Polar Bear Run - Gimil, Manitoba

Last Sunday was the Annual Polar Bear Run across Lake Winnipeg.  It's usually an 18 mile run across the frozen lake.  They had to change the course this year due to weather conditions and impassible routes.  You know it's bad when even the fat tire bikes can't make it.  The course was changed to an out-and-back route from Gimil to Winnipeg Beach.  It was now a 20 mile run and the fat tire bikes could only ride for about a mile.  The snow was soft enough that you felt like you were running on mashed potatoes... not great terrain.

About 35-40 runners started out, and while the course was tough, the sun was out and it was a balmy      -10 degrees C.  It was great for the run out, but coming back, the sun disappeared and we were running into the wind.  The course got worse with all the runners churning up the snow.  As if my pace wasn't slow enough, it slowed even more.  My normal pace is usually around a 7:40 to 8 minute mile, but this course had me running a 13 minute mile.  It took everything out of my legs.  My wife was on snowmobile support and kept asking me if I wanted a ride for the last few miles.  I don't know how many times I had to tell her to go away.  What I didn't know was that almost everyone behind me had either left the course and ran up on the highway or got a ride back on a snowmobile already.  With about a mile and a half left, she finally told me that there was only one other runner behind me and that it looked like only 6 of us were going to make it in on the original course.  This was enough of a boost to get me to the finish.