Race Review – Securian Frozen 5K

This past weekend was the Securian Frozen 5K & Half Marathon, one of my favorites and a race that holds personal signifigance for me as it was my first half marathon two years ago

I knew that based on the weather conditions leading up to the race and the forecast for race morning, we were going to add a new chapter to my history with this race.

Two years ago when I ran the race for the first time, the half marathon distance, the weather was generally very nice, mid 20’s and cloudy. Last year it boarded on the extreme edge of running conditions, -15 degrees with wind chills in the -20’s. I originally signed up for just the 5K distance as I was not in race shape for a half marathon but because of the cold the half was shortened to about a 10K, which I could manage.

This year as we drove to downtown St. Paul with the hint of sleet in the air, temps were in the upper twenties and it was generally wet with a cold breeze from the east. I think for the most part we were lucky as later in the day it was straight up raining, in the middle of January.

At the back of the start line.

If you’re not familiar with this race it starts in downtown St. Paul at the Secuian Plaza on Jackson street and heads down to the river, it is basically then just an out and back along Sheppard road, with the 5K turning at the high bridge and the half marathon turning at Cleveland Ave. The only tough part of the course is at about 4 blocks from the finish line when you have to climb up the hill on Jackson St. from the river to get back to the finish line.

Kris high-fiving the catapiller runners.

Since we are concentrating on shorter distances and speed in 2010, we decided to run just the 5K and use it as an early season starter, not supposed to be fast but I was encouraging a little faster pace. As the race started we crossed the line at 35 seconds. We were actually the very back of the starting group. The first mile by far was the slowest; specify because of race traffic and by the time we passed the first mile we were able to pick up the pace a little. Mile 1 to 2 was our fastest mile, based solely on feel as somewhere or another I managed to lose my watch; it feels a little weird running without it. I could tell that we were slowing down a little during the last mile and I was doing a little pulling to keep up the pace, especially up the final hill. We crossed the finish line at 29:52 for a race time of 29:17 and a pace of 9:27; which surprised Kris a bit as she didn’t think we were going that fast.

That says 29:52 on the clock behind Kris

This is one of those fun races that I suggest everyone try at least once. First off it is a great off season race even if you not a big cold weather runner. Second, the Securian gives out great swag, every finisher gets a nice ceramic coffee cup, this year it was a big hot chocolate style mug. The shirts for the race are always an additional cost but the designs/logos/slogans are always very cool, and being available as a technical or cotton long sleeve make the extra cost worth it. This year they even had a cool looking stocking cap. The third reason to do this race is that it is very well run and has a very festive feel to as, partially because it is part of the Winter Carnival.

We ran into Dave Ryan after the race getting some Caribou Coffee.

And of course we had to get a picture with the mascot.

Next up: Yukon Days Winter Run on Feb 6th