The Frozen Yeti - Capping off a Month of the Coldest Weather I Can Remember

This past weekend I competed at the TARC Frozen Yeti for the third time.  The Frozen Yeti is a 15 mile course broken into three 5ish mile loops at the Hale Reservation in Westwood, MA.  You can either run the 15 mile race or as many miles as you want over 30 hours.   The inaugural year of the race was in 2019 where I ran the 15 mile race.  In 2020, pre-pandemic, I ran 63 miles over 12.5 hours (You can read more about that here).  This year I had goals to beat that, but it all depended on what mother nature had in store. 

The story of the 2022 Frozen Yeti starts 4 weeks before race day.  Maintaining a 70 mile a week average over 2021 gave me a great base to begin my training.  For this year's Yeti, my goal was to put in a few big weeks to be near peak shape going into the race.  

First up was a 90 mile week with a 30 mile run. That Saturday's temps were down to 18 with 7 degree wind chill.  It was a good start adapting to the cold weather that we might see on race day.  

The following week I upped mile mileage to triple digits for the first time since the 2020 Yeti and incorporated a 35 mile run where the temps plummeted to 5 degrees with a -16 windchill.  This may be the coldest weather I have ever run in.  

Feeling strong after knocking 187 miles in the first half of the month, I started to back the mileage  down with two weeks to go before the race.  After a 62 mile week with another Saturday run in the single digits, we learned that mother nature had other plans and was going to dump what would eventually be 2' of snow on race day.  So the Frozen Yeti had to be postponed a week due to it being too frozen (honestly though, there was no way the race could have taken place in the blizzard and it was definitely the right call).   

All and all, I had 5 runs in January under 10 degrees with another 5 under 20.  It was a cold month.  

So this brings us to a week later than planned and followed an ice storm which froze everything solid.  

The Race

The race began at 8am and with the uncertain conditions, I set a tiered goals for the day.  First up
was the A goal, to beat my 2020 mileage.  This was my first in person ultra race since the 2020 version that happened just before the pandemic reached the Boston area.  While I knew this was a stretch, I also knew I was in pretty good shape from all the mileage over the past couple of years.  

My B goal was 45 miles.   I figured this was reasonable, but was still unsure how tough running on snow and ice would make the day.  The C goal was 35 miles.  I had already run this in training and figured no matter what I could muscle this out on race day.  

My trusty running buddy Keith and I got to the race around 7:20 which gave us a bit of time to check in and chat with some fellow runners.   Since Keith had to leave for work after 10 miles, the goal was for him to come back and join for a few more when he could.  

The race started at 8 (22 degrees with next to no wind) and Keith and I took off like we were running the 15 mile race.  While I like to run from the front, doing so on a snowy, icy course had some disadvantages. 

• Since we were setting fresh tracks, we were post holing a bit (2-3'').  Not horrible, but enough to put un-needed stress on the angles and calves.
• There were a handful of stream crossings and it wasn't always clear where it was safe to step.  Needless to say, we both ended up with wet feet in the first few miles.  

Later laps proved to be easier with the snow packed down a bit more and safe tracks through wet areas were easier to follow.  

As mentioned earlier, the course follows three loops.  These are known as the Red, White, and Blue loops.  The first, aka Red, loop (roughly 5.7 miles) is the most challenging of the three with the middle 2.5 miles going up and down and up and down and zigging and zagging.   Keith and I finished the first loop at just over 10:30 pace.  The second, or White loop (~4.7 miles), still had its share of rolling hills, but it flattened out enough that we knocked down our average pace 10:25.  

After the White loop, Keith took off for work, and I was on my own from here on out.  Before he left, we chatted with the volunteers and race directors briefly joking about everything from the best donuts (see Donut Series) in the Boston area to what it like to have an 8+ year run streak.  

As I began the Blue loop (a tad over 5 miles), I slowed a bit knowing a still had a long day ahead of me.  It was a bit surreal running across snow covered beaches next to frozen ponds thinking back to the 2020 version where there was no ice and the 2016 TARC 100 where I ran my first 100k on these same trails.  

I finished the first loop in 2:45, which wasn't too bad considering it was 100% ice and snow.  

After a quick snack, I headed out on my second lap trying to simple keep moving.  That set of rolling hills complete with twisting and turning really started to beat on.  My pace bounced around between 11 and 12:30 per mile.  

After I finished the Red loop for the second time, I went straight into the White loop.  I had a Untapped Waffle in my pocked and figured that would be enough to get me back to the aid station.   

