It’s great not to get a Garmin account until you are 67 and recovering from a heart procedure. Today, Garmin told me I surpassed my 5km PR, not knowing my times running many years ago: Woohoo, another Garmin PR.
It’s all my fault. I measured a modified 5km course for the Halloween 5km that used all of Mine Road with a little spur up Embrey Mill Road. In 2023, the race organizers decided to use the new Halloween 5km course for their Frosty race, changing from the traditional 3-mile distance.
I completed this race for the fifth consecutive year, one week after the Blue Gray 1/2 Marathon. I ran without restriction, not worrying about keeping my heart rate under 150. I forgot to turn the high heart rate alarm off, which went off during the first uphill.
The Frosty 5 km was the last race in this year’s Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix. The Grand Prix is a year-long series of 12 races in and around the city, managed by the Fredericksburg Area Running Club. The series attracts the region’s fastest racers. Prerace, I already determined that I would finish fourth in my age group unless one competitor failed to finish in front of me today.
This course has very few flat sections. It is a simple out-and-back on Mine Road with a .05-mile uphill spur on Embrey Mill Road. To the Mine Road turnaround is 1.5 miles. The spur starts at the 2-mile mark. There is a kid’s mile race before the 5 km race. So, their turnaround point is 1/2 mile from the start. With the 1-mile turnaround marked, taking 1/2-mile splits is possible.
With a race start time of 9:30 am, I started my warmup at 8:40. I ran on the bike path that paralleled the racecourse, doing three-minute segments. In some of the segments, I ran 30 paces and walked the remainder. In others, I ran the entire 3 minutes.
When I reached the kids’ halfway point, it was not marked. A pylon was well past the correct location, and even at the pylon, there were no course marshals or marks.
On my return run, I told one of the race organizers what I found. I don’t know if they corrected the issue. It may have been too late, as I saw the mile pack approaching me. During the 5km, there were two course marshals at the pylon.
Today’s goals are running the entire race and trying to break 33 minutes.
At 9:20 am, the weather was 31 degrees with a 20-degree dew point, cloudy skies, and five mph winds from the north. I decided to wear compression shorts over compression shorts, an overshirt over a singlet over a long-sleeved shirt, a neck gaiter, gloves, a knit cap, and my Saucony Triumph 22 shoes. Those are the same shoes that gave me a blister at last week’s Blue Gray half-marathon. I have not used them since then.
I shuffled through the start corral to a point where most people in front of me did not appear to be roadblocks. I wanted to go out at a 10-minute-per-mile pace. Starting further back would require weaving through slower bodies.
Buddy the Elf fired the starter’s pistol, and we were off going uphill. I’m running at a relaxed pace. After 200 meters, the course heads downhill. The first half mile is 5:03. I clicked my watch where I knew the half mile was rather than the pylon. Most of the first half mile is downhill.
My second half mile is 5:18, a good first mile. I’m not feeling any strain and am sticking with my plan.
The first mile and a half was into the wind. At the Mine Road turnaround, the wind was finally out of our faces, and I pulled the overshirt sleeves off my hands, as I didn’t need them to keep my fingers warm.
The third and fourth 1/2 miles continued to roll. I did those segments in 5:34 and 5:21.
Then, we turned up on Embrey Mill Road.
I ran 6:28 for the next .6 miles. Approaching the finish line, I saw the display clock nearing 33 minutes. If I pushed, I could be close to my time goal, and my last 1/2 mile was a 5:11.
My mile splits were 10:21, 10:55, 10:43, and 0:56. My heart rate splits were 144, 149, 151, and 159. During the uphills, my heart rate exceeded 150 and didn’t peak at 159 until the final finish push. I was happy with what I ran.
I crossed the finish line at 32:58 for 238th overall, 130th male, and 9 of 18 in the 60 to 69 age group.
I walked a short cooldown. Then, I hung around for the awards ceremony, presented Grand Prix completion medals, and ate a Krispy Kreme chocolate-covered doughnut. I received a Grand Prix medal for finishing all 12 races in the series.
This race was the fourth in the 2024 Stafford Race series. After finishing all four, we received the series medal and some strange balls.
With three medals in one day, my pile is getting higher.
That’s a wrap for 2024 racing, on to 2025.
This race was my 216th and 58th consecutive finish in Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix events.