Securian Winter Run 2019 - Half Marathon - Race recap

My fav Winter race Securian Winter Run - Half Marathon was on 26-Jan 2019 Sat this year. I was here after a gap.

Being a Winter Run, this race has the best start location, with the spacious Securian building & skyway as warming location for practically everyone.

 

As usual there was lot of hand-wringing before the race about weather conditions. The day I signed-up, the lowest it had been was bright & sunny 35F in Jan. Right after I signed up, the temps started dipping and hovered before -10F and 10F. I can't explain the number of nervous messages I exchanged with my run buddies.

But all that worry was for nothing. Weather worked out perfect for this morning. The actual bad weather came up right next week onwards - with a week of Polar Vortex (temps before -45F), followed by 3-4 days of icy road condition. Icy throughout the twin cities, like never ever seen before. And then weeks of snow blizzard. Looking back, that weekend was a warm one.

Temps were between 0F-10F, no sun, no wind, but light snow throughout the 3 hours.
My run gear was perfect. I was worried about overheating before the race. But my choices were perfect in these conditions.  I was never cold or hot throughout the 3 hour run plus more time to get back home.

1. Columbia thermal jacket + 2 tech shirts 
2. Regular Woolen cap
3. C9 thick Neck Gaitor - Most of the quick runners had the thin variety on. But this worked perfectly for me. I alternated between covering mouth till nose every few minutes. So it never got too moist. Air was not cold, so that helped.
4. Compression pants + wind-cheater-type outer layer pant
5. Ski socks in my regular running shoes. My toes never got cold.
6. And most importantly - Gloves. Large loose ones, so I could curl up my fingers on a warm palm. And Hand-warmers to keep warm the palm.

 

I have run out in cold past few years. But this year I hardly stepped out in Dec & Jan. But in all my life, this is the first time I had so much snow on me, my face. I got #FrozenLashes or #Lashicles.
When the leading crowd was coming back after turnaround, I got to see the leaders with #FrozenBeards. Unique sight indeed. 

My finish time was a decent 3:04 hours. So every half race, 11-13 is the killer stretch, where some pain drags my mood down. This time it was at mile 10, but no physical or mental time. But the van showed up. Driver asked me to get inside as they will open the roads in 10 minutes. I was incredulous - how can they open so soon. Its never been so soon before. But I knew they had to, coz it was snowing throughout, volunteers were few (& stars) and they couldn't stay out freezing for so long. Made sense, but also made me angry. That I wouldn't get a finish time in my record. I was so looking forward to this race, I didn't want it to end bad. I swore, this is the last half I do for any winter anymore. Anyway, I opted to continue, and after the van moved on, I was worried about getting lost in the city. Shepherd Road is a straight stretch, but after the left turn within city, I had no idea how to make it to the finish location. But once the choice is made, I had to stick to it. On the Shepherd Road, I switched to the sidewalk on the right. A police officer helped me cross the half open road. Far away I spotted an Orange jacket running. Even with snowy visibility, I kept him in sight. Then once I turned inside the city, turns out I knew the way ! Roads were opened, but the finish stretch outside Securian was still closed. Finish arc & time machine was still around, so I got my finish times. Asked others for pics & I was done. 

Race swag was a cool full sleeve shirt and neat cup. Cup was useful. As soon as I finished, first thing to do was get the free coffee in this new mug, coz everything else was packed up.

My Securian Winter Races - 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2019 | 2020 |