Saturday February 13 2021
America gets very cold in the winter, so I don’t think my racing exploration of this great country would be complete without tackling races in its most extreme of weathers. This trip to the Frozen Feat 10K in Grand Forks, North Dakota, provided just such an opportunity.
After winning in Perry, I was recommended this race in Grand Forks ND, as an even stiffer test of man vs mercury. I’d been given the Race Director’s details and reached out to make the arrangements.
Getting to the start line proved a real test in itself. I was due to fly to Grand Forks via Minneapolis with Delta, departing at 1250, Friday. That morning I got a notification that the CLT-MSP leg was delayed. Enough to mean I’d likely miss my connection to Grand Forks. I tried calling Delta but the hold time was an hour and a half.
So I headed to the CLT airport forthwith, (three hours early for my flight) and got a human to change my connection to a later one, flying into Fargo instead. I cancelled my rental and rebooked a one way Hertz rental from FAR-GFK. A drive through ND would be nice… The Hertz counter in CLT, by the way, said they had no way to make this change. I had to call India and wait it out… Great stuff.
This is a map for reference, of quite where these places are by the way –
The CLT-MSP flight was delayed, then delayed some more, and when we eventually boarded, I’d already had to bump myself to the later MSP-FAR flight, and let my Air BnB host know I’d be getting late. I also had to speak to the Race Director to get a COVID exemption for race morning Bib collection, because I would now miss Packet Pick up on Friday evening.
The flight eventually taxied to the front of the long runway take-off line, then had another mechanical issue and returned to the gate. Excellent. I ran off and just managed to get one of the last seats on a different Delta flight – leaving in 50 mins – the last one of the day leaving CLT for MSP. I was now getting into Minneapolis around 8 or 9pm, so it no longer saved any time to fly into Fargo then drive north. So I changed my connection to the last MSP flight direct into Grand Forks.
This meant I had to cancel my Hertz rental, again. (Hertz is apparently not able to change the rental location on a booking). However, as I was now landing in GFK at 11pm, this was impossible because the Hertz booking system for that location finished at 10pm. My Air BnB host said they were OK waiting up for me, and even offered to collect me from the airport, but I’d still need to get around in Grand Forks for the race, so a rental was pretty important… Accordingly, I called the GFK Hertz location direct, and they said they could stay open until 11pm for me, but no longer had any available vehicles, since I’d cancelled mine before. Having tried the two other rental agencies at the airport, I called Hertz back, and they agreed to put aside a vehicle due back in to them later that evening, for me! It would be uncleaned, but obviously by this point I couldn’t have given less of a shit.
This CLT-MSP flight was delayed by an hour, so that was fun, but it eventually took off. With the time zone difference, I landed in MSP with about 10 minutes to spare before my Grand Forks flight, but I hadn’t eaten all day, and now all of MSP eateries were shut. I eventually found a vending machine that worked and grabbed some snacks to eat before boarding. I was relieved to see us actually take off. Next stop Rental to the Air BnB via a 24hour Scottish restaurant I’d found in Grand Forks – the only place in town still open at that hour.
For reference, when I landed, it was 2220 and -17F. I thought I had understood previously, the expression ‘biting cold’. I was wrong. It really was unbelievable how crisp it felt walking outside to pick up the Ram 1500 truck that Hertz had kept aside for me. At that temperature, snow surrounds you, the night is silent, the ground is frozen solid, and you can see ice crystals in the air. I blasted the heating but had to put on gloves to even touch the steering wheel. A true polar vortex had enveloped the Northern Midwest, and I was right in the middle of it.
In driving through Grand Forks, the night was still, the sky was clear, and so were a few other things – this was a college town, this was a military base town, this was farm country, and if you go outside unprepared for the cold – you’re dead.
After my drive-through, I drove another 10 minutes and arrived at the Air BnB. My hosts were very nice, and race day morning rolled around in the blink of an eye. I took my time getting ready, drank my Maurten, and even got a granola breakfast from my hosts, Paul and Debbie. The temperature had dropped to -26F (-32C), and it was even cold enough for us to demonstrate the Boiling Water disappearing trip that people do on YouTube – https://youtu.be/pTf7X_COAvM
As a reference, this is the temperature in Antarctica & Mount Everest –
I had added a Goretex jacket, a Nike Therma Sphere hooded face covering, and activated hand warmers to my running clothing from last weekend in Iowa, and even put on my North Face snow trousers and Olympic snow boots to make the journey to race check-in.
I drove the 10 minutes to Lincoln Drive Park, found a space to park up, and walked over to the shelter to collect my packet. I said a quick hello with Race Director Robyn, with whom I’d been in contact, and nipped back to the truck, to continue getting ready in the warm.
It was the coldest Frozen feat race ever –
We lined up in the coral at 0850, ready to start wave 1 of the 10K at 0900. I hadn’t done any warm up, and just standing there, music blaring, was incredibly painful on the extremities – fingers, ears and toes (inside my Next %s). I kept moving on the spot and flinched in choosing NOT remove my Nike down jacket to run.
The race began and a lead group of eight or so separated. This evolved into a front three of local club runners, then me and another guy. I was soon hot in my jacket, so managed to get that off around mile 2, to discard it on a bench, making a mental note of where that was.
Around half a mile later, I dropped the guy in the hoodie, and at the turn-around, caught the bearded guy in leggings and cool gloves. I felt pretty good, and over the next mile, reeled in the two guys who had led from the start. At this point I realised we had actually had a tail wind on the three miles out, and the Arctic blow was now fully in our faces. With two miles to go, it was just me and the leader. We tussled and kept pushing one another, staying neck and neck until the start of mile 7, where I managed to kick and take the win in 40.50. Certainly a race I will never forget! It had seemed simply too cold to manage a gel during the run, and I didn’t even listen to any music, it was just a good honest race – man vs man, and the elements.
We had some pictures and awards and I headed back to the truck to warm up. I managed to locate my discarded Nike jacket from the bench, and headed back to the Air BnB. I had a nice hot shower, packed up, and was even given some food by my hosts. I headed back to Grand Forks airport, drank a celebratory beer, flew to Minneapolis, grabbed food there at Twin Forks restaurant, and flew home later to Charlotte, arriving in time for Valentine’s Sunday!
GFK –
Departing the Polar Vortex –
So all in all, I spent 12 hours in North Dakota, during half of which I was asleep, won a race, and experienced the coldest temperatures of my life.
The after effects of racing in such temperatures were not insignificant. My left third toe, both cheeks, and right earlobe were all quite swollen and painful for some days afterwards. The toe and earlobe turned out to be frostbite – not ideal. The Therma Sphere hood had really been amazing, and without it, I’m sure things would have been much worse!
As an aside, I really need to think more carefully about which books to travel with. In today’s altogether tepid PC society, much of the literature that I digest is rendered simply unreadable when sat in public amongst strangers on a plane. Books like Eric Randolph’s manifesto or The Diary of Hitler’s Gardener just seem to get people’s backs up these days.
39 down, next stop Arizona!
As a note, realising I had actually won in both North Dakota and South Dakota, I took a moment to work out my overall top three placements in all the races I have completed so far –
*1st Place*
- OH 10k trail
- WI 10k road
- SD 16 mile trail
- ND 10k road
- IA half road
*2nd Place*
- AL 10k trail
- CT 10k trail
- KY half road
- MD 10k road
- MT half road
- PA 4 mile trail
- VT half road (in Sun race)
*3rd Place*
- NE 10k road
Racing Americana 