Frigid 8 and Thermal 3

I originally signed up for Thermal 3 (3 miles) but switched to 8 miles on the race morning.

The course was quite hilly (I was told there was ONLY one hill). It turned out that there were more than ONE and it's also windy. However, we were fortunate to have a nice weather on the race day (40F, sunny). I was glad to run 8 miles and get to spend more time on the road :)

Final time was okay. My average pace was 9.19 min/mile (improved from last time) but I'm happy with it. Better yet, I felt involved in the community for the first time. So, I wrote a post on my FB page below.

*Repost from my Facebook page*

Six months ago at an ITC race, I walked into the registration area to pick up the race package by myself. I did not know anyone and most people were there with their friends or family. At that time, we had been in EC for almost 2 years and still did not know many people. I felt out of place.

After the race, I sent an email to Paul Wagner asking why I should join‪#‎indianheadtrackclub‬. He got back to me with a number of reasons (approx. 2 paragraphs), which sounded really interesting to me. Before that I thought people who are in the running club need to be fast and I was not fast enough? I just started running 2 years ago and only ran my first half marathon in May (another story will be about me and winter running). How am I going to be running with those marathon runners?

Paul’s email convinced me and I joined the club, awkwardly showed up LATE at the board meeting where people looked at me and I could see “Who the heck are you?” message written on their faces. I then began going to the pub runs on Thursdays and the built up runs on Saturdays where I made a gazillion new friends (well, not that many but more than 10 for sure) who shared the same interest – running. One good thing about runners is that they make you feel they have known you for ages even though you just meet them for the first time. I was the slowest in the group but they were willing to slow down and ran with me.

Today I ran the last race of the year – Frigid 8 and Thermal 3. I originally signed up for the 3-mile run but switched to 8 because everyone I knew was going to run 8 miles. I walked into the registration area and realized that I knew a lot of people there. Such a different feeling from 6 months ago. I saw friends that I met through #indianheadtrackclub and‪#‎ChippewaValleyTrailRunners‬. They changed my perception of EC from a small, darn cold town in the Midwest where people eat fish fry and cheese curds to a town with great trails, great people, and secret restrooms wink emoticon‪#‎thankfulSyd‬

What a great way to conclude 2015 race year!