Cupid’s Chase. 8 February, 2020

The congestion that dogged me in the Winter Warrior and Chilly Chili finally broke a week or so before the Super Couch Potato. I looked forward to a fast, flat race in relatively decent weather (for February).

Instead, I spent Super Bowl Sunday in bed with gastroenteritis.

Stomach bugs are always unpleasant, but I usually bounce back pretty quickly. I felt well enough to teach on Tuesday, but I was pretty drained for most of the week.

Syracuse picked up close to a foot of snow the day before my next race, Cupid’s Chase.

W.T.F., 2020!?

Since we’re a hearty bunch, the race wasn’t cancelled, the roads were cleared, and the trail at Onondaga Lake Park had been plowed—though a layer of snow covered the asphalt.

Around 100 diehard walkers and runners showed up in spite of the weather; most of us crowded in the park office, which quickly became snug. I don’t do that well in crowds and headed to the trail to warm up.

I was wearing shoes designed for running the the snow, but the trail, which had perhaps a quarter or half an inch of packed snow on it, felt weird—imagine running on styrofoam.

Ah, Syracuse.

The field embarked on the race as light snow fell, and a few of us broke free of the field. The packed, plowed snow helped to break us up further. Most of us found our way to a strip of cleared asphalt to avoid the snow unless we had to pass another runner.

A runner caught me shortly after the turnaround. After that, I don’t think there were too many changes in the head of the race. The leaders finished within a few seconds of each other; the rest of us slogged along toward the finish. Many of us crossed over to the other side of the trail to run in that sweet, sloppy strip of cleared trail, but there was nothing I could do to make inroads on the runner ahead of me.

Surprised by my time. Or reconsidering my choice of hobbies.

I did a double-take when I saw my finishing time: 22:04. I felt sluggish to begin with, and no one seemed to be moving at at a PR pace, but we got our answer pretty quickly. Unexpectedly but understandably, the race had been shortened to a 4K(ish).

I wish I had been able to hold off the other runner mid race. He finished ahead of my to take our age group, but I was almost 30 seconds off his pace.

Community Options put on a fine race in tough conditions, and no one at the finish line was particularly upset at losing a kilometer of running.