Run Through Time Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Salida, CO

Saturday, March 10

Half Marathon #57

Colorado Half # 9

Weather - Pretty chilly, but SUNNY and virtually no wind. PERFECT.

I picked Run Through Time half marathon because I noticed that the last double digit run I was supposed to do was 12 miles, and about two weeks before the 100. I did a quick internet search and found this one, saw it wasn't that far or expensive, and as soon as I locked in babysitting, I registered. I figure 13.1 is close enough to 12, and running a real race with a few "challenges" is probably better than another two hours on the treadmill.

I got up at 4:30 so I had time to get ready and be out the door by 5:00 am. Mapquest had the drive taking just under three hours. However, plugging the address into the Garmin, I was looking at closer to 2.5 hours. Fine with me, that way I didn't feel rushed. The first part of the drive was hard because I don't see that well at night and it was a dark, two lane highway. After the sun came up, I nearly hit a wolf (coyote?) and saw about a dozen deer inches off the road. Arrived at the start line with a little over an hour to the start and go in to get my stuff. (Oh, YOU'RE the one who has their name in all capital letters). This is what picking up your number and shirt looks like at a teeny tiny (I think 250 total runners), no frills race:

Bathroom stop number one, then I sat in my car and listened to my iPod and ate my Luna bar. At about 8:15, I headed back in to give me time to use the bathroom one more time and to listen to the announcements about the course. I ran into Jennifer, a girl I ran part of the Fatass with back in January, and was recognized by a few guys who had also run it. I also got probably ten compliments on Razzy Roo's newest headband, the I heart Bacon one.

We had to cross a bridge and some railroad tracks to get to the start line. I was a bit worried I would be cold while running, but opted to not bring my jacket. I didn't want to have to tie it around my race or try to shove it in my hydration vest. Looking around, most people were wearing short sleeves with arm sleeves and shorts with compression socks. (Spoiler: I would have been FINE wearing less). It just SEEMED cold:

I'm going to do this recap a bit different. Most of what needs to be said can be said with pictures. So... here you go:

Hot, Hard,  HILLS HILLS HILLS HILLS and (H)amazing.

I knew I was not racing this race. There were really only two goals. Finish without getting pulled for being too slow, and to NOT hurt myself. Both, accomplished.

The course was by FAR the most challenging I have ever run. I went back and looked at all my other elevation profiles, and the only two that showed similar gain were the Great Wall Marathon (only a few hundred feet more, but twice as long a race) and Greenland Trail 50K - again - LOTS longer, similar gain. (I didn't wear my Garmin for the 50 miler since the battery would not have lasted long enough, but I think that might have been about a 1000 feet more. But again, over FIFTY miles, not THIRTEEN). So I will just say, whenever I have complained about hills, I didn't even know what hills were. THESE were hills. So yeah, it was HARD. In addition to the steep uphills, there were steep downhills. It's arguably even HARDER to run steep downs. Couple that with SUPER muddy conditions in parts (literally, there was a section I slid down a good ten feet) and ice, a section of sand dunes, this course pretty much had it ALL. It was overall pretty well marked, but there was about a 20 minute gap when I didn't see anyone in front or behind me and I was 100% certain I had gone off course. I spent that time wondering who do I call. 911? A park ranger? It was scary. Luckily a woman finally came up behind me and we ran together for a bit - NOT lost. (In the picture of me after the race is over, she is lying on the ground half in the picture). Overall, the easiest way to describe this race? Think of the hardest hike you have ever done, then try to run it.

Course was ALL OVER THE PLACE - can you see how I could have been LOST??

