Happy Saturday! How’s your weekend going? Mines great but going to fast! I’m not ready to head back to reality tomorrow.

Frostbite Series 10 Mile Race

We woke up bright and early this morning to head to Forest Park in downtown St. Louis for the Frostbite Series 10 miler race!

The Frostbite Series is put on by the STL Track Club. They host a race every other weekend during the winter months. There is a short course and long course. Today’s races were a 2 miler and 10 miler, and I was registered for the long course.

We arrived to the Forest park Visitors Center with 45 minutes until race time. Nick and I got my bib and camped out by this cute Christmas tree until race time.

We lined up outside with about 5 minutes to spare. I wanted to be close to the front of the pack since it was an air horn start. My chip would track when I crossed the finish but not the start line.

And I was off! It was a fairly busy race, but I ran by myself for the most part.

The course was painful to say the least. I felt like I was running uphill the whole way, and I was losing steam fast. I literally wanted to stop at the 3 mile mark which is not like me at all!

I pushed through (barely!) and ran the whole route with a 8:26/mile pace. I even got the hang of the water cup hand off thing and got 2 drinks! I thought I was destined to smash that cup of water in the volunteer’s hand but luckily that didn’t happen.

I was all smiles as I crossed the finish line in 1:25:50. But it faded fast. I was pushing through one of the worst side cramps ever during the last 30 seconds.

Cute, I know. That is the look of sheer pain and relief at the same time. I was happy to have Nick greet me at the finish. He’s my number 1 fan!

I snacked on some water and pretzels as my cramp subsided post race. And we headed home. I was a little sick from the hills and needing some real food ASAP!

Yay! We did stop at the nearest Panera Bread Co. though. More coffee was a must!

It was a great experience, and I feel very prepared for my half marathon in January now. It’s on the same route, just obviously 3.1 miles longer. 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to Springfield. Back to real life and regular race training. I’ll be looking for lots of hills to train on between now and January!

Have a great night!