pass him and actually get a picture of me crossing the finish line looking like I won (rather than behind some guy going 5 MPH).