Average

That is me.  Average.  At least in today's race, among the men.  Finished 92 out of 184.  Little below average in my age group, much better than last year, when I finished dead last in AG.

When I woke up this morning all I could hear was the wind howling.  I knew it was supposed to be windy, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be.  Temps were in the low 30's, 20ish mph winds.  Lovely, but still much better than last year. 

Then to top things off, while still in bed, I hear the snowplow come down the street.  Great.  But it was worse than snow, a nice little layer of ice came down overnight.  Welcome to 2012.

And there is your setting to the 2012 New Years Day Dash.  5-miles of fun and excitement to start your year.

My race number, only interesting because it also happens to be our house number.

I do really need to start taking pictures at these events.  For today that is all you get.

Typical prerace, but within the first 100-200 yards of starting it was clear that this wasn't going to be a fast race, at least for most. It was slippery.  Much of the field immediately went to the grass between the sidewalk and the road.  Myself included.  Problem with this, other than the uneven footing, were the slippery driveways every so often.  Fun. 

I spent a good part of the race in the grass, either off the road, or off the bike path.  The concrete curb and gutter at the edge of the road was often the second best option, but the road was very hit and miss.  Sometimes it was good, then it got real slick without warning.

Other than the obvious difficulties of running under these circumstances, when running in the grass or at the road edge, the course basically became a no passing zone.  Settle in behind the one in front of you, or risk passing and going down on the ice.  I only saw one fall, but my friend Wade went down three times.

All things considered, it was still a good race.  The wind was coming from a direction where we didn't spend a lot of time going directly into it.  Lots of cross wind and the occasional tail wind.  I spent a lot of time taking off a hat, or a glove, or unzipping, or bundling back up for a turn into the wind.  Things you get used to running in Wisconsin in the winter.

Finished in 42:28 with unofficial splits of 8:58, 8:52, 8:17, 8:20, and 8:00.  Happy with my time all things considered, was hoping to run 41 on a dry course.  Registered today for the Point Bock Run in early March.  Another 5-mile run where I set my PR of 39:20 at this distance in 2010.  That PR is definitely going down come March, provided there is no ice.