Dani (in green) and Celeste (with dog) getting ready to start.

Edora Park 8k

The forecasted low and high temperatures for today were 21 and 43 degrees Fahrenheit, so minutes before I left the house I was a little surprised when my phone indicated that the “now” temperature was just 11. Then a couple miles from Edora Park, Teeter’s dashboard was registering just 1 degree before settling on 5 in the parking lot.

At the race start, Nick’s beard was filled with icicles, and even Tom showed up in a down jacket instead of his signature singlet and shorts. Clearly, if the weather forecasters were the CIA, Congress would have been demanding public hearings for them.

Nevertheless, I still opted to run in shorts and Puma H-Streets mainly because I was dismayed at how much tights and trail-worthy New Balance MT101s seemed to be slowing me down in the Reindeer Marathon. This, of course, earned some teasing at the moment I took off, as someone even yelled “hey, we have a dress code here!”

But I think it turned out to be a good decision. Without neoprene restricting knee flexion, my legs felt amazingly free and I settled into a nice sustainable pace. Not super speedy, mind you, but sub-7:00/mile—decent (for me) considering the temps. And the distance. And my training, or lack of. Amazingly I was able to maintain that pace the entire way.

Final time was 34:27, which was almost two minutes faster than last year, although slower than every other year prior. (I’ve now done this race seven times). But it was never quite this cold.

I was even happy enough with the run to forgive the weathermen.

Race Data

Final time: 34:27 (6:56/mile)
Garmin Data (device started a couple minutes late)
Official results

It was so cold that not even Tom was wearing a singlet and shorts today.
It was so cold that not even Tom was wearing a singlet and shorts today.
Runners registering for the race.
Runners registering for the race.
Dani (in green) and Celeste (with dog) getting ready to start.
Dani (in green) and Celeste (with dog) getting ready to start.
Having bagels and handing out ribbons inside Rocky Mountain Bagels.
Having bagels and handing out ribbons inside Rocky Mountain Bagels.
Dani with her third place ribbon.
Dani with her third place ribbon.