Mt. Sneffels Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Ouray, CO
Saturday, August 10
Half Marathon #90
Colorado Half #30
Weather - Perfect

The second weekend in August is apparently one of the most popular race weekends in the state of Colorado. The last three years we have run the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon (that race last year was when my IT band finally gave out), but with our goal of "run all the Colorado races" we had to pick a different race. The name alone sold us, so Mt. Sneffels half marathon it was.

Somehow in the midst of all the planning, I didn't realize that the race was on a Saturday. And that it was a six hour drive from Denver. Obviously I ended up having to take Friday off.

We dropped the kids off with our parents at 9 and then met up with Hope who was joining us for the race. We decided to take the "shorter" scenic route. Bad idea. Apparently there is ALL THE TRAFFIC on these two lane state highways. It took forever to get there. We stopped along the way in places like South Park:

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place in Gunnison. I swear it was the best pizza I have ever had.

We arrived in Ouray just before 5:00, which is when packet pick up supposedly started at the hot springs. It looked like they had been set up for a while and we got our stuff in just a few minutes. L managed to book as at a hotel only about a half mile from the start. We had a pretty decent view:

We spent about an hour trying to decide what we were going to do for dinner. We had asked the volunteers at pick up what they recommended and one of them snidely said "no where." Um ok. Ouray is a super small, quaint mountain town with no chain restaurants. We were going to be at the mercy of what didn't have a wait and what might be affordable. We finally decided on a place O'Brien's Pub. The food was ok, the service was not. 

We walked back to the room and L went to bed since she had worked the night before. Hope and I watched tv until about 9 and then headed to bed. I felt tired but I did not sleep. AT ALL. I spent the entire night tossing and turning and don't think I got more than an hour of rest in the whole 9+ hours I was in bed.

Race Day

Obviously I was awake before the alarm went off at 6:15. The race started at 7:30, but the plan was to get a cup of coffee and small breakfast from the lobby and then walk over around 7. I had the most delicious cheese coffee cake. We walked over at 7, and it seemed like it was going to be a cold day and I was a bit sad I had not packed arm sleeves.

We arrived at the start at 7:15 and decided to use the bathroom even though we had all just gone before leaving the hotel. We timed it perfectly, the National Anthem was playing right as we walked up to the start line.

Start line

We had been given a hand drawn map of the course in our race packet, but none of us had really bothered to look at it. I did know that there was an out and back in the beginning, but what I didn't really think about is WHERE the out and back was. Turns out we had to run up Main Street, which was a big hill. We saw L running towards us (can you spot the neon??):

She yells "Ross is here!" Ross is the old guy that lives near us that is also at all the races. I was surprised to hear that he was at this race since he had run it before and there were other races happening this weekend.

We got to the turnaround and then got to run DOWN the hill, which was nice. But then... we looped back UP on the parallel dirt road that our hotel was on. We didn't head out of town until after the second mile and we were pleasantly surprised to realize that we were not going to be running on asphalt! As you can see, there was a decent ascent in the beginning - I took this around mile 2.5 and we had started on the roads below:

Neither Hope nor I was wearing headphones so we just chatted the entire time, enjoying the views.

The marathon course was an out and back, starting in Ridgway. Their entire first half was a gradual uphill. Didn't look fun. I did, however, recognize two people on the course. The assistant to the race director of the Grand Mesa ultra I just ran a few weeks ago, and Lisa, the woman I ran most of the first 12 miles with on that same course. Such a small world in the running community!

The gradual downhill REALLY helped our pace and Hope kept commenting that we were pretty regularly running sub 11 minute  miles, which for US is pretty speedy!! We were both feeling good for once! We even stopped to take pictures - how could you not with these amazing views!?

Somewhere around mile 10 I suggested that we have a goal to pass at least 10 people before the race was over. We managed to do that within probably the next five minutes. We must have been pacing pretty well because the only time anyone passed us on the back part of the course were the really fast marathoners.

I took this picture at the base of the only major hill at the end of the course at mile 11:

Around mile 12.5 we walked a bit as it seems our faster pace caught up with Hope. We crested the top of a small hill and we booked it, finally passed the women with the stroller (small victories, people).

