Now that we finally have sweaty summer temps in DC, seems like it’s time to roll out a very wintry race report for Rev3’s Santa Shuffle 10k. Kinda weird to remember running in the snow when it’s 90 degrees out!
A few days after the Philadelphia Marathon I got a great Thanksgiving gift* when I learned I’d been selected to represent my favorite race organization, Rev3 as a member of their 2018 Triathlon Team.
*Being Native, the words “Thanksgiving gift” conjure fraught-to-negative historical memories, but in this case it was actually a great and welcome surprise.
Over the last few seasons I’ve volunteered, raced 70.3s in Williamsburg and the Poconos, and done a sprint in Montclair, VA with Rev3 and I’ve come to adore the organization for the way they love triathlon and triathletes. I also watched a Speed Sherpa friend have an absolute blast on the Rev3 team last year and I wanted what she was having. (I’d also like to podium consistently and beastfully like Katie Palavecino but that’s another story and lifetime.) So with Philly and a second BQ behind me, and an invigorated commitment to all things Rev3 in front of me, I decided to end a pretty good 2017 (uh, pretty good race-wise and not in any general geopolitical sense) with Rev3’s Santa Shuffle 10K in Haymarket, VA on Dec. 9th.
I thought for sure I’d get a big group of Speed Sherpas to join me at a local, short fun race but the only one who took me up on the offer was Sherpette, Melissa. (The rest of you are dead to me. JKloveyoumeanit!) Quality over quantity though, because Melissa is awesome company – especially since she agreed to my suggestion that we race in ridiculous onesies. (In my defense, I had just bought an amaaaazing Rudolph onesie from Amazon and upon trying it on promptly declared my intention to wear it and only it until the end of winter, so naturally I felt the need to sweat out 6.2 miles in the furry get-up. I HAD MADE A COMMITMENT.) It turned out Melissa was the proud owner of a psychodelic onesie and questionable decision-making faculties, so she was onboard with the plan.
Leading up to race day I became increasingly concerned that running in a full suit of felt might not be the most comfortable thing in the world, and I feared I would hate my onesie and my choices by the first mile marker. Melissa expressed similar concerns, but neither of us backed down. Then the forecast began to turn frigid and snowy, and the onesies didn’t seem like such terrible ideas. (They still didn’t seem like great ideas, but by Dec. 8th they seemed much more survivable than they had on Dec. 2nd.)
On the morning of Saturday, Dec. 9th, I woke around 6:30 am to dress and head west to way-TFO-suburban Haymarket, Virginia. And I realized logistically, that since it was so cold out, and since I was planning on wearing very little under my onesie to run – just tiny shorts and a tank top – I was going to have to actually drive to Haymarket dressed as Rudolph the Reindeer. There was nowhere at the race site to change and I didn’t really want to be the perve changing in her car at a public park in Virginia. So I pulled on my itty bitty shorts and tank, dreaming of summer, and then zipped myself into my furry, questionable #OOTD. I raced as fast as I could from my front door to my car parked on the street, and made the trek to Haymarket crossing my hooves that I wouldn’t get pulled over or entertain too many truckers as they peered down into my reindeer-conducted Subaru. (The weather was snowy and icy enough that I decided to take Scott’s car instead of my seasonally-challenged lil Mini Cooper.)
I arrived at the James S Long Park a little before 9am and texted Melissa, embarrassed to leave the safe-ish harbor of my vehicle to walk alone in my onesie up the hill to packet pickup and the start line. Fortunately she had arrived around the same time and we were able to do the five minute uphill trek together. It’s amazing how a thing that feels mortifying when you’re on your own suddenly becomes a fun inside joke when you add a friend. I enjoyed the laughs we got from onlookers, and was happy to see we weren’t the only ones who had dressed up (weird) for the occasion.
It was bitterly cold out, and in addition to the couple inches of white powder already on the ground, more was coming down from the sky. I’m not great at predicting how hot or cold I’ll be in my clothes during a race, so I was still a little worried I would sweat through Rudolph and be uncomfortable, but as the snow fell I also thought maybe I’d in fact be more comfortable than the people who’d opted to wear actual run clothes.
We picked up our numbers and I got to meet a few new Rev3 people who were racing or kindly volunteering on such an icy day. At one point an overtaxed space heater gave up on life and melted – it was really cold – wreaking a little bit of havoc. At another more distressing point, I realized I had to hit the porta jon before racing and had to unzip myself in the freezing basically-outside stall and shiver-pee while keeping the onesie from touching the nasty porta potty floor.
