Beat the Heat Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Saturday, April 19
Lakewood, CO
Half Marathon #103
Colorado Half #39
Weather - Cloudy, perfect

The Beat the Heat half marathon fit nicely into our schedule. Not too expensive and local, it was a no-brainer. My dad and the kids had actually volunteered at the race last year, while we were running in New Mexico. Years ago, I stopped reading elevation and course profiles. It never even occurred to me where this race would be taking place.

The night before, L and I are talking about where to park. Turns out, we will be going to Bear Creek Lake Park - aka, where the Bear Chase takes place every year. Oh. I wasn't expecting the race to be THERE.

Race Morning

Up at 6:15 to be out the door at 6:45 to drop off the kids with my parents. L had brought me an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, which was a delicious why to hydrate in the morning. We dropped the kids off, and while we were chatting, we missed the exit and then got all turned around trying to find the start. Never mind that we have been there a half dozen times...

We arrive at the park and then the realization hits me. We are going to be running a pretty hilly course. Awesome. My legs were DEAD after doing the Fitness Blender 5-Day Challenge.

We barely had enough time to cycle through the bathroom line (twice), before heading to the start line. We got out of the bathroom with just enough time to hear the National Anthem (twice). And then off we went...

Initially, I thought I might run the whole course, walking only for the aid stations. Then, I got to about mile 1.5, with the start of the hills. JUST KIDDING. So. Much. Walking. My legs were tired, the climb up Mt. Carbon was pretty brutal. I was exhausted.

Mt. Carbon looming in the distance

Headed up the paved section of Mt. Carbon. It's dried out a TON since I ran Bear Chase in September

Looking over the golf course to downtown Denver - NO FILTER

After mile 3, the course flattened out a bit, and then we had a nice downhill. WHEEEE!!! Then, I realized there were mile markers on the other side of the path. WE WERE GOING TO HAVE TO RUN ALL THIS IN REVERSE? NOOOOOOOOOO.

There was not a lot of flat, but a lot of steep ups and steep downs. I could not get into a good groove, and knowing that I had to run again tomorrow did not motivate me to push harder.

Between miles 8 and 9 -  nice view of the mountains

Mile 10 or 11  is when I really quit mentally. I would run for a minute or two, then walk. Run a minute or two, then walk. The flattest the course had been and I couldn't even force myself to run it. I passed a handful of people who were also struggling.

Death jog to the finish - around mile 11.5

I knew mile 12 had another decent hill, and of course I walked up that too. So cruel to have hills at the end of an already challenging race...

I saw L, my dad, and the kids at the finish, and A ran me in.

Probably not the best week to do a fitness challenge, as my legs were exhausted before I even started. I'm actually really pleased with the pace I managed to keep, the steep downhills allowed me to run a few really fast miles, which helped out the time.

Bib # - 989
Official Time - 2:22:28
Official Pace - 10:53
Overall Place - 81/123
Gender Place - 35/68
Division Place - 14/28 (woo hoo! top half!)
Garmin Time - 2:22:28
Garmin Pace - 10:58
Mile 1 - 9:32
Mile 2 - 11:36
Mile 3 - 12:05
Mile 4 - 9:22
Mile 5 - 10:13
Mile 6 - 10:29
Mile 7 - 11:34
Mile 8 - 10:54
Mile 9 - 12:58
Mile 10 - 9:39
Mile 11 - 11:17
Mile 12 - 11:37
Mile 13 - 11:19

So the course measured short for me, again. 12.99 miles. L's Garmin measured just over 13.1 and her phone measured 13.3 or something. So, in addition to losing battery life, it apparently is not really accurate with GPS anymore either. Awesome.

We were actually at the finish area when they were doing the raffle, and I ACTUALLY WON!! I got a $30 gift certificate to Moe's BBQ. We ended up going right after the race. Turns out, it was delicious, and $30 was enough food for me, L and the kids AND a margarita for me. Cost me nothing out of pocket. Hurray!!

Thoughts:

• Very well organized, well marked course
• Gender specific shirts!!
• Medal for all distances.
• 9 well-stocked aid stations. There were Clif gels in multiple flavors at most of them.
• Friendly volunteers.
• Good post-race food! There was chocolate milk, Powerade, burritos and bagels. I'm sure there was more, but we didn't stick around.
• I have run a handful of races put on by All-Out and they do a great job. The races are not very expensive, and I never leave a race feeling like I didn't get my money's worth. Maybe, if I'm not busy next year, I'll rematch after NOT doing a fitness challenge?

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.

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.