MMR Time - 2:30:40
MMR Distance - 13.39
MMR Pace - 11:15
Official Time - 2:30:41
Official Pace - 11:31
Overall Place - 384/505
Gender Place - 225/324
Division Place - 34/41
Mile 1 - 12:22
Mile 2 - 12:11
Mile 3 - 12:04
Mile 4 - 10:28
Mile 5 - 11:36
Mile 6 - 10:31
Mile 7 - 11:29
Mile 8- 11:38
Mile 9 - 9:53 (WHAT)
Mile 10 - 10:43
Mile 11 - 10:14
Mile 12 - 12:37
Mile 13 - 10:49
Mile 13.39 - 8:36 (Double WHAT)

We had to take a shuttle back from Ridgway to Ouray. There was apparently only one so we had to wait about 10 minutes, which gave me time to slam half a beer. We had time to all shower and we were out the door by 11:30. We chose NOT to take the scenic route on the way back. Hope's husband and daughter had been watching the kids and we picked them up around 6:15.

Thoughts:

• I loved our super bright "be seen from space" outfits.
• I would highly recommend this race. Everything was very well organized - there was a bonus 6th aid station and I never felt like they were spaced too far apart. All but one had m&m's, gummy bears and pretzels. 
• The race was not very expensive and came with a tech tee (unfortunately the smallest size still too big for me) and a medal.
• The course was on dirt and had beautiful views.
• I never had any issues with my calves!! I really think it helps when we have a few super slow "warm up"miles in the beginning to loosen up the legs.

Grand Mesa 60k (Race Recap)

Saturday, July 27
Cedaredge, CO
Weather - PERFECT

After my runner's high with Bighorn going so wonderfully, I was on the hunt for another ultra. Preferably, one that was on a weekend while A was still with her dad. I found the Grand Mesa Ultramarathon and after some internal debate, decided that 50 miles was probably crazy but that I could likely gut out a 60k. Ironically, while at run club one night, it turns out that I actually knew someone that was going to be running (the 100 mile!) and some of my other friends there were going to be heading out and helping crew. They also invited me to stay with them at a house they rented. And thus, my weekend was planned.

**WARNING, PICTURE HEAVY**

Friday

I decided not to bother setting an alarm. They only thing I had to do was to drive to Grand Mesa (as best I could tell, about a 4.5 hour drive) in order to attend the pre-race meeting and pick up my stuff. I ended up rolling out of bed around 8:00. I had packed the night before and after double checking my gear, I headed out at 9 to do last minute errands. That ended up taking AN HOUR. I finally got on the highway at 10:15 and started the drive. Other than hitting some traffic near Idaho Springs, the drive was uneventful. Rachel (the girl running the 100) had emailed me some great directions of how to get there. Without them, I surely would have gotten lost.

I had to pull over on my drive in for a picture

I was trying to read the directions to the house Rachel had rented when I realized I was being tailgated. Turns out it was Rachel, so she cut around me to lead me to the house - making life much simpler. It as a NICE house:

View from the top deck

View from the yard

Me, Heather and Rachel

I had arrived around 3:30, so by the time we got everything in the house and unpacked (they brought enough food to feed about 30 people), we had to head right over to the pre-race meeting. Rachel knew pretty much everyone there. She crewed last year and had been out just about every weekend training different sections of the course. Phil, the race director, gave a so-so description of the course and what to look for. The longer he talked, the more I was concerned that I was going to get lost on the course..

Phil

They had a "pasta" dinner - which was really pasta SALAD. They did have corn, rolls and the most delicious cookies ever. I think I had close to a half dozen of them.

Pretty sure Rachel could have stayed there all night socializing, but around 6:30 we finally headed back to the house, taking this picture along the way:

Top: Kate, Heather, Me Ground: Dan and Rachel

We spent most of  our time at the picnic table by the creek that ran behind the house drinking beer. So relaxing!! Heather ended up making some real pasta and shortly after dinner #2 I decided to get all my stuff ready for morning. I tried to head to bed around 9:30 but I had some trouble shutting my brain off. Tossed and turned most of the night.

Saturday

Got up around 3:30. Rachel had made this delicious breakfast concoction of eggs, spinach, onions, mushrooms and I *think* hashbrowns. I heated some of it up and had a cup of black coffee. Double checked the gear I was taking with me in the morning. Checked that my headlamp batteries were working and had a mild panic attach when I couldn't find my sunglasses. THANKFULLY they were in my backpack and I had looked before leaving.

We headed out the door about 4:20 for the drive up to the start. I think we underestimated the amount of time it would take in the dark. We had to drive a lot slower because there were BILLIONS of deer out. Seriously, in the 15 mile drive, we probably had to slow down 3-4 different spots because deer were in the road. By the time we parked, it was 4:50. With the race starting at 5:00. What. Luckily it was a small event so nothing too chaotic. We headed over to the lodge where we took a quick pre-race picture and I used the bathroom.

