Sunday, February 3, 2013

Polar Cap Four Miler Race Report

The Polar Cap Four Miler  was quite fun for yet another year.  The weather was cold but not unbearable.  There seemed to be a huge crowd although I haven't compared numbers to a previous year.  Now I have, there were more last year. But I got there more than an hour ahead and had to park in the farther parking lot which I have never had to do.  I was almost worried I had the wrong starting time.  My husband ended up coming with me so I parked him in the cafeteria and went off to find the bathroom.  Who is in line in front of me but Darlene so she was easy to find.
Before the race
We made our way to the start without too long to wait.  Once you take off you go past the finish line and then up a hill.  It isn't that much of a hill but maybe because it is in the beginning it feels like quite the challenge. There is someone at both Miles 1 and 2 yelling out your time.  Mile 1 was 9:18 for me and that felt okay.  Mile 2 has a bit of a downhill and I did that one in 8:58.  Loved it! I have now compared my times to last year and each mile is so similar!  

We're off!

This is a picture Darlene took after the race. It is at
the beginning of Mile 2 looking down on Lake George.
One of the things I like about this race is that it has both 
ups and downs.

I had a number of people that I kept changing places with and it was a nice challenge to keep up with them.  There is a very long hill at the end of Mile 3 and going into Mile 4.  I actually did okay here and managed to stay ahead of some people from this point until the end.  Mile 3 was my slowest mile at 9:38 and Mile 4 was 9:11.  My overall time was 37:06 well under the 38 I wanted to be under.  I really was shooting for under 37 once I saw how I was doing but I didn't quite make it.  My husband was at the finish to get some photos of both Darlene and me.  We placed 2nd and 3rd in our age group which is the same as last time we were both here.  Yay us!  My overall pace was 9:17 which was better than the 5K I did on New Year's Day - quite a bit better!  

On my way to the finish.  

Same design as last year but not on white!

Our lunch bags.


I did get my husband to do a little shopping with me after.  We went to Target and I bought an ironing board - exciting right?  Then I got some pants that were 70% off at Eddie Bauer.  I also bought a slip that needs to be returned.  I was exhausted and had no desire to go out last night but we did.  I was also cold and just couldn't get warm.  But it was nice to see some people I haven't seen in awhile and we didn't stay too late!  Man, am I old!  


12 comments:

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

Congrats on the great race time! Starting off with a hill is tough, but then you sped down the hill in mile 2! That's also a great deal on the pants!

Ana-Maria RunTriLive said...

Congrats on the race!

Char said...

We had an evening outing too this weekend. I'm not big into evening events because I'm old and like to go to bed early. Or rather I get up early to run so I like to go to bed early. But it ended up with us staying almost to midnight. Admittedly I yawned quite a lot but I managed to surprise all the kids with how late I could party. Maybe not so old after all.
Well done on such a good race. It's good to hear that your splits were so close to last year's. And the over-all time was faster than you thought. That's a good race!

Kate Geisen said...

Congratulations on the AG win! :) Great job overall! The race sounds like a good one...don't think I've ever done a 4-mile race. It definitely looks cold.

I'm really glad we have a Target in town. I love that place! Nice of your husband to go along and put up with shopping. :)

Unknown said...

Yay! Placing AG... very cool, especially d 2nd and 3rd with a friend. Great pace! I would love to run that race. I always run faster in the cold weather. The tropical weather really affects my pace.

Liz said...

Great running and a really good finish time - well done! It looks so cold so I think you all did well just to turn up. I love the design on the bags.

Johann said...

Well done, you ran a good race! That is an odd distance for a race. I love the pics with the snow! Congrats with the Age Group placings!

Fran said...

Congratulations on a great race, well done!

Teamarcia said...

Congrats! How cool you found Darlene! I hit up Eddie Bauer this weekend as well. They need to stop sending me coupons.

Teamarcia said...

Congrats! How cool you found Darlene! I hit up Eddie Bauer this weekend as well. They need to stop sending me coupons.

Kandi said...

Congrats! Age group award and a faster pace than your last 5k.

Black Knight said...

Glad you met our blogger friend Darlene.
Congrats on the finishing time and the good race.
I have never raced with all that ice everywhere but I would like (impossible dream for the injury and because here the weather is always good).