BIB #190
Garmin Time - 2:59:50
Garmin Distance - 13.28 miles
Garmin Pace - 13:32
Mile 1 - 11:53
Mile 2 - 10:31
Mile 3 - 12:40
Mile 4 - 14:33
Mile 5 - 13:35
Mile 6 - 11:37
Mile 7 - 19:03
Mile 8 - 17:43
Mile 9 - 14:22
Mile 10 - 13:40
Mile 11 - 15:32
Mile 12 - 11:25
Mile 13 - 10:28
Mile 13.1ish - 9:52

The Good:

• AWESOME aid stations. The aid stations were what you would expect at an ultra marathon. Sports drink, water, pretzels, chips, cookies, gels... more than just people throwing cups at you. They were friendly and helped you out any way they could. Including cleaning off all the blood off my hand after I bit it around mile 10 and bandaging me up. Thanks!
• The most awesome of the awesome in the running community were here. I have NEVER run with such an amazing group of people. Everyone was so nice and friendly. I LOVED IT.
• The course, and the views I was able to see from the course. Honestly, I have lived in Colorado about 95% of my life, and I usually find it pretty UNimpressive. I must have thought to myself - "wow, this is amazing," at least a dozen times.
• This race brought out the "runner" in me. I truly enjoyed myself. Even when I thought I was lost, even when I almost broke my neck sliding down a hill, even after I did fall and bloody myself up, I had a great time. I wish I wasn't such a weenie and felt comfortable enough in my abilities to run alone on the trails. This was so fun.
• CHEAP (for a Colorado race). No expo, no swag bag, no bling, and registering only about a month in advance and I paid about $35. COMPLETELY WORTH EVERY PENNY. I even got a pretty nice shirt. Since there were no sponsors, it just has a tiny race logo on the front.
• I wore the hydration vest that I got for the 100. It did not annoy me even a teeny tiny bit. I think it will be fantastic for the 100. Thanks, Fast Cory!!!
• My YMX shirt was freakin' spectacular. Any other long sleeve shirt and I would have been BAKING in the heat (so what it was only 43 degrees when I was done, it felt like 80). I loved having the pockets in the back to stash my gloves when I got too hot to wear them - at mile TWO.
• FREE race pictures!!! FREE!! These were taken at mile 4.25:

The Bad:

• If I had to be picky, I'd say no medal. But that's just because I really like them :D I knew I wasn't going to be getting one when I registered, so obviously, NOT a "bad"
• Honestly, NOTHING. This race was amazing. I will run it again, although I am not sure I am badass enough to run the full. You all can see how long "just" the half took me! Of course I was taking it easy, but in all honesty, I don't think I could have run much faster!

Southside Fatass 20 Miler ("Race" Recap)

Not really a race, but an organized group run with distances where you record your own time. There IS a winner, but totally unofficial.

So the other day, I'm on Facebook, and one of my friends asked - "anyone want to run 20 miles on Saturday?" Well. I did want to run 20ish. Actually, I had 24 on schedule. So I asked for more information. She told me about the Southside Fatass run. Lucky for me, it was taking place only about 20 minutes from  my house. On a day I was supposed to do a long run anyway. With available distances ranging from 15 miles to 50K, I was pretty sure it would be a nice change from the treadmill.

Yes. You heard me right. After 9 weeks of doing my double digit runs on the treadmill, I decided to take it outside.

Date: January 21
Time: 7 am

I was warned that I shouldn't be late, or I would miss getting a map. I was very concerned about getting that map since I have only run a teeny tiny section of the trails. And THAT was about 2 years ago. Two other girls needed to use the bathroom, so I went with them - and we informed the group we would be back for the start. Had some nice conversation, the women had actually done the relay of the 100 miler I'll be doing in a few months. One is running the Leadville 100 this year!

Anyway, we are heading back to the start, the sun is coming up:

And then we see the runners heading toward us. They started without us :( Which meant... no map for me! OH NO!!! It looked like they were running fast. Not really surprising since Boulder is known for super freaky fast runners. I ended up at the tail end of the pack and spoke with the organizer. She said she would get a map for me and ran off. Unfortunately... she never came back. Lucky for me, I latched on to apparently the only other average runner. And yay for me that she turned out to be AWESOME. She gave me her map, and said she was familiar enough with the trails that she probably wouldn't need it. And she was super great company. I never ONCE turned on my iPod. And for pretty much the only time EVER, the miles seriously did fly by. I didn't really look at my watch, and actually enjoyed most of my run.