Me, Dan, Heather, Rachel

Walking over to the start (in a rush - for REAL, we did not allow a lot of time) and my headlamp will NOT TURN ON. Thankfully, I have batteries in my pack although I'm fumbling around and can't figure out how to open the case for the batteries. Turns out Dan is a hero and was able to do it for me, finishing right as the gun went off (about 2 minutes late). It's then that I realize I have not located signal on my damn watch and it took 6-7 minutes to catch up.

To me, the course wasn't marked well, especially for being in the dark, but thankfully I was behind a bunch of people that seemed to know where they were going. I ended up in a pack of 6-8 runners for the first 3-4 miles. I will say "runners" loosely since we pretty much walked 90% of the time we were in the dark. Once it started to get light, I started taking a lot of pictures:

Sun coming up!

Base of Crag's Crest

The climb up Crag's Crest was not that bad. As best as I know (there really is not much information on this course) is that we were at around 9,000-10,000 feet, but I'm not entirely sure what the climb actually was. The altitude did not get to me and although I wasn't really running I did not struggle going up.

And the views from the climb were AMAZING.

I spent a few miles with two 50 milers (Dave and Lisa) and talking about different races really made the time fly by. Also, finally, I was able to get some pictures during a race as a result!
 

Lisa at the peak of Crag's Crest

The views on the way down were just as beautiful:

Part of the descent led us through some really pretty woods with a super runnable trail:

The wildflowers were sooooo pretty!

We headed into the first aid station. The loop we had just run was 12.5 miles and had taken me just over 3 hours. I guess not too bad considering all the walking in the dark, pictures, etc. First thing I did was use the bathroom and then I grabbed a couple of cookies and a gel and then walked out. Lisa and Dave had said the were going to be right behind me, but they never caught back up. The next section was supposed to be 3.5 miles until the next aid station. Immediately, I realized we were no longer on the "paved trail" so to speak. For this next section I said "What the fuck is even happening" about a billion times. Some of it was obvious trail, some of it not. Some sections there were multiple areas where the trail COULD be. At this section I was completely alone - no one visible in front of me or behind. Even though it was fairly flat, there was not a lot of running because the course markers were so far away that I was literally playing a scavenger hunt game looking for where I was supposed to go next. But, it was really pretty so I can't really complain:

At the next aid station I grabbed another cookie, sprayed on some bug spray, re-applied sunscreen and then headed out. I ended up running with a 100 mile runner, Darla, all the way until I would turn around about 8 miles later.

Having someone to chat with really made this section go by pretty fast. The trail on this section were super pretty with wildflowers or in more shaded and wooded areas. I stopped at one point to do this:

Yes, I brought a battery charger for my watch

I know, I know. It's ridiculous. It's also ridiculous that the battery life of my watch is only about 5 hours. The last 1.5 or so miles before I would turn around was on an ATV trail (also the road to drive down to Flowing Point) and my fastest mile of the day.

View from Flowing Point

I saw Dan and Heather at the aid station, where I refueled with yet another cookie and even more Mountain Dew. I parted ways with Darla and headed back on my own for the remaining 1/3 of the race.

I made only one wrong turn on the way back, and thankfully I realized it before I had gone too far out of my way. Ironically, I ran into another runner that claimed he had been wandering around lost down on another trail section for two hours. I mean, the course wasn't marked GREAT, but if I went for longer than a few minutes without seeing a marker I was concerned... He passed me on the trail and promptly fell. I asked him if he was ok and he ignored me and kept running. I saw him later at the finish and he had cut up his face pretty bad.

I took more pictures on the way back since I was by myself:

I was beginning to wonder if I was EVER going to make it back to the last aid section. It felt like I had been out there forever. I finally got there and had a turkey wrap and NO cookie (but only because they didn't have any, womp). I headed out the same time as another runner. According to his bib, he was a 50 miler, but at some point it appears he dropped to the 60k because he shows up there in results. I remembered that once I got out of the weird unmarked open field area that the last mile or so should have been downhill. AND IT WAS. Another guy from our run group was randomly vacationing at the mesa with his family and I saw him at the corner where I would run the short road section to the finish:

I was really happy to be feeling good when I ran this in and was pleased to be collected a unique ceramic medal at the finish. They didn't advertise any awards so this was a pleasant surprise:

 

I was even MORE pleased that I met my random goal of 10 hours. I knew ZERO about this course going into it and had never run this distance, so I guess it went as well as I could have hoped.

My Garmin stats seem to be way off, I did have trouble getting satellite in the beginning and in some of the more wooded areas I lost satellite quite a bit as well.

