Eklutna Icebreaker 10-Mile Race

 It was kind of hard to drag myself out of my bed this morning. I was still kind of tired from yesterday's 6-mile hike. But with a little caffeine, I perked right up. I met Alice down at the end of Eklutna Lake Road and she rode up to the Eklutna Lake Trailhead with me. I have the parking sticker, and a better car for negotiating the icy road. It was only 3 below zero when we arrived. That was a bit disconcerting. We both worried if we would be wearing the right combination of layers to be out there for 10 miles. I had on my Ice Bug running shoes and micro spikes over them. Alice just wore her warm winter boots. But she found they were not comfortable at all for actual running. My feet, however, immediately froze and I never felt them again until I was back down to the end of the road to deliver Alice back to her car. I was getting worried about frostbite, which was actually helpful for the race. It made me run a lot faster than I probably would have if I had been more comfortable. We had to run on the lower trail most of the time. The ATV Trail was in great condition except for a couple of huge ice flows. We managed to carefully cross those without incident. But the lower trail was loose snow with footprints through it and extremely rough. It was difficult to walk on it let alone run on it. But I did my best to run most of the way. I was usually a little ahead of Alice, but she always caught up with me. I'm a very slow runner in any condition, but I was much slower today. It was beautiful out there and we both stopped to take a few pictures. We had 4 hours to complete the 10 miles, and we only took 3.5 hours. We heard numerous grumbles from other runners, and especially from the poor souls who had chosen to run the 20-mile option. I'm glad I didn't choose that race. 10 was plenty for both me and Alice. It was a beautiful day and did warm up to almost 20 degrees. Only my feet and my face were cold. But I don't see any frostbite. It was a great workout and fun seeing other familiar faces out on the course.

Alice