Prairie Dog "Summer" Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, July 27
Castle Rock, CO
Half Marathon #111
Colorado Half #47
Weather - Sunny, warm, humid

I ran the "fall" Prairie Dog race last year. Back then, it was a one-time race. They have since made the Prairie Dog a series, one race for each season. The Summer Prairie Dog half marathon was originally scheduled for Denver, but moved at some point a few months ago to Castle Rock.

I registered only looking at the date. I did NOT notice at the time that it had an 8:00 start time. If I have learned nothing else from racing, starting even at 7 during the summer is too late. Too bad, so sad.

Thanks to the late start time, we didn't need to get up until just before 6. My dad came over to pick up the kids at 6:20, and we left shortly after that, thinking we would need about 45 minutes to get there. There was no traffic on the way down. The address that the race gave us placed us in the middle of an empty field. We drove around for a few minutes, thinking we must have missed something. I saw a few vehicles pulled over on the side of the road and one guy was wearing a race shirt so I had L stop. Turns out, one of the cars belonged to our buddy, Ross. They were having the same problem that we were... finally, we just put in the name of where the race was starting (not the street address), and we found it.

Packet pick-up was fast and easy. There were only 4 port-o-potties (not enough), and we made it through the line only once before heading to the start. I started mid-pack with L and got passed a ton right off the bat.

Start Line

To be clear, I had NO expectations about this race. I knew it was going to be hot and sunny. I have been training solely on trails for pretty much the last month, which is clearly not prepping for a road race. My last half marathon was COMPLETELY miserable. Heading onto the path, and my friend Jill said hi to me. That would be my last interaction with anyone the rest of the race, as I somehow manage to run a pace no one else does. I felt ok at the beginning and was surprised to see the first aid station so early (turns out, it was .54 miles out... what). I was trying not to look at my watch, and was surprised to see that the first mile was sub 10. Somewhere closer to the mile 2 marker was when I started walking. My legs just do not warm up until I have been out a few miles, and this was no exception.

We had been told that there would be 12 aid stations on the course, so I was not carrying my own water. I was almost dead from heat and dehydration by the second stop, which was at mile 2. So hot! So thirsty! I started to worry that this was where my race was going to fall apart. If I just walked the rest, how long would it take me?

It was pretty along most of the path

After that stop I felt a bit better, but another 2 miles until the next aid station seemed like FOREVER. I recognized a lot of the path from the Castle Rock half I ran last June, and the Alien half last September - kind of a combination of the two courses.

After the turnaround I felt really rejuvenated. (I later would realize this was because the whole second half was downhill. Made me feel better about my struggles on the way out). I was worried I was going to burn out, and while I took some walk breaks, I felt substantially better on the way back. I probably passed at least two dozen people in the second half and that is always nice.

Hot, sunny, exposed, hilly

Goes to show that anything can happen in a race, and it ended up being one of my strongest races of the season.

Official Time - 2:16:33
Official Pace - 10:25
Overall Place - 76/131
Gender Place - 37/77
Division Place - 18/28
Mile 1 - 9:48
Mile 2 - 10:59
Mile 3 - 10:48
Mile 4 - 11:35
Mile 5 - 10:14
Mile 6 - 11:17
Mile 7 - 10:44
Mile 8 - 9:45
Mile 9 - 9:41
Mile 10 - 10:32
Mile 11 - 10:05
Mile 12 - 10:26
Mile 13 - 10:31
Mile 13.1 - 6:37 (lol)

Thoughts:

• The 8:00 start is insane. Ridiculous. 7 am or earlier.
• It was really annoying that the address didn't work for so many of us. It was not that hard to get to, turn by turn instructions in addition to the address would have been helpful.
• We were told there would be 12 aid stations, and there only 9. With the first/last one being only a 1/2 mile from the start/finish. So really, more like 7... Had I known this was going to be the case, I would have brought my own water.
• Related: Aid stations were well stocked, plenty of volunteers. Water and Gatorade at all, and gels at 2 of them. The cups were the teeny tiny ones though, so I didn't get much to drink at any of them.
• The course is pretty exposed, especially the 1.5-2 miles closest to the start/finish area. We really lucked out and had a slight breeze on the way back.
• Course was very well marked, even though I was alone much of the time, I never thought I would/could get lost.
• Nice race shirt and medal.
• Post race food was good, but I was disappointed that the Noosa yoghurt samples were already expired!!!??? Wah.
• Overall, I really was intent on hating this race due to the late start and exposed course, but it really wasn't as horrible as it could have been. Assuming the change the start time for next year, this could be a good one, although I likely won't run it again.

