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 chose the new Halloween 5km course for their Frosty race, shifting from the traditional 3-mile distance.
I completed this race for the sixth consecutive year, one week after the Blue Gray 1/2 Marathon. I’m having eye surgery on Friday, so I’m sticking with my current meds, including Flecainide and Eliquis. Because of the drug effects, I planned to walk most of the up hills. Also, my cardiologist has me on a 7-day halter monitor. We’ll see what they get from my race stats.
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. I had no goal of a podium finish in my age group.
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.
With a race start time of 9:30 am, I started my warm-up at 8:45. I ran on the bike path that paralleled the race course, mixing 30-pace runs with 60-pace walks. In some of the repeats, I ran more than 30 paces. I went past the half-mile point and did 2 miles.
Today’s goals are to run as much as I can and do my best.
At 9:20 am, the weather was 36 degrees with a 26-degree dew point, partly cloudy skies, and seven mph winds from the south. I decided to wear tights over compression shorts, an overshirt over a long-sleeved shirt, a neck gaiter, gloves, a knit cap, and my Saucony Triumph 23 shoes. My compression shorts had a pocket to hold the heart monitor collection device. I had four leads stuck to my chest and wired to the collector.
I stayed in the sun behind the pack. With 3 minutes to go, I shuffled through the start corral to a spot where the people ahead of me didn’t seem like roadblocks. I wanted to go out at a 10-minute-per-mile pace. Starting further back would require weaving through slower bodies.
The race director blew the starting horn, and we were off, going uphill. I’m running at a relaxed pace. Within the first 100 meters, a runner in front of me fell. I stopped and turned around to make sure nobody ran into her. Others helped her get up. After 200 meters, the course heads downhill. For the first time on this course, I did not take half-mile splits. Most of the first half mile is downhill. After I crossed the bridge at the bottom, I walked the up.
I ran the next down, then walked the up. My first mile was a 10:42.
As I headed to the turnaround, I watched for the others in my Grand Prix age group. If they were not in the first 83 males, I would win my age group in the series. Both were running close together, farther back than I expected.
The wind was to my back for the first mile and a half. At the Mine Road turnaround, we turned into the wind. With the outbound warm condition, the wind was cold, and I pulled the overshirt sleeves over my hands. I continued walking up the hills, and my second mile was an 11:05. For this second mile, a gray-haired man was moving at my same pace. He did not take walk breaks, so he pulled away from me when I walked, and came back during my runs. He was a good target to shoot at.
Then, we turned up on Embrey Mill Road. For some reason, I ran up and then back down to Mine Road.
Once on Mine Road, I continued my walk pattern. When I got back to Shields, a kid was running with his dad on the adjacent path, riding a bike. I tell the kid to keep moving, “It’s only going to hurt for 3 minutes.” By this time, I had run the down faster than my target. I ran to the finish.
My third mile was an 11:12. When I looked at my watch, I thought it was a low 32 minutes. If I ran hard, I could break 33.
As I approached the finish line, I saw the display clock read over 33 minutes. I must have read my watch wrong. Still, I pushed hard. My final .10686 miles was in 54, even with the final up.
My heart rate never exceeded 140 but peaked at 145 during the final push. I was happy with what I ran.
I crossed the finish line at 33:53, 276th overall, 140th male, and 5th of 14 in the 60-69 age group.
I walked a short cooldown and changed into warm clothes. Then, I hung around for the awards ceremony and ate a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
That’s a wrap for 2025 racing, on to 2026.
This race was my 228th and 70th consecutive finish in Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix events. And, I finished first in the 65 to 69 age group for the 2025 Grand Prix.