Frosty Footrace 2017 Race Report
Ugh. Change is hard. And not all change is good! (duh)
I won’t get in to the WHOLE whiny story, since I’ve posted about it before. I’ve done the Frosty Footrace 5K for nine years now, and it’s one of the few races I actually “race” for time, because I love running in cold weather. This year they changed it to a two-mile “all-terrain” course. Read: running on a rocky golf cart path.
I was bummed my yearly goal 5K was changed to two miles, and I was concerned about running on a rocky course in potential snow, ice and/or mud. I was on the fence about whether or not I’d do it, but I decided to when they called and asked me what shirt size I wanted – maybe I’d end up liking it?
Eh.
Pre-race organization was efficient and organized. There was a heated shelter to hang out in pre race (the golf course headquarters). They mentioned there was a free (alcoholic) drink tab on my bib to use after the race. And I looked at my bib and it didn’t even have my name on it… huh? How are they gonna record my time? FORESHADOWING.
The course was fine – the rocks remind me of the shoulders I run on frequently now. Luckily, there wasn’t snow, ice or mud. It was a sunny, SUPER WINDY day (yay), with steady winds in the 20 mph range with gusts in the mid 30s. The temperature was in the mid 30s with a much lower “feels like.” (I had a hard time dressing for this, and also, deciding if I’d wear my trail shoes or run with music. I was content with all my choices (no trail shoes and music)).
The two mile loop was straight forward to follow – it was the one way golf cart course. The race was actually more than two miles – about two and a tenth. They even announced before the race “it’s around two.” Eyeroll.
Ricky and me – I used him as a rabbit last year at Frosty! Not this year though!
I pushed it. I wanted to finish averaging 8:00 minute miles. Of course, my first mile was my fastest, at 7:33. My stomach protested halfway through, but I knew there was only one woman ahead of me (the same woman who wins the race, overall, each year) and wanted to keep pushing.
And… I sort of did? We had been running straight in to the wind for quite a bit and I got to a turn that pushed that nasty wind right in to my face and saw my pace drop in to the mid 8:00s. I hoped I would get a push from the wind when I turned, but it wasn’t much (it usually isn’t, except at the Wisconsin Half last year, whoa!).
My second mile was 7:52, and a woman passed me right before the finish. Darn! But, expected with my dropping pace! I finished in 16:25 (which is an average 7:44 pace).
I was excited to finish third woman overall, but confused when I stopped and they didn’t take my bib stub and handed me a finisher’s medal. Um, what?
You can actually see the confused look on my face.
Sigh.
The advertising for this race was so screwed up. Sometimes it was listed as three miles, and sometimes two. But they always listed that there would be age group awards, which encouraged me to push it during the race. I WANT SOME AGE GROUP BLING!
Well, guess what? There wasn’t official timing or awards. What the eff. And I would have been first in my age group – I asked the woman who finished in front of me her age (ha), and she was older.
The marketing person came up to me after the race to ask what I thought of the change. I listed all my complaints, and shared some positives, too (like the organization at the event). I asked her why they changed it. She said after ten years they wanted to change it up and do something new and exciting (there’s gotta be more to it than that). Hmm. An “all-terrain” run/walk, though? In February? I told her I am disappointed the park district doesn’t offer a 5K anymore (they’ve all been shortened in distance). And that I couldn’t get the race distance confirmed before the race. And that they advertised age group awards and there weren’t any. I suggested bringing Frosty back and adding an all-terrain course in the spring or summer. But the golfers probably wouldn’t like that.
So, yeah. Change is hard. For me. Ha. This is not a big deal in the grand scheme of life AT ALL. I’m just sad they changed what was a favorite, challenging 5K of mine. Blah.
I did have fun though! I got to see some of my speedy friends and talked with them for quite a bit after the race. Steven and our friend Troy surprised me by showing up to see me off! And I ran faster than I thought I could, which is always encouraging!
But I doubt I will do this again if the format stays the same.
Themocracy
Firstly, well done on finishing third. Winning ur age group and not getting anything, sucky. That’s happened me before (not that I place in my age group often :p) and it’s annoying. Just a little momento would be nice! All those changes, what were they thinking. Even if they wanted to change to an all terrain race, why no timeline, proper measuring of the course …stupid! Glad you got to tell them what you thought.
Thank you 🙂 I was just expecting SOMETHING since they said there would be AG awards and the race is so small – that is the only chance I ever have to place! Ha!
We were talking after and wonder if they took away timing to save money?! I wouldn’t be surprised! I wonder if they will change it again.