Area 13.1 Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Castle Rock, CO
Saturday, September 14
Half Marathon #93
Colorado Half #32
Weather - Chilly and rainy, wet

The Area 13.1 half marathon is put on by Zulu Racing. This was the inaugural year for the Denver area. Unless you are living under a rock, you know that Denver/Boulder has been getting POUNDED with "Biblical" amounts of rain. This stuff is NO JOKE. For example, here is a picture of the trail that I ran my 22 miler on LAST WEEK:

The drive down was a bit rainy... (don't worry, I'm the passenger):

And we got a ZILLION Emergency Alerts on the drive down. I think we actually got a few more than this and I just didn't get an updated screen shot. But, I kept checking the race's Facebook page and the event was still on. Maybe it would just be another really memorable race!

We pulled up the Fairgrounds with about 45 minutes until the race started, which gave us plenty of time to put on all the fun glow in the dark stuff L got to accent our outfits. This picture doesn't do it justice, but we have glowing necklaces, bracelets and rings. Sadly, our super bright neon yellow shirts weren't so bright once it got dark out.

It was still drizzling, although the rain had let up A LOT, and Hope and I had both opted to wear arm sleeves. CRAZY to think that just a week ago we were melting and running in 90 degree weather.

About 15 minutes before the race was supposed to start we are told that they are delaying because of thunder and lightning. But, it was still on! Thankfully, the race did get started at 7:15. They had been saying that if there was too much flooding on the course that they might have to turn the race into a 10 miler instead of a half. Thankfully, they were able to find a safe route for us to get in all the miles.

Because of the dark and the rain, I did not take any pictures on the course. In fact, I didn't even take my camera with me. The course was on the same "trail" as the Castle Rock half marathon that we ran in June. I was really surprised that there weren't more puddles and that the course was as dry as it was.

L started with us as she is still crippled and taking it easy. The first mile felt great. Slight downhill and cooler temps. Hope was concerned that we were going a bit too fast and mentioned that she has been having some hip tightness. We slowed it down.

There was a 5k along with the half marathon and it was a bit congested at the start, as an alarmingly large number of people actually came out for the event, but it wasn't too bad. The aid stations all had water and I think Cytomax. The volunteers that made it out were super friendly and energetic. The aid station at mile 4/8.5 also had Hammer gel in a variety of flavors.

Not much to say about the race itself... L took off ahead of us somewhere around mile 4 or 5 and I stuck with Hope. The course is really hilly and neither one of us was really "feeling it" so we walked quite a bit. I ended up keeping my arm sleeves on the entire race. I'm sure I would have been fine without them but I was comfortable having them.

We did the 10 miles out and back, and then we had to re-do the 5k route (out and back on the same trail) to get the mileage in.

Awesome medal!!

Official - 2:49:29 (not sure how this is SO far off from my Garmin)
Garmin - 2:44:04
Mile 1 - 11:15
Mile 2 - 11:22
Mile 3 - 11:21
Mile 4 - 11:20
Mile 5 - 13:18
Mile 6 - 12:53
Mile 7 - 12:27
Mile 8 - 12:40
Mile 9 - 12:39
Mile 10 - 13:45
Mile 11 - 11:52
Mile 12 - 13:29
Mile 13 - 14:18
Mile 13.12 - 11:48

Thoughts:

• Excellent for an inaugural. Especially considering the circumstances, they really did a great job with this event.
• The starting area at the Fairgrounds was perfect. We cycled through the bathroom lines three times and never had to wait. Plus, I like washing my hands.
• The aid stations were well stocked and plenty of cheerful volunteers.
• The course was very well marked, and they had tons of cute decorations on the course (glow sticks, inflatable aliens, etc.)
• A shockingly large number of people carried no headlamp. And wore all black. Why?
• LOVED the shirt and the medal. The shirt is gender specific and CUTE (I should have a picture) and I will definitely wear again). The medal is awesome.
• This group put a lot of work into this event, I maybe would run again, although I am TOO OLD to be running at night! By the time we finished and drove Hope home and got the kids and got back home it was after midnight!!
• Pho was probably NOT the best pre-race food (2.5 hours before race time) - mildly upset stomach most of the race.