Race Report Intro

This race report has been drafted in the weeks following the 6th annual running of the Salem Lake Frosty 50-kilometer Race in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  

Race Report

 

The 6th Annual Salem Lakeshore Frosty 50-K

Winston Salem, North Carolina

Saturday, January 8, 2005 

2nd Ultra Marathon

1st Marathon - Ultra Marathon in 2005

North Carolina is 32nd State

 

 

 1. Why this 50-k?

a.    I am pursuing running a marathon or ultra marathon in each of the 50 States. A 50-kilometer run qualifies as an ultra-marathon,

b.    My early plans for 2005 called for running a marathon in Charlotte, NC, for my North Carolina marathon on this weekend, but that marathon was cancelled.   This left two North Carolina marathons that fit within the constraints of 2005 schedule.  They were the Ellerbe Springs Marathon on March 19th and Grandfather Mountain Marathon on July 9th.  Since some of my Foothill Flyer friends are running the Catalina Marathon on March 18th, I wanted to save that weekend just in case I wanted to run Catalina.  Running marathon in North Carolina in July did not seem like a cool idea.   The Salem Lakeshore Frosty 50-K fit my schedule.

c.    My LA Legger friend, Dana Mosell needs to run a North Carolina Marathon before the end of February to complete his 50 state goal on his schedule.   This was a chance to run and support him in his quest. 

d.    We have a family friend who lives in Winston-Salem and this would be a chance to visit her.

 2. About This 50-K Run 

 Here is what of official website (www.twincitytc.org) says about the marathon:

Start Time:  8:00 am, Rain, Snow, or Shine

The 50K course is a flat scenic course beginning and ending at Salem Lake, 6 plus miles on asphalt Greenway and 25 miles on hard packed dirt around Salem Lake.

 

 3. Special Training for this run.

For me, this would be my second 50-k ultra-marathon.  The previous one was the Nifty 50 in November 2004.  A check of the weather from 10 days before the event indicated that the temperature would be in the low 50’s with rain.  To practice running trails in the rain, I ran the Foothill Flyers NOIZ Indian trail run on the morning of December 31st.  <Click here for the NOIZ race report>

 

 4.Getting to the Event

Of all out of town marathons I have run the ticketing on this was the worst.  On December 23rd I registered on-line.  After Christmas I started looking for airfares.  Not knowing much of the geography of North Carolina I looked at the map and saw that there was an airport in Winston-Salem, but there were no airline connections to California.  I then saw that Winston-Salem was about equal distance between Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte.  On Travelocity I found that fares were much cheaper to Raleigh-Durham (RDU).  The round trip fare on US Air was only $258.  There were two return options on Sunday, January 9th.  One leaving just before noon and getting to LAX at 10:38 pm, and another leaving in the middle of the afternoon.  As I was doing some further checking, the middle of the afternoon fare went away.  I panicked and thought I had better book that remaining fare immediately.   The next day I looked at the itinerary.  The return from North Carolina to California did not look good.   I was to leave Raleigh-Durham just before noon, fly to Philadelphia, change planes and fly to Charlotte where I would change to a plane leaving at 8 pm to fly LAX.  This did not seem good to me. It meant spending more than 8 hours in airplanes and airports just get from one part of North Carolina to the next.  I sent an e-mail message to US Air to ask if I could change my departure from North Carolina from Raleigh-Durham to Charlotte.   I never heard back.   I then checked Travelocity again and found a $300 fare from LAX to Raleigh-Durham.  It returned on Saturday at 6:10 pm from RDU.   I booked on this and cancelled US Air expecting to pay a $100 change fee and get credit on a future flight.

 

Now Nancy, our Winston Salem friend, had left the United States shortly after Thanksgiving for a visit to Australia and planned to return to the US after the first of the year, but in time for her daughter’s giving birth to a new baby in mid-January.  The day after Christmas we get a message on our answering machine from Nancy saying she is back in the US.  I quickly wrote her a letter.  She called me on the Wednesday before I leave and we discuss my travel plans. She hears my plans and says “NO. NO. NO.  You will never make it from Winston-Salem at 4 pm to catch a 6:10 pm plane at RDU.  You should change your flight to Greensboro, which is only 14 miles away.  You should be able to get a low cost fare on US Air”. 

