Egg Nog Jog 10.8k Race Report

I was not looking forward to this.  The forecast was crummy; temperature hovering around 0*C (32*F), meaning what fell from the sky would be somewhere between wet snow and freezing rain.  What a time for the weather channel to get it right.

 Huge hills, very slushy and slippery roads (especially on the gravel road section, where most of the hills were) and constant rain. 

And I can't give a single reason why, but I loved this race. 



Pre-race, cleverly holding
the namesake prop.



See how we're still
dry and warm?





Obligatory mascot shot on the way to the start line.



Just the tiny little amount of hillwork I've done in the past month made a huge difference.  There was about 6km of rolling hills, with one big bruiser at the midway point.  I managed to run them all, except the second half of the monster.   I was too chicken to go for broke on the downhills because I was scared I would end up a$$ over tea kettle.  

  

 

One of the early rolling hills.


 

The Lung Buster. The picture does not do it justice.  It hurt to walk it.



At first I was bummed this didn't turn out, but now I call it "artsy".  Can you tell what it is?
Bagpiper among the trees halfway up the big one.  Appropriately funeral-dirgy and very cool.



10.8k finished in 1:16:10, which I'm very happy about considering the conditions.  I expected to be closer to 1:30.  Phil came in at 57:34 and our friend Tim, who made a spectacular appearance two minutes before gun time (who knew how far away Terra Cotta was?), finished in 1:04:55.

 

I so chicked that dog in the last 800 metres.


The race was extremely well done.  It's the 28th year for this race and the Georgetown Runners, the organizers, have it figured out.  It started and ended in the Terra Cotta Conservation Area, about an hour outside Toronto, and was a loop around some rural roads.  The swag included a long sleeve technical shirt, which I will actually wear this winter, even though it's bright green, and a nice medal with the egg nog carton logo.  There was a huge heated tent for warming up post-race.  Food included the usual bananas and yogurt plus YUMMY vegetable soup courtesy of the local Terra Cotta Inn.  Just the perfect thing when you're soaked to the bone.  Chocolate milk and egg nog rounded out the offerings.  I heard there was coffee too, but I didn't get to that corner of the tent.

Soaked, freezing and heading home.

Summary: Miserable conditions on a tough course that made me feel like a hard core Canadian runner.

Brush with greatness:  Jefferson the Santa giraffe/dog/reindeer and maybe Chris from Suck It Up, but everyone had hats on and I think I'd only recognize him by his hair.