Fortunately we didn’t have to hang out in the cold for too long before the 9:30am start. It was far too small and lowkey an event for any sort of corral situation. Everyone just gathered in the starting chute which would double later as the finisher’s chute and waited for the gun. Melissa and I were two of the last people to join the group there, so I was towards the middle of the pack as we waited to begin. I also can’t claim to have harbored any dreams about laying down a big 10K in my reindeer costume so I stayed pretty passive about my start position.
At 9:30 we were set loose on the double out and back loop 10K course. It was a few hundred meters downhill first to get to the Haymarket sidewalks that would comprise the bulk of the race. As soon as I was over the start line I tried to break free of the clump I was in, immediately realizing I was gunning for a little more speed than most of the pack.
By the time I was turning right onto the main stretch of course I was out in the front with a handful of other runners. I was clocking mid-7s, which would have been a pretty average 10K pace, except the sky was showering us in freezing sideways snow, and as soon as we turned out of the Park we were climbing. The race website calls the course mostly flat and that is, well, that is not true.
Haymarket is where you bring your bike in the DMV area when you want to ride serious hills. I had kind of considered that fact when planning for the race and then breezed past it knowing we wouldn’t be getting too far from the James S Long Park where the race started and ended – it wasn’t like we’d be getting tens of miles away where I’ve bike-struggled in the past. But the two loop or really, 4 out-and-backs course turns right out of the Park and heads up one long hill until a turnaround then back down that hill, past the park entrance onto another long uphill to the second turnaround and again back down. The 5K runners had to do this once and turned back into James S Long Park and the 10K runners did the two ascent/descents twice.
As I turned right and started the first long slog uphill, I also turned into the wind and found that, even in my furry getup I was still cold. The bare skin between the top of my onesie zipper and my chin (I guess that’s called your neck) was stinging in the wind and snow. I was wearing a Rev3 buff around my ears and had worn a headband around my wrist incase I needed extra coverage in the weather. As I climbed I gracelessly yanked the buff down to protect my neck and chin and pulled the extra headband over my ears. I thanked early-morning-Liz’s rare moment of foresight on that one.
As I adjusted my headgear my heartrate began to climb with my legs, even though my speed was pretty meh. I knew I hadn’t fully recovered in the less-than-three weeks since the Philly Marathon (and stomach flu I’d caught the same day) but I was expecting more from my body than it was giving me. The first mile was basically all that long climb and I turned in a disappointing 8:04. I hadn’t shown up to win, or even to podium, but I had shown up wanting to run well and I felt that I wasn’t. The footing was a little slippery, but not slick enough to justify that pace.
Just after the first mile we turned around and headed back down the hill and I was able to pick up a bit more speed, but my heartrate didn’t want to budge. At least I was more comfortable with the wind and snow at my back, and despite the high BPM I didn’t feel overheated at all in my plush reindeer onepiece – by the time I had descended the hill I was mulling wearing it for every winter race from now on.
I generally like out-and-back courses for the community they create. You get to see everyone in the race, whether they’re ahead of or behind you, and in triathlons and Rev3 events like this one, there are always high fives and words of encouragement as people run past each other. My new Rev3 teammate, Robert was proving this point dressed as a buff Santa and keeping everyone merry in the wintry conditions.
Out-and-backs are also good when you’re feeling (and racing) competitive(ly). You can see who’s ahead of you and how far back the people behind you are; this information lets you adjust accordingly and is also a kick in your spandex (or fur as the case may be) to keep the fight alive. When you’re not running your best it’s less great. I could see women in front of me as I approached and then made that first turnaround, and with my high heartrate I wasn’t gaining on them.
When we started up the second climb after passing the Park entrance I had accepted that it wasn’t my best morning and I wouldn’t be mounting any winners’ blocks at the end. But I was having a really good time running in the snow in my ridiculous costume. People were laughing at the onesie and I enjoyed putting smiles on people’s faces. There were kids out volunteering at the couple water (ice?) stations and there were moms and dads at the back of the race pack pushing littleones in strollers; it was especially fun when the youngin’s would wave and laugh at Rudolph as I/she ran by.
The second turnaround was at the top of hill number two about halfway between the second and third miles. A couple young women passed me there and I shrugged it off and started to descend back towards the Park and towards the second lap. Miles two and three were faster – 7:39 mostly downhill and then 7:48 over a mix of ascent and descent – but still not paces I would have been happy with for a cold-weather, non-multisport 10k. I didn’t have it in me to chase down the women who were getting away from me and bumping me further from podium-contention.