 

She promised that if I flew to Greensboro she would meet me at the airport and that I could stay at her place.   I checked and there were no low fares (under $450) on US Air or any other airline.  The best I found was $737 from Burbank to Greensboro.  I was about to give up, when I saw a small icon saying that I could get the fare for $364 if I included a Hertz rental car.  That is without the car the fare would be $737; with the rental car the fare was $364.  This is like getting the rental car for -$273.  Or to put it another, Hertz would pay me $273 just to drive their car on the weekend.  Such a deal.  I was able to cancel the $300 fare ticket for a charge of $6.  

 

After the trip I learned that the USAir ticket was completely non-refundable.  Now I have to check to see if I can get US Air frequent flyers miles for a flight that I paid for, but did not take.  Whether US Air will be around to honor the Frequent Flyer miles is another issue.

 

When I book a flight I usually get an aisle seat but on this flight, because it was made at the last minute I wound up with window seats.  At least that is better than middle seats.

 

My flight got to Greensboro a little after 4 pm, and it was nearly 6 pm when I met Nancy, her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, Jack, at Cities Restaurant.  Since I was getting ‘free’ motel room that I night, I treated.

 

That night it rained, and when I awoke in the morning it was still drizzling.  It was drizzling when I left Nancy’s house, but had stopped by the time I got to the start.

 

 

5. Packet Pickup  

Packet pickup and late registration were to be from 6:30 am to 7:30 am at the start area.  For the first five time they ran this 50-k, the most entrants that they had were 60.   But this year, because of the cancellation of the Charlotte Marathon and the interest in the event by members of the 50 States Club, they reached their limit of 100 runners (actually there were 102 entrants).  Since they had reached their limit, there was no late registration before the start.   Since I had registered after December 15th, I was not guaranteed a t-shirt.  I did get one, but not in the size that I had ordered.

 

 6. Race Start

Prior to the start I saw LA Legger Russ Cheney, and Southern California runners Sharon Kerson (Culver City) and Don Lang (Glendale).  As we stood around waiting for the start the temperature was in the low 50’s and overcast.  The race director told me that this was the warmest it has ever been for the Frosty 50, and also it was the most ever number of runners.

LA Legger Dana Mosell did not show up until 7:55 am.  He asked where packet pickup was located.  I pointed the way.   At 8 am the race started.  As we started running south, we passed Dana who was running north to the start line.

 

7. Running the Race  

The Frosty 50-K is a double out-n-back mostly on a packed-dirt bike trail around most of the lake followed by a 1.5-mile out-n-back along an asphalt bike trail.  There were two aid stations along the route that we passed four times, and one aid station at the start, halfway turnaround, and finish line.  The aid stations seemed to be well stocked with water, Gatorade, pretzels, bananas, cookies, etc.  There were no mile markers, and only when you got to the turn around did you know that you had run 7.75 miles with no further checking of your distance progress until the halfway turn around at 15.5 miles.   There were only three port-a-johns and they were located at the start-halfway-finish line.  However most of the run was through wooded country so there were plenty of nature places.   During the course of the race the temperature climbed, and I may have felt a drop or two of rain.  Around noon the skies started to clear. A further description of the course can be seen in the picture section <click here> or in Dana Mosell’s race report <click here>.

 

8. Post Race Activities

By the time I finished the sun was shinning and the temperature was in the low 70’s.  I had my picture taken with several groups of runners, and Sharon Kerson, Russ Cheney and I made ad hoc arrangements to meet for dinner at the Village Inn, a place suggested by my friend, Nancy.

As we waited for our table the group expanded with Benita Shults, who is the Army stationed in North Carolina and ran a lot of the race with Sharon, and by Craig Swanson who I had met at the Mississippi Coast Marathon last November.  Craig, like Dana, needed a North Carolina marathon for his 49th states prior to running his 50th.

 

9. Trip Back to Home 

I did not mind getting up early to catch the flight back to California figuring that I could nap first on the Greensboro to Dallas leg, then on the Dallas to Burbank leg.  On the first let I was seated next to a Russian emigrant who was a medical student studying in Portland and who had come Winston-Salem to interview Wake Forest about an internship in Dermatology.  The student had run half-marathons and was very interested that some one my age could run as many marathons as I have.

I had a little better luck on the final leg except that seated behind me were three who must have been to a business motivational seminar and were now anxious how to apply what they learned to their business group, and discussed it in some detail.  Quite loudly I might add.