On January 13, 2018, I ran the Frozen Gnome 50k (31 miles) in Crystal Lake IL. The temperature at the start, and really for most of the race, was 3 degrees Fahrenheit and -16 Celsius. The course was challenging, with a number of large hills, including the infamous "buttslide hill." However, the course was free of snow, so the race put a rope on the hill to help descend it. Running a race of this length requires a lot of bundling up. I wore tights under cycling pants, multiple layers, including doubling up on socks and gloves, and I switched between a balacava and buff over my face. Here is my group at the start. I am in the orange hat.
And everyone is off!
The course was beautiful, albeit cold! The volunteers were likely colder than we were, given that they had to stand around so much. Many of my friends who were not running were volunteering at the aid station. Deer were abundant on the course. One followed us for awhile. I think people must feed them here because it seemed to want us to pay attention to it.
The course itself is a 10k loop, so we did the loop five times. Initially it was open plains, but the back part of the loop was a lot of hilly, wooded single track. I didn't get any photos of that section. I was too busy climbing hills!
I finished in 8:15:00 or so. It really was a rather slow going day with the hills and cold! Below is screen shot of my Strava data from the event:
Next up is Rocky Raccoon 100 mile in Texas on February 3!
Some photos courtesy of the Frozen Gnome Facebook Page.
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