TeamRunningFree pic
TeamRunningFree info

Frosty Trail Run

On Saturday Jan 22nd,  I ran my first Race of the year, the Frosty Trail Run.

This was a low frills race of 3 and 6 hours on a looping trail.

This was the first time this event was run. And it all started last October as we finished up a 6hr Trail Run, on a 2.5k loop course, called Horror Hill. As we were leaving, one of the regulars on the OUSer series commented to the RD that there weren’t any Ultra’s until April in our area. So the RD said he would look at putting on an event at the same venue in January. Some of us off our medications, having just finished a 6hr trail run, thought this was a good idea.

So the RD set-up this event.

However this has been a year of heavier snowfall, earlier in the season and sticking around, for that area.

During the week the RD was out on the course shovelling the trails. He e-mailed us an update that he had shortened the course to 2k, taking out the biggest hill and providing lots of double track.

Weather forecast for the day was originally for damn cold, but as we got closer to the event the forecast improved slightly. It would still be a challenge to dress for a 6hr event. But they also were going to provide us with hot cider at the aid station and chilli afterwards.

Friday night, I got all my gear ready, plus some extra. An early morning start, after a good breakfast and drove the two hours to get there my usual hour early, being the fourth runner to arrive. Which meant, I got a nice close parking spot and a good place inside the hall to drop my extra gear.

Used the hour to finish prepping my gear and meet up with some friends and Running Free teammates.

There ended up being 19 of us running the 6hr and another 21 doing the 3hr event.

During the pre-race briefing the RD informed us that the trail was clearly marked, by the shovelled pass through the 1-2 feet of snow and that there were passing areas, where ever he took a rest break from shovelling and made some wider areas. Other than those, any passing would have to be done on the brief stretch of camp road we were running on, or through the deep snow.

Starting temp was -13 with a windchill of -20, so I went with a very light weight base shirt, a medium weight base shirt, medium weight wind jacket, knee high compression socks, very light base tights, regular tights, my icebug shoes with gaiters, neck gaiter, hat and gloves.

So 9am and we’re off only to learn that maybe the RD over exaggerated a little. His definition of shovelling was not the same as mine. He cleared a 10 inch wide trough, leaving in most cases 2-3 inches in the bottom. There were the occasional packed sections as well as two or three with 7-8 inches.  And the passing zones? Well, I saw one about 3 feet long. A short section where we had two-way traffic. And one wind blown section that was only 2-3 inches deep, but everywhere else snow from 8 inches to 2 feet depending on drifting. At least the road sections, two stretches totalling about 500 meters, were plowed and only had a thin coating of packed snow. Made for a slow start until everyone spread out and fun when being lapped or lapping other runners.

Ended up no warm drinks at the aid station, e-mail that went out the night before, which I missed indicated water, Gatorade and Heed . Actually, ice water and Gatorade and Heed slushies. Now I like a good Gatorade slushy, when it’s 25-30 not necessarily when it’s -20. Although I did partake on some of my loops, I do tend to not count entirely on course supplies and had dropped my cooler at the aid station. Inside along with some clothing items and snacks I had my little cooler with heated gel packs and warm pre-mixed gel flasks and my own Gatorade (all of which stayed warm the entire 6 hours).

Due to the lovely trail conditions, I was getting a great workout, but my clothing was icing up pretty good. About the half way point the windchill warmed up to -19 so as I came into the aid station I decided to change. While I had a snack, I pried off my neck gaiter and pulled my coat and mid-weight shirt off, both of which had their sleeves frozen solidly together. Off with the remaining wet base shirt, and on with a new light weight base shirt, light weight jacket, new lighter hat and gloves (all of which had been stashed in my cooler) and I was off for the second half. Of course now that I was dressed lighter the windchill dropped back to -20, but at least I didn’t ice up again.

Although my ass was dragging I continued to lap a few runners and had completely lost track of how often the leaders had lapped me. I do have to work on my trail technique, when running the road section I actually caught up to the leader after he lapped me and continued to run with him until we hit the trail again.

When the horn sounded I had completed about 22.67 loops – 43.98k. The winner had done over 30 laps.

After the walk back in, I quickly changed to dry clothes and enjoyed several bowls of the promised chilli. Enjoyed the company of my friends and teammates, packed up my gear and endured a long drive home, it having started to snow just as we finished the race.

Not sure if I’d do this race again as it appears I don’t do well on snowy trail runs (I did over 34 miles at this venue in Oct).

Still it was interesting/different and I did have a good time with my friends and RF teammates, who all did well, considering the conditions.

One thing I didn’t prepare. Before leaving I went to take some pictures of the trail. Camera battery was dead.

Official results have me finishing 9/19, 22.77 laps – 44.11k

Related Posts

No related posts found.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.