Last year I had thought to do the full marathon version of
this race, since it was the national championship that year. I ended up going
to Santa Fe for a relaxing weekend instead, and do not regret it. This year,
the half marathon was the national championship. Since my fiancée and I had
planned to head back to Moab in any case, I decided to make this my fall race.
After the numerous injuries of August and September, my
training had finally picked up again and I was feeling about as well prepared
as could be expected. However, a little under two weeks before race day, I
caught a cold the same day as my peak workout: a double of North Table Mountain
in Golden, negative splitting and setting several PRs during the second loop. That
cold lingered, and still does.
Nevertheless, I felt pretty good race morning, minus the
lingering cough, and figured a no-excuses route was the best way to go. I saw
several big names on the start line, notably Sage Canaday and Mike Foote, who
were fortunately in the marathon and would go 1-2 in that race. For the women,
Stevie Kremer and Melody Fairchild both showed up, and would go 1-2. I did not
recognize any of the men contesting the half, but then since I tend to follow
ultras more than shorter distances, that didn’t surprise me very much.
After an interesting safety announcement, where we were duly
informed that we were likely to pass out from dehydration if we didn’t trip
over a cactus and fall off a cliff first, a band gave a funked-out version of
the national anthem, and we were off.
The first four miles of the course climbed about 1000 feet
up a Jeep road, sometimes rocky, often sandy, and occasionally steep both
uphill and down. During this section, I consciously kept the pace fairly conservative
but still up tempo, not wanting to waste myself in the first third of the
course. Because of this, I actually found myself running almost toe-to-toe with
my friend and coworker, who would eventually come in 6th woman.
It was also during this portion that I noticed something
interesting: while I was competitive and keeping pace on the non-technical
sections (up, down, or flat), I quickly picked people off on the technical
ascents and descents. Any point with any scrambling whatsoever, I pulled ahead
of several people, often to have them catch up a bit later. This was new for
me, as I have in the past often been less capable at the technical sections. It
seems that my subsequent focus on technical trails, combined with my recent
foray into Parkour, has yielded results. Later this race would teach me that,
though it’s important to keep the technical skills up, I need to focus a bit
more on speed training as well.
Four or so miles in, we topped out the first climb after a
short, sharp technical section. On the other side, the Jeep track quickly
dropped down a fairly technical ascent, where I picked off at least six to
eight people in quick succession. The course then flattened out into a smooth,
sandy track where I could just cruise the mile or so into the first of three
aid stations at 5.7 miles. (As a side note, why do half marathons always seem
to have an aid station at mile 12?)
I moved quickly through the aid station, taking a quick cup
of water on the run, and the course took a rolling turn. For the next two miles
or so, we remained on rolling Jeep trails, where you could often see the
runners up to a couple minutes ahead of you, and likewise behind. I lost a bit
a ground on this section, most likely because I have not trained much on
rollers lately, and I was beginning to feel the effects of the race, now
halfway gone. However, I don’t think I let more than three people pass me here,
and would rectify that soon enough.
The next section was easily my favorite of the race. After
another decent climb, we hit the Pritchard Canyon section of the course, where
it changes to technical singletrack along the edge of a rather deep canyon. One
woman, wearing a black top, had passed me in the previous section and now led
me onto the single track, and here I made my first mistake of the course. She
was clearly uncomfortable with the combination of technicality of the course
and the precipitous drop off to our left. I was in my element. Rather than ask
to pass immediately, though, I gave it a couple minutes, and so lost some time.
I finally did pass her on a section where the trail ran down
between a few boulders. Rather than wind between them, I hopped on top and
boulder-hopped my way down, using my newly acquired Parkour skills to vault a
particularly large rock. I quickly left the woman in black behind and danced
down the trail, letting out the occasional whoop as I weaved, jumped, and
skipped down the trail.
Soon enough, the trail began to drop down the side of the
canyon wall in a series of semi-technical, nearly scramble-worth drops. I
caught up to two more guys on this section, and again, rather than asking to
pass them immediately, tagged behind them for a brief period. That was my
second mistake of the race.
I eventually did pass them, sacrificing a bit of skin on my
arms to a few particularly thorny bushes to do so, and dropped down the
remaining single track into the second aid station at 9.7 miles. I again took a
quick drink of water and continued on through to where the half marathon course
took a right on the road while the marathon took a left.
This led to the second, and final, major climb of the
course. I was a little surprised by this one since I had thought the second
major climb came before the second aid station. This climb consisted of a mile
or so up a dirt road. I kept the cadence as high as I could up this climb,
consciously pushing my legs knowing that the rest of the race was (almost) all-downhill.
I did not pass anybody on the road, but I made up some ground on those both
ahead of me and behind me.
The subsequent downhill saw a first for me: my right calf
was threatening to cramp up. If I attempted to keep up a forefoot strike, my
calf tightened, so I lifted my toes heel-struck my way downhill, keeping my
pace up. The course eventually turned off the road and down a mountain bike
trail, which promptly dropped us into a creek. I had heard about this from my
friend who ran the course last year, but was not prepared for the sheer amount
of water in the creek, or how cold that water was.
Nevertheless I caught two people almost immediately, both of
whom were a bit more tentative than I was about crashing through the creek.
Perhaps I should have been more tentative as well, for at about the 4th
of a dozen creek crossings, I jumped into what I thought was a shortcut, only
to find myself chest deep in water and unable to breathe from the cold. That
didn’t slow me for long, though, and I quickly climbed out, and slogged through
the remainder of the creek to climb out at mile marker 12.
The race directors here must be slightly sadistic. The last
mile starts fast down a dirt road, straight towards the finish, but just when
you glimpse the line it turns you around, and dumps you down into the creek
again, where I promptly took a wrong turn. This cost me about 20 seconds, and
nearly cost me beating my coworker, who was fast coming up from behind. Another
short singletrack section, a creek crossing, and a short, sharp climb up a
muddy slope, and I crossed the line in 1:45:40, for 42nd place over
all, and 9th in my age group.
I turned around in time to see L crossing the line and give
her a high five.
Over all I feel pretty good about this race. I pushed hard
with everything I had, but managed to not go out to fast and still have a good
amount of push left during the last three miles of the race. I had a solid
month’s training, after a brief mileage ramp-up, and focused more on quality
workouts than I have in the past. My Parkour training and focus on technical
trails paid dividends in the more difficult, technical sections. Had there been
more of these, I might have placed even better.
Of course there are always improvements to be made.
Primarily, I need to be more sure of myself. I have evidently vastly improved
my technical abilities over the past year, particularly when tired. I should
realize this for my next race and play to my newfound strengths. I also need to
work on my turnover, adding interval and hill workouts (more than just running
up a mountain) to help this along.
With my impending move, my running will likely be shaken up
for a little while as I adjust to being back in Minnesota. However, I
anticipate having significantly more time available to run, as I will not be
commuting at all. And if a few schemes I have in the works work out the way I
hope, I might be in a better running position than I have ever been.
As ever, we shall see. But the future looks interesting!