Dang Kim, you are so fast!!! I’m in awe. And also pissed for you that you didn’t win an AG award. It’s interesting how some race organizers feel the need to change good races – that’s happened here, as well. I didn’t run one over the weekend that I’ve done every year (barring my injury in 2011) since 2010. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll miss me, but I just couldn’t go along with their BS.
Aww, thank you! What did they change about your race? Ha, and they totally won’t miss us! I just wonder how many of “us” types won’t show up after the changes! I do think the idea for a 2 mile walk is great to encourage health! But why in February in IL?!?!?!?
My race used to be a popular 5K and half marathon, just up the street from our house. The organizers sold it to a local race company and they moved it to the university, added a quarter marathon as well as the 5K and the half, and started doing tiered pricing, which pissed off most of the runners in our group and only three (who’d gotten a decent entry fee) ran it this year. Like, the first 5 people got in for a dollar, and then the next 15 got in for 5 dollars and by the time I went to register for the quarter marathon it was 65 bucks! for 6.5 miles…no way.
Oh man, that stinks. So did every distance cost the same on the tier, or did it raiser per longer distance? Blah.
How disappointing that there was no timing and no awards! Agree that they likely took the timing away so as not to spend lots of money by hiring a timing company. However, if they had a volunteer with a stop watch at the finish they could of at least tried to do timing on their own as I’ve seen other small races do! Also, a long course is never appreciated. Oh well, look on the bright side, it would have sucked worse if it had been a 5k and you PR’d and the course was long and they didn’t time you! 🙂
Oh yeah, they could have done it half-arsed like that and then written down the results and scanned that as the official time! Lame-o.
That is a very bright side! Ha. Although that was not a risk AT ALL. Ha!
Bummer…but good that you got to give your feedback to the organizers. I guess ultimately they have to juggle a lot of different parameters when deciding what/when to organize. And you are still super fast, age groups or not!
Yeah! I wonder if they are trying to appeal to a different group that I am not a part of! If they are, I hope more of those people show up!
Aww, thanks 🙂
Way to push through and run strong, Kim! But yeah so many disappointments. How can they advertise one thing and come up with a whole different race? Personally it barely seems worth it to get all race-ready for a 2 mile race?? I hope they work the kinks out.
Thank you!
Gah, I have no idea how they could not be TOTALLY embarassed about all the marketing mess ups. For realz.
And yeah, it seemed like a lot of effort for a two miler. Maybe not if I had actually trained for it, ha!
That’s so weird that they advertised age group awards and then didn’t even have official timing 🙁 I guess they just overlooked it in the advertising? Still pretty disappointing. At least it looks like Data appreciates the swag 🙂
I wonder if they used last year’s ad as a template or something! Data did! It helped I placed it in the sun, ha!
Seriously, I am pissed off FOR you! What a crock. Change is hard, but sometimes it is also STUPID! This sounds like a race you can bag for next year!
But your time, though! Nice job!
Thank you! I appreciate you being pissed off for me! I am really curious to see what they do next year for it!
Thanks 🙂
As soon as I saw the title of this post, I thought, “Whoa, she actually ended up doing the race?!” and then, “I’m so interested to hear how this all went down.” Yikes, is my primary thought. Yikes, yikes, yikes. I think this is less of a “change is hard” situation and more of a “change is hard when people take a good thing that was working just fine and inexplicably change it while making approximately eleventy billion errors in the process, all of which could’ve been avoided if they didn’t change it in the first place.” I’m glad you at least ran a race you’re happy with, though, even if the circumstances were not at all ideal.
Thanks – I was at least happy with how I did, too! And I really just want to know the real WHY behind the change. Wanting to “change things up” doesn’t make sense to me!
That is a bummer – on so many different levels, but your attitude (as always) is pretty great. It sounds weird, but I think that as runners/athletes, we do get ‘attached’ to certain races for emotional reasons and it is hard when they change them (my first and favorite triathlon event no longer exists b/c of the drought in California, and I still can’t get over it!).
Glad that you had fun and that you ran faster than expected. That is always a plus!
Aww, thanks 🙂 (re: my attitude lol)
Yes! We do get attached! I have so much nostalgia about this race… I was already trying to be so positive about the venue change but then the distance just threw me off even more. That stinks your fave tri is no more!
You rock, you still banged out darn good miles 🙂 You earned that great time and I wish there would have been some reward for it. It seems to be the changes made to the event are not very motivating.
Thanks! 🙂 And that is a good way of putting it – not motivating at all. I didn’t even really want to go!
I’m so bummed for you that they made all of these changes that ruined a perfectly good race 🙁 I still don’t understand the change in distance or change in course, and no awards?! UGH.
I’m glad you had a good time and ran a good race though! 🙂
I don’t get it either, sigh. I will be curious to see what they do next year! 🙂
Thanks 🙂