The Drift "Half Marathon" (Race Recap)

Pinedale, WY

Sunday, March 14

Weather - Sunny and wiiiiindy

I really don't race anymore. Over the last few years, the amount of races I have signed up for has certainly dwindled. In the early years of racing I basically signed up for anything and it was just for the sake of running races. I don't do that anymore. With that said... back in November, Kristin came back from visiting family in Wyoming and told us about a "fun" race that happens in this quaint town in Wyoming in early March. I visited the website and it was hilarious/scary that it basically said that you could look at the forecast and assume it wouldn't be that cold, but it would definitely be colder/windier than you might think. Jeramiah registered immediately, but by the time Kristin went to sign up, it was waitlisted! So imagine my surprise when all of a sudden in February, we got the email that we could move into the start list. Kristin was the first to get the email and asked the race director if she could do the half marathon instead of the "heavy" marathon, and was told that was fine. After I got the same email, I did the same, and the three of us were ready to head to Wyoming!

In the midst of all this, Denver was preparing to have record-breaking snow in a blizzard that was supposed to start coming through Friday through the weekend. Once we figured out that we'd at least be able to GET to Wyoming, everything else fell into place.

Race Day

We still weren't sure what was going to happen with Jeramiah, but his marathon started an hour before us, and we wanted to see him off. Even though I had woken up earlier to pack everything so we could check out before heading to the race, we were a few minutes late dropping everything off in Kristin's room. We arrived at the start line around 7:40, with J's race starting at 8:00. 

Picture is actually from the night before - not an ugly view!

J's race started right on time at 8:00. Did I mention that part of the fun of this race is that the course could be completed either as a run, a bike, or skis?? Anyway, we were surprised at how much colder and windier it seemed at the start line than it had when we left our hotel that was only a half hour away. We stopped by check in to get our bibs and discovered that my bib was missing!! We later found out they had accidentally given it to a late-arriving marathon runner. (He didn't realize his name was not Walker, nor was he running the half marathon?) We double checked that there was no course limit - "we would give you until 5:00, when the marathon course limit is." Better not take us 8 hours to do a half marathon.

We went back to sit in the warm car. Ariel and I shared the leftover cakes from the night before for breakfast. By the time I used the bathroom and made sure I had everything, it was only a few minutes until the start. I was really concerned that I hadn't brought warm enough clothes. I was wearing a fleece-lined long sleeve and my super warm Salomon jacket, but I was kicking myself for not bringing my warmer mittens, even though I had packed them, they were still at the hotel. UGH.

I believe we were told to "look cold" - we didn't have to try that hard

Our race also started right on time, at 9:00. We started near the back, wearing our Kahtoola Exo Spikes. We didn't necessarily have plans to start/run together. Kristin has been working really hard and has gotten substantially faster, and has also been running a lot more base miles than I have been. I took a quick picture out of the gate - I've never been in a winter race with skiers before.

I don't really know what I was expecting, but it wasn't really what I expecting... The first 10-15 minutes I was really cold, and struggling up the hill. You'd think that the snow would have been packed down, but it really wasn't. I had better luck when I was following in ski tracks, but overall the snow was pretty loose and uneven, so it was hard to get a good groove going. Also, the entire first 3 miles were a gradual uphill. I told Kristin that she should not wait for me and we would just meet up at the finish. She finally headed up without me, and I got into the rhythm of a run/walk between the markers on the side of the trail. It was slow going, and I kept leapfrogging the same people, but I felt a lot better than just trying to run it all. (Edited to add professional pictures from Geoffrey Ristau):

Up ahead I saw Kristin taking off her jacket and struggling trying to get in her pack. I caught up to her and helped her to bungee it onto the back. We would end up sticking together for the next few hours. When we got to the only turn on the course, about 2.7 miles up, I remember telling the volunteers that I was a bit disappointed that this race didn't seem to be as awful as it was advertised. 

We then headed the opposite directions, which was on a more narrow trail. It wasn't long before we started to see people coming towards us as the course was an out and back. This section was actually not bad. I took off my jacket and even my gloves because I was warm. 

It seemed like a gradual downhill and we finally had a tailwind. I did, however, have to pee and there was nowhere on the course to duck off and get privacy, so around mile 5 I literally just sat on a drift on the side of the trail to pee. Before we knew it, we saw the turnaround. It was literally just a volunteer standing there with a tub of pre-packaged food and a jug of water. I didn't need anything, so he checked our numbers and we headed out.

I forced myself to eat a bite of snack mix, but I wasn't hungry and it was hard to breath (between the cold and higher elevation). I think this was probably the point of the race where things just got... less enjoyable. It was definitely still pretty, but we were now going back uphill and into the headwind. We realized we were NOT last, as there were actually some skiers and a runner behind us. We were still doing our run/walk between posts, but this was not fun. Somewhere near the turn, Kristin stopped joining in the intervals so I decided to just keep going because I wanted to be done.

We had a brief conversation after turning that what we thought would be a nice downhill finish did not feel downhill at all. The snow seemed even worse than the way out and it was so hard to find a section that felt runnable. Since it WAS supposedly downhill, I forced myself to modify my intervals so I was running two and walking one. It was still hard. 

Finally, I could see the finish area, and it looked like a surprisingly large crowd was down there. I was hoping to finish in under 3 hours, which I did (barely).

Fun finish line with tape and everything!

Kristin finished just a few minutes behind me - we were done!! I know that in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't "seem" that hard, but it was something I have never done, and there was an awful lot of prep going into "JUST" a half marathon.

The local brewery had a guy with a trunk full of beer - that made for a pretty fantastic finish line!

Garmin Time - 2:57:57

Garmin Pace - 14:52

Elevation Gain - 1,358' (which I think is wrong)

Mile 1 - 15:29

Mile 2 - 15:42

Mile 3 - 15:52

Mile 4 - 14:55

Mile 5 - 14:50

Mile 6 - 13:37

Mile 7 - 15:47

Mile 8 - 15:37

Mile 9 - 15:47

Mile 10 - 14:02

Mile 11 - 13:47

Mile 12 - 13:00

Once we finished the beers we were ready to head out. However warm we got while running quickly ended.

Thoughts:

• Probably the most "no frills" race ever. No race shirt or medal, although we did get a reusable bag and a bottle of hot sauce.
• Pretty expensive for what it was - around $100 for the half marathon. Of note, every runner had to carry $50 cash on them in case they had to be evacuated off the course for any reason. With that said, we really didn't see the snowmobile patrol, so not sure how that would have worked.
• Not a ton of information on the course, the gpx for the course didn't work and there were no actual directions to the start of the race. We scoped it out the night before and were able to find it though the gpx for the marathon.
• We REALLY lucked out with the weather. Normally it is much colder and awful conditions. 
• Would I run again? No, I would not travel for this. Would I run again if I was local? Maybe...