I finished in 4 hr 47 min. Good for 3rd place!
This was a tough race. Mainly because of the weather conditions. It was 13 degrees at the start, with wind pushing the "feels like" temp to about 0 degrees. The course was also covered with snow, so that made it hard to get a good pace going.
There was also that German Shephard that stopped my in my tracks at about mile 2. He was PISSED and was going to bite me until I reached into my bag of tricks and gave him some caffeinated sport beans as I slowly walked backwards. The owner finally saw what was happening and called the dog off after I negotiated with the dog for at least 15-20 minutes.
The food etc at the aid stations was all frozen, but so was my face, so I wasn't able to chew much at all. My water bottles had frozen up after about an hour, so if I wanted a drink, I had to stop and take the tops off of the bottles.
As you can see from some of the pictures, my daughters were able to run with me in certain sections, and then Liv ran in with me for the last 4 miles, and Anna the last 100 yards.
All in all it was a tough race, and a great training run. Bob Rehn and his crew are a class act. I would recommend this race for anyone who can get down there.
