R and J in the USA

January 25, 2025

It was a sunny Saturday morning in Springfield, Missouri, for the 36^th running of the Jack Frost 5K. After two races with temperatures in the teens and winds in the oh-my-gosh zone, the 30-degree air of the Jack Frost 5K felt downright balmy. Energized by the “warm” weather, brightened by the blue sky, and primed from good workouts two days before, we were both feeling ready to run.

The course was ready for people who were ready to run. Flat and fast, it ran two laps around a figure eight on the campus of Missouri State University. The figure eight consisted of two rectangular loops, with the crossover point at touching corners of the two rectangles. The ever so slight uphill grade in the middle part of each lap kept the runners honest. The ever so slight downhill grade at the end of each lap invited the runners to a fast last mile, for those who wanted to go after that.

It was clear before the race there were some serious runners in the field. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you can nail the genre. There were some people whose cover art screamed ‘fast runner’, and that verdict was just. The runners who looked like they were going to finish up front with solid times did exactly that. The top four runners, all teenagers, averaged a sub-6:00 per mile pace. The winner finished in 16:13 – a 5:13 per mile pace. The top female finisher ran a 6:02 pace, coming in at 18:46 and finishing 5^th overall.

Julie finished 7^th of 14 in her age group and 45^th of 116 overall, and was the 20^th of 62 females. Ryan finished 1^st of five in his age group and 14^th of 116 overall, and was the 10^th of 54 males. Full results here.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

As soon as we pulled into our parking spot for the race, Julie was clear that Ryan was in the mood to do some real running. He never came out and said it, but it’s easy enough for Julie to tell where Ryan’s head is at by the looks on his face, the focus in his voice and what he actually does. When he starts talking about getting in a good warm up and with that look on his face that he means it, Julie knows what’s coming. By the time we were walking over to the starting line and Ryan grabbed the dwindling pre-race moments to squeeze in another strider or two Julie knew for certain, oh, it’s on – my guy is about to lay it down. 

The prior handful of races, Ryan had been running easy and turning in paces that, earlier in the trip, Julie easily could have overtaken. But Julie had been in even more of a slow mode during those times than Ryan, so taking advantage of the opportunity in Julie’s favor to rack up some glorious wins against her betrothed wasn’t an option. And, at this point, is anyone even still counting? We are confident that zero people are, including us. But, regardless, before the gun even went off, Julie knew Ryan was about to run paces that Julie had never touched. 

Though he never said it out loud, post-race, Ryan admits it – he came into the race wanting to run rather than jog. He wasn’t going for a fast time (at Ridgemont High or anywhere else), but after two races of heavy plodding, he was ready to be lighter on his feet and get the blood pumping a little more. He started the race faster than in the last few races. This was faster than he wanted to be running that early, so he slowed down a bit and decided that his main goal would be to average under 8 minutes/mile. Once he settled into his pace, his main focus was simply to make sure he didn’t slow down. 

Heading out on his second lap, he saw Julie at the crossover point of the course’s figure-eight layout. He looked up ready to wave if she looked over. She was close enough that he could have shouted to grab her attention, but far enough away that it wasn’t worth the energy it would take to do so. And, after spending basically 24/7 with each other, he felt he could handle the loss of one more minute away from her. He was too busy using that energy to motor himself over the finish line in just over 23 minutes anyways. After passing Julie in the distance, he kept a steady clip and simply enjoyed the race (and the brief remaining minutes of solitude, we mean, aching separation from the glowing gaze of his true love) the rest of the way.  

Julie’s race goals were very different from Ryan’s, and though she would not walk away with the age group first place medal (or anywhere close to it) that Ryan most certainly earned, Julie walked away fist pumping nonetheless. She had accomplished the feat of having run exactly the race she wanted to run. It sounds so simple and like it should be the easiest thing to accomplish. Decide what kind of race you want to run and then go do that.  Of all the challenges in a race, it seems the easiest to accomplish, especially when one is not competing against anyone trying to stop you – just yourself, the wind and the road to contend with. It’s not like hitting a certain hard-to-reach-target, or attempting to best the competition, all familiar race goals that warrant fist pumps and displays of triumph – but it is actually a challenging feat. To have an intention and hope for what kind of race you want to run and then to bring the mental and physical execution to bear to bring it to fruition – it’s actually kinda hard. So, when one succeeds in it, it is a personal triumph. Julie was pretty psyched to be so on top of her goals and seeming to have reined in her more problematic race tendencies of earlier races. 

Julie’s plan remains to do her best to run mostly recovery runs until at least the 10th to last race of our trip (which is not too far away now!). After focusing on recovery running for a while, she was also happy to see that her strategy at least appears to be working in a good direction, slowly rebuilding her base of fitness and recovery.

She originally was thinking it would be good to lay down similar times as the prior race, maybe laying down a 9:45 for mile one and ending miles 3 in the low 9’s. When Julie started racing, all systems felt ready to go and she spent nearly the whole first mile consistently slowing her pace down as everything in her body was feeling ready to run faster. She took this as a very good sign that her recovery runs were working. 

She clocked in at a 9:26 for that first mile, faster than planned, but still, well controlled and, more importantly, feeling like a jog. Julie, at this point was hyper aware of the 50 states tour effect, of creating an easy-feeling first mile that she can’t sustain into a third mile. By this point, Julie’s primary goal was to be running paces that allowed negative splits. More importantly, she wanted to run paces that left her feeling strong in mile 3 with no desire to take a break for her calves or any other reason. In mile 2, she tried to run 9:20’s, but had to rein herself in from running 9:05s and managed to clock in at 9:11. For mile three, she wanted to run 9’s and had to keep reining herself in from running 8:30s. She clocked in mile 3 at 8:47. She started to feel that old 3rd mile tiredness in the far distance, but never to the point where she actually felt it impact the ease and strength. 

She had done it – she ran that perfect line. She found the speed that was the fastest she could be running and still feel she was in a recovery run without tipping too far off of that line in either direction. 

With a total time of 27:49, Julie came in dead middle of her age group, 7th out of 14, with 6 other 40-49 year olds running super solid races ahead of her. There are many age group medals that Julie enjoyed receiving for the fun of it, but knew it was really just an issue of representation in the field. This race, Julie ended up exactly where she belonged and, at least, for now, exactly where she hoped to be