Wicked Frosty Four

Nakri, Krissy, and I rolled over to Salem for the Wicked Frosty Four mile road race. We headed out for a warm up and hit the starting line for the reasonable 10AM start time. Not that I needed my beauty sleep but much prefer races on the early side of day light. The race started and I yelled over to EJ Hrynowski, “let’s go EJ!” just because it is good to see him and he’s good for the chirp. He promptly smoked the senior field and missed out on a PR by ten ticks of the North Shore Timing in the end.

Speaking of North Shore Timing, it was a family affair with father and owner Mike, in charge of timing command, son - John Page ahead of me by a few seconds at mile 1, and mom, Jill, cheering the race on.  I’ve known the Page family since I got introduced to club running and the North Shore Striders in the early 1990’s. Jill is a sweet heart, always smiling and supporting even in the midst of competition. “John is looking good up there,” I mentioned to her as I ran past mile 1. Without hesitation, “well, you look better” Jill said to me.

I was in fifth place and had that envious desire to move up five seconds and roll with the lead pack that included David Long and John Page. I was thinking that I should be up there mixing it up with them. My envy and legs were at odds a half mile later, confirming that I was not going to make up any gap, just see it get bigger. The highlight of mile two, was a storm trooper (are you reading this Joe Shairs?) pointing us toward the force - force of a little head wind.  The four up front extended the gap through mile 3 with John Page breaking off as he climbed the hill beyond Dead Horse Beach. This gave me hope to shake out of my suck-fest and maybe close in on him. Well......thankfully I did not look at the mile split until after the race.

My legs were junk and so was that last mile (5:57). I closed the gap between John (also missing his PR by 9 seconds set last year) and I to seven ticks at the end (last mile 5:54) good for 2nd master behind David Long (3rd, 22:52 - off by 8 seconds from last year). My time of 23:17 and pace of 5:50 placed me 5th overall. I won’t go all out negative but was disappointed with the effort. I ran 22:45 last year (5:42).

All was forgotten seeing Nakri (3rd 40+) busting down into the finish and a few other familiar faces crossing the first finish line of the New Year. Nakri and I did a short cool down before hanging out at post race festivities within the Tavern in the Square, both of us grabbing age group medals. Krissy, Maryann, Nakri, and I crossed the street and feasted on breakfast at The Ugly Mug Diner wrapping up the journey.

Wicked Frosty Four mile results

top three masters Nakri Dao, I, and David Long