As the entrance to the Park came back into view (and the footing got slushier) I saw the handful of women in front of me all turning right. At first I was confused, and then I remembered that some people were running half what I was. I had totally forgotten that some of those women who were in front of me were not actually my 10k competition.
I approached the Park and could hear a volunteer calling for 5k runners to turn right back to the finish and for 10k runners to continue straight for their second loop. Just about everyone was turning right. I ran past the Park and volunteer straight onto hill number three (or hill number one for the second time) under suddenly-changed circumstances.
About halfway up this second mile-long climb a couple people cheered for me saying Rudolph was in the lead. I was pretty sure there was still one 10k female ahead of me but I was elated to have gone so quickly from no place to second. I had been having fun but now I was having extra fun, despite the uphill headwind and face-snow.
That hill wiped me out again and my split dropped back down to 8:07. A few minutes before I wouldn’t have cared but now I had to hold that second place slot. The third/penultimate turnaround came a little after the fourth mile marker and as I reversed and headed downhill I scanned the women behind me to gauge how much space I had. Robert snapped me out of my competitive streak with a high five as I ran past him, reminding me to keep having fun and not take it too seriously – I was still dressed as Rudolph and he as Santa Abs after all.
Reaching the bottom of the hill I was both having a great time and feeling the competition. My heartrate was high and my pace still not where I would have wanted but it was doing the trick and I just had a mile and a half to hold it. I climbed the last hill and hit the final turnaround a little after mille five. I hadn’t seen where the first woman was – with some people on their first laps and some on their second it had become harder to tell who was ahead and who behind – but I was sure I was still holding strong at second. Running back down the hill I scanned the competition and saw that I had plenty of cushion between myself and the third place female – I wasn’t in any danger of being overtaken.
Halfway down that final hill and mile I passed a group of ladies who were running up it on the other side and screamed at me that I was the first woman. Without absorbing the information I smiled and whooped and then got a few steps further and thought, ‘wait, am I?’ I hadn’t actually laid eyes on this phantom female who I was sure was up ahead of me. Had I made her up? Had I just been so sure that there was no way this far-from-my-best-10k performance could nab me a win that I’d fabricated a faster competitor?
I was starting to think, ‘maybe I am winning’ as I finished the second lap and turned right back into the Park and toward the finish line. I ran past the volunteers there and they too shouted that I was going to be the female winner. I was shocked and ecstatic.
As I turned my watch buzzed to mark the 6th mile – 7:47. My heartrate was still epically high and I knew I wasn’t in any danger of being passed in the last .2 miles so I didn’t step on the gas. I stayed at a 7:47 pace up a final climb to the finisher’s chute. Once back at the start/finish I wasn’t sure which direction to run through the chute as there were no signs or volunteers. I picked the most logical direction and just went with it – and fortunately I picked right. I crossed the finish line at a really unimpressive 48:27 for an average pace of 7:49.
A few minutes later the second place female came up the hill – she had a couple decades on me and had been encouraging every time I passed her on the course so I was there cheering her in. Melissa was not too far behind that, winning her age group in her excellent tie-dye onesie!
We were both excited and kind of floored to have nabbed the top of the blocks – and dressed like lunatics. We agreed that these ridiculous get-ups that we’d feared sweating miserably through had ended up being incredibly comfortable in the wintry weather. Not only were they warm, they allowed for all sorts of range of motion – no chafing! I had been happy in my wardrobe choice the whole way and will absolutely rewear it in the next Santa Shuffle.
As my heartrate finally slowed our body temps plummeted and Melissa and I agreed we’d need more layers to get through the podium ceremony. We hustled back to our cars for dry socks and gloves and coats. I happily pulled the Uggs about which I have no shame over my furry legs. Then we boogied back up the hill to take advantage of the french toast breakfast and stand atop the blocks in our fabulous get-ups.
After the ceremony – at which I also won a prize for my onesie! – I went out to my work wife’s house to meet her new baby boy. She also lives in Virginia and I just assume that all places in Virginia are close together. (They’re not.) I stayed in my costume because duh – baby-Rudolph photo opp! (Yes, this meant more driving in my onesie.)
After that I rounded out the Virginia day with Speed Sherpa’s holiday party where I decided to wear regular human clothes. (Oh and party hosts Coach Josh and his wife, Erica let [encouraged] me [to] bathe at their house before joining the celebration.) All in all it was a pretty spectacular day of friends and silliness and winning! I know most years that performance wouldn’t be enough to win it and I can’t blame the hills or the slick roads. If Rudolph wants to light the way again at the next Shuffle she’s gonna have to show up a little harder. But first, summer!