Throwback Thursday: Frozen Five New Years Day Run 2015

This was the second year that Mallory and I ran the Frozen Five in Newton, MA on New Year's Day. By Frozen Five, they mean five miles, not a 5k. This is a small race and one that I LOVE. It has only been held for two years and Mallory and I have participated in both races and likely will continue to race this the first of each year as long as it is held and we live in the area.

2013 Inaugural Year (It was not held in 2014)

This is a little local race. This year there were 72 listed participants. The first year had 51 participants.  The race director, whose name escapes me, is great. He emails regularly and is receptive to feedback from runners to improve this event each year. He is friendly and an overall cool dude.

This race is a fundraiser for FOP Lodge #28 and begins and ends in that location. This year, the race was held on an unseasonably warm day (shocking considering the winter we had later) and the course was ice free and clear. Roads are not shut down and there is no chip timing as it's such a little event. It starts with a short walk down the street where the race director yells "GO," and all the runners take off at once. It's all right hand turns through the neighborhood and one left hand turn at the end back to the lodge. The roads are well marked and I don't know of anyone getting lost in spite of really no crowd support and not many people out on the road. This is a race where I have experienced running with nobody in sight in front or behind, because the field is so small and our paces so different.

The first year, I completed this race in 40:46, which was a PR, since I had never run a 5 miler before. I received second place. In 2015, I hoped to beat this time, but was still coming off injury and had only 3-4 weeks back at running. I ended up with 41:15, but ended up with 2nd place in my age group again, which is awesome.

2015: Me and Mallory with our friend Darrell (who also got second in his age group)

This race is also really affordable. I think the cost was $20 or $25 and included a long sleeve tech shirt (which isn't sized for little females and doesn't fit, but I'm okay with that), trophies for overall winners and last place (donkey butt in bronze trophy) as well as medals for age groupers. Mallory and I also received glasses for being return participants. In addition to this already great value, this race includes a full hot breakfast buffet at the finish complete with bagels, toast, eggs and some meat item that we didn't eat, so bacon and/or ham (I don't know).

Little races are awesome.