I got out of bed at 7:15, grumbling because I had to shovel the walk and uncover my car before I had to meet Jen in Minneapolis in 8:45 to catch our bus to Lake Harriet. Race time was 9:30. There was about 5-7" outside my front door.
At around 8 am I was ready to make my way to Minneapolis. I got as far as Morton St. and Smith Ave. and got stuck. Luckily, a car came up behind me and a nice gentleman got out of his car and gave me a push into the intersection. Now I was on my way. The plows were out on the major highways so they weren't too bad.
The race was held at Lake Harriet, which is by the Uptown area of Minneapolis. Jen and I parked at the meters by the Uptown Theater and then walked to the bus shelter and waited for the 6D.
After a quick bus ride through Uptown, we arrived at the Lake Harriet bandshell, where the race both began and ended. It was breath-taking, and not only because it was 20 degrees out!
You can see what this trail looks like and that's pretty much what the race route looked like for the 3.1 miles around the lake. It was very hard to run on and we definitely got a core workout as well as we kept our balance.
There were a lot of people! I'm always amazed at how many people will show up for a race in 8" of snow. This was another fun run like the Blubber Run - people brought their kids, pets, and they dressed up. I was tempted to take pics of all the fun outfits, but as I mentioned before, it was 20 degrees out and my fingers got very cold every time I took off my mittens to take a pic. There were a bunch of Santas, elves, candy canes, presents, and even a guy in metallic gold tights.
In this picture you can see the tower of balloons on the left side. This was the start of the race. What we didn't know is that the balloons marked the front of the line and the end of the line was back by the trees. We had to trudge through the snow to the back of the line and then we were ready to run! From our spot at the end of the line we had a good view of the bandshell and the lake behind it (looking into the sun).
Notice that Jen and I are sporting our blaze orange Fox40 whistles! We were dressed up as out of shape PE teachers. We had a system set up as well: 2 whistle blows for "I lost you!" (which we only did once, and why we had to create a call for that) and 3 for an emergency, such as falling into a snow bank or having a heart attack. Luckily, we didn't have to use our whistles, although Jen tooted hers in celebration as we were closing in on the finish line.
We started the race, but it was very frustrating. People with dogs and strollers were supposed to start behind all of the runners, but were mixed in with us. People would walk all over the route instead of staying to one side or another. One annoying girl kept jogging past us and then she would stop and walk right in front of us. Actually, quite a few groups would be walking and we'd jog past them only to have them run past us to start walking in front of us again. This is my main criticism of 5K runs. You're in such a clump at the start that it's impossible to jog your pace and therefore your time is always slower than it should be. We crossed the finish line at 46:16 (by my watch, the race was not chipped), but we guess that we could have been anywhere from 2-4 minutes faster had we not been all clumped together.
During the race my hips were the only things that were yelling at me. Jen's Achilles' tendon was bothering her. I wasn't cold until I stopped at the finish line and the sweat started to chill me. My glasses didn't fog up too badly until a bunch of snow fell off of a tree and hit me square in the right eye. But that's all par for the course of a snowy run. We finished and stocked up on water, bananas, chips, and protein bars. The Luna white chocolate macadamia nut ones were my favorite and I wished I had grabbed more than two. Now I know for next time.
We only had to wait for about five minutes until the bus came and took us back to Uptown. We got off the bus and paid it forward to a woman whose Scion was stuck in the snow. We both got behind her and pushed. That's what I love about Minnesota in the winter - we all stick together and help each other out! And then we got back to our cars only to find parking tickets to the tune of $42...so all in all the Reindeer Run cost us $65, but we did get free protein bars!
To celebrate our calorie burn we decided to have brunch at the Uptown Diner. We both got the #2, which includes two eggs, French toast, and bacon. And we split a side of cheesy hashbrowns, just in case we didn't eat back the calories burned with the first three things.
It was a fun race with a great friend and we're looking forward to our next 5K.
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