Bib #116
Official Time - 9:58
Garmin Time - 9:54:56
Garmin Distance - 34.09 miles - lost satellite a TON
Miles 1-5 (22:03, 18:57, 18:55, 15:44, 17:10)
Miles 6-10 (21:24, 22:07, 16:25, 13:00, 14:58)
Miles 11-15 (14:10, 21:47, 18:56, 19:24, 18:29)
Miles 16-20 (14:38, 17:33, 15:49, 17:07, 16:41)
Miles 21-25 (15:45, 11:57, 22:42, 16:31, 16:52)
Miles 26-30 (19:49, 15:39, 17:22, 16:41, 16:21)
Miles 31-34 (18:56, 18:09, 17:36, 14:12, 10:05) Yes, for me that is a fast finish!!

It looks like there were 24 runners registered for this distance, with two runners dropping from the 50 mile. 4 did not start and 1 DNF. Out of all the finishers, I was faster than 4 runners and I finished within 10 minutes of 3 others. So for ME, this was a super strong finish. I am pleased.

After the race, I was graced with the generosity of some other runners that gave me beer! I knew a girl at the finish (an employee at the running store that hosts run club). I spent about 20 minutes using the wifi at the lodge before I started the drive up to Flowing Point to try to meet up with Dan and Heather before they left to start their crewing duties. The drive was only about 8 miles, but most of it was on that ATV road. I had to go slow and it took FOREVER. They had apparently left already and I was starving, so I drove until I found food. A random steakhouse in the middle of nowhere and I had a delicious burger.

Post-race beers!

While the meal was delicious, I had a creepy guy that literally stared at me the entire time I was there. He actually followed me out to my car. Never said a word and didn't follow me on the road. Kinda scary!!

Bottle art outside the steakhouse

I headed back to the house. I was tired, it was getting dark and it was starting to rain. I watched a bit of tv with Dan's dad and had another beer before I called it a night. Around 8:30. Longest day ever.

Sunday

I awoke to the sounds of talking around 4:30 in the morning. I knew that couldn't be good. Dan and Heather had been planning on camping at Flowing Point and Rachel had estimated her finishing time to be around 30 hours. 4:30 am was under 24. Rachel had dropped about halfway due to torrential ran, GI issues and freezing cold. A section of 5.5 miles had taken her 7 HOURS to complete, causing her to miss the cutoff. Looking at the results, there were only three people that finished the 100, including the first woman in the 4 years the event has been put on!

I had been planning on leaving early (not too early because I didn't want to drive in the dark with all the deer) so I stayed up to listen to Rachel's race. About 6 I finally decided to hit the road. IT WAS STILL RAINING. It poured most of my drive home.

My Mini Cooper set a new personal best this weekend for most miles driven on a tank of gas:

I probably could have gone at least another 25 miles but thought even for ME it would be dumb to try driving in the mountains. I arrived in metro Denver at 11:00, just in time for A TO ARRIVE FROM THE AIRPORT WITH MY DAD. Perfect end to a great weekend.

Thoughts:

• This was The Best. The weather cooperated for me all day, it was never super hot out. Even though the course was not marked all that well I only missed one turn and it wasn't a big deal because I corrected it right away.
• The mountains are the prettiest. Everything was really green and the wildflowers were beautiful. My pictures really do not do them justice.
• Trail running is my favorite. I'm so glad I signed up for this race!!
• I did not use my iPod at ALL. Longest run yet without one! Honestly, I can't even remember the last time I used it...
• Two days later and I am STILL not sore. What is THAT?
• Mizuno Cabrakans are still the greatest. An awesome trail shoe!
• I mentioned to the RD at the end about how poorly the mesa section was, he claimed that every year they are improving and it will be even better next year. I can't imagine ribbon is that expensive where they can't just put out double the markers?
• I'm glad I didn't run anything at night. Very small race and really out in the open, I bet I would have been panicky.
• Rachel actually SAW A BEAR on the course. On one hand I am jealous, on the other hand, I might have freaked out.
• The volunteers were mostly friendly but at times not super willing to help.
• NOT a great selection of food at the aid stations. I was not very hungry during this race (only had 3 gels, 4 cookies, a 1/2 a turkey wrap and about 6 bites of watermelon ALL DAY). If you run this and are picky about food - bring your own. This was the least/poorest selection I've ever seen on at an ultra distance. Also, no sunscreen at aid stations and only one had bug spray.
• There was NO food at the finish area other than what had been at the aid stations. BUMMER. Last thing I want when I get done running is a cut up banana that has been out all day. Thankfully, there were a lot of people hanging out that had thought to bring beer. That saved me!!
• Rachel is already talking about getting revenge on the course. I think I just may go back and run again. Who knows, maybe I'll run the 50 miler next time?