This IS pretty nice to look at

So it IS January. Luckily most of the trails were pretty clear. Only a few sections were icy and about a mile was decently muddy.  But for the most part we had some pretty runnable trails. I was doing really well until we had to cross the highway - maybe somewhere around 4 miles. Right after we crossed, there was a downhill section. I tripped over a rock, flailed awkwardly and was not able to catch myself from falling. Face plant. Skinned my knee. But at least I didn't rip my running tights or my jacket. And at least I (narrowly) missed the cow poop. Jumped up, and kept going.

I had chosen a VERY unconventional (for me) outfit for running. My new YMX Winter flower long sleeve jersey and my Athleta Headwinds jacket. PERFECT. As you know,  I am 99% of the time a tank top wearer. But. 27 degrees. Windy. January. I didn't want to take a chance.

We stopped to use the bathroom around mile 7. First aid station at mile 8. Yes, there were aid stations. The organizers husband ran a "mobile" aid station. Waited for the last people to arrive then headed to the second point down the trail. I downed a 1/4 PBJ sandwich, small cup of coke, a few pretzels and some animal crackers. (Did I mention this event was FREE???)

Hope (the woman I was running with) and I were having a great time talking, and we finally encountered the first section we really couldn't run. It was steep single track, lots of mud and ice. Neither of us fell. Bonus. After scraping mud out of the soles of shoes, we continued on. Second aid station at mile 11. We beat the van there by a couple of minutes. Refueled - this time with a chocolate chunk rice krispie treat, some chips and M&Ms. We added another runner who only wanted to run the end, and headed out again.

She turned out to be MUCH slower than we were. We talked and "ran" (her jog was my brisk walk pace) for about a mile, then when she slowed to a walk, we went on without her.

It's hard to see, but in the picture below on the hill there is a big animal. We could not determine if it was a wolf or coyote. Luckily he never came close enough for us to find out.

We had a nice section of fairly flat and downhill. Then we turned and the wind picked back up. I took off my jacket around 10:30, tying it around my waist. That was not as annoying as I thought it would be either.

Since Hope knew where she was going and was only running 20, I decided to scrap my extra miles and finish up the run with her. Even with over 20 minutes of stopping and standing around (between the bathroom stop and aid stations), we still maintained a pretty decent pace.

She is training for her first 50k in May (the same one I ran last year!) and we plan to do another run together this spring.

Tough Chik Tuesday

If you haven't heard, I'm part of an awesome group of ladies - Team Tough Chik

I like the idea of "Tough Chik Tuesday" - so here we go.

So I had a craptastic race on Sunday. I had 5 miles on schedule yesterday. YEAH.FREAKING.RIGHT. I normally would "tough it out." However. I have a LOT on my plate over the next few months and the last thing I need is to get sidelined with an injury. So I moved the 5 miles to today. And they still sorta sucked, but I got them done. I have a few longish runs left to run this week. So where does the tough part come in? I'm debating about a last-minute-sorta-marathon-ultraish trail run on Saturday.

Huh.

What is it? It's called the Southside Fatass 50K. A FREE 50K. Other distances available are 15, 20, 25 or 28 miles. Two aid stations, but mostly self supported. It's supposed to be mid 50's on Saturday. I have 20 miles on schedule... Maybe I'll do this instead of yet another treadmill run?

I honestly think part of my "weakness" lately has been the lack of varied training. I haven't been training hills. I haven't been running outside.

My legs are sore, but at this point I'm hesitant to call it an actual injury. I've iced and stretched and definitely feel better.

So. My question to you. TOUGH OR STUPID???