Never being more than 5.7 miles from the aid station, I opted to for running with a pack in this weather.  I fit some food in my pockets and just drank while I was at the aid station.  

Within the next mile I had eaten the waffle and could feel my stomach grumbling.  It was nearing noon and my body was ready for lunch.  Miles 23-25 were the roughest miles of the day as I fought off a bonk.  Finally, I arrived back at the aid station and ate everything in site; licorice, air heads, PB&J, chocolate bars, and a banana.  While my break was a bit longer than I would have liked, I felt so much better heading out on the White loop. 

While I didn't speed back up, I was running 100% of the time.  At this point my splits were bouncing around from 11 to 13 minutes per mile, but I was in good spirits.  I finished my second set of the loops in 3:16 bringing my total time for the day to about 6:01. 1 more loop (5 miles) to hit my C goal.  With the help of a cheese quesadillas, I was confident I could get to at least 35.  

That high I had been riding for the previous 5 miles lasted about 1 more mile.  Then the going got tough again.  My feet had been wet for nearly 30 miles and based on the level of discomfort of my right heal, I could only imagine what it looked like. 

At this point I started to catch some runners that had started a bit later in the day.  The positivity coming from them is one of the things I love the most about ultra / trail running.  Everyone is out there with their own goals and always happy to see and help others achieve theirs.  I always get such a boost chatting with others on the trail.  

As I completed my 7th lap (my watch now read 37 miles), I bumped into my friend Tim.  He had just completed his 6th lap and was calling it a day.  Tim has always been interested in running ultras, but never seemed to make it happen before.  With the race postponed a week, he ran 32 miles on his treadmill last weekend.  Today, he officially finished his first ultra.  Congratulations and welcome to the club.  

As I headed out my 8th lap, the Blue loop, I knew this was probably going to be it for the day. The sun would set and the temps would start dropping within the hour. About half way through, Keith called and said he would be back by 4:40 and that we would need to head home. He didn't get any argument from me.  

I finished that loop with an elapsed time of 8:39, 12:25 pace over 41.8 miles for day 1.  

What?  Day 1?  There is more then one day?  Before I knew it Keith was telling race directors that we would be back to run more in the morning.   He had only run 10 miles and needed at least 10 more.  I was too tired to argue and simply agreed.  

Before we left, I was chatting with one of the volunteers and something about her looked familiar.  Turns out it was Stephanie Case, the elite long distance ultra runner and human rights lawyer.  She came to the event to get in some volunteer hours and ran the course after her shift was over.  She has an impressive resume with a recent win Tor des Glaciers (the 450k long course version of Tor des Geants in Italy) last September.  As impressive as her running has been her work for the UN while living in areas of conflict and her founding of the NGO Free to Run enabling women and girls to safely engage in outdoor activities in conflict affected regions.  I've followed her on Instagram for while and have always been a huge fan. 

Once I got in the car, I finally took my shoes off to see how bad the damage really was.  In short it wasn't good.  Both heals had been rubbed raw and my right sneaker was covered in blood.  Once I got home, I cleaned it up and settled in to the couch to relax and watch the Olympics.  

Day 2 began with a 5am wake up.  Keith needed to be back home by 9am so I told him I would pick him up around 5:40.  We arrived back at Hale shortly after 6 just as the sun was starting to provide that morning glow.  Hobbling with two really sore heals, I told Keith to just go, I would wait for the sun to rise a bit and just tack on 5 more miles.  

So for the next 15 minutes I sat and chatted with Surjeet, Carolyn (race directors) and some volunteers before heading out.  While it was under 10 degrees, the fire was providing some nice warmth and I even got to see one of hardy soles (Patrick McInerney) that was pushing through the night come in.  He would go on to eventually win and become the sole 100 miler.  

Just before 6:30 I headed out and ran the Blue loop one last time.  I wasn't moving particularly fast, but I made it through the loop without too much trouble.  With a mile to go, I saw Keith running towards me.  He said his feet were just too blistered from wet shoes the day before.  We finished together, had some awesome egg and cheese quesadillas, and thanked the volunteers one more time before heading out.  

I ended up finishing with 47 miles total over the two days.   Not to bad considering I've never run that much on snow or ice before.  

While I am not sure if I will run the Frozen Yeti again next year, I definitely will be back to at least volunteer.  Not having been to one of their races in two years really made me appreciate just how awesome the TARC events and TARC family really are ... and for that I simply just want to say Thank you. 

- Scot