Rudolph's Revenge...terrible play on words

So, I haven't written in a while, so much has changed running wise. I was diagnosed with asthma last month (finally, the cause to my bronchitis that wouldn't go away for a year) and Advair is an amazing drug! My runs have been awesome lately, and on Thanksgiving I tested myself to a 4 mile race at the United Way Turkey Trot. 41 minutes later, I was hooked on racing all over again.

This weekend, I ran the 10K Rudolph's Revenge race at Chatfield State Park. Revenge is an understatement, more like Rudolph held me down on the ground and beat me repeatedly with that dang red nose. The race started out nice enough with only a few issues (I forgot my watch so had no idea what pace I was running, it was FREEZING outside, broke the string on my tights, and took 3 tries to make it to the starting line with my timing chip attached). I was holding what appeared to be a good pace at the 5K turn around point, and then the hills started coming, one after the other...for the last 4.5 miles of the race. Now, maybe if they were just hills (the 10k course was an out and back over the Chatfield damn) it would have been OK, but it has snowed 3 times in the past week, so said hills were snowpacked, or covered in loose powder, no wonder so many people had ice tracks on their shoes (mental note, must look into these). I finished the race in 73 min, and wasn't last!

I've decided the only way to vindicate myself at the next race in the series (Frosty's Frozen 5, I will run the 10 mile course) is to get outside more. While the treadmill has helped me build up to a comfortable 9/10 min pace (Turkey Trot was a prime example), I'm not getting the hill and weather conditions workout that I need. I'll be putting my new winter running gear to use this week and hitting the streets, back to my roots if you will :)

Up next: Frosty's Frozen 5 (10M January 2008); Snowman Stampede (20M February 2008); Greenland Trail 50k (April 2008)