Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Highlands Ranch, CO

Saturday, November 2

Half Marathon #196

Weather - Sunny, nice

For the last few years, I hit October and I dream about running shorter races again. I happened to post on Facebook asking what races everyone had coming up. I still want to hit 200 (official) lifetime half marathons - a task that's been moving at a snails pace over the last few years since I only have been running one or two a year. I remembered that I'd run Backcountry again, and signed up to run again (right before a price increase) and convinced Jandy, Christina, and eventually Ben, to also sign up.

Race Day

This was my 7th time running the race. I told Ben we needed to leave by 7:15 because I wanted to be parked by 8 since we still had to get our bibs and I'd need to use the bathroom, etc. We headed out on time, but had to turn back shortly after leaving because I forgot my sunglasses. No one wants to listen to me complain because I forgot those!

We still arrived shortly after 8 am and parked almost exactly where I had parked last year. We immediately headed over to get our bibs and saw Jandy along the way. We were in line for our bibs when Christina joined us. Had to head back to the car to drop off our swag and get our packs. Ben was taking forever so I left him at the truck so I could get in the bathroom line - which ended up taking a decent amount of time.

We got some pictures at the start and finally found Ben. I told him that he should go into an earlier wave since he is definitely faster than we are. None of us had a wave number on the back of our bibs, so we ended up jumping into the 4th wave. I had hoped to have "at least as good" a race as last year - when I race right after Katy. Probably 6 or 7 minutes into the race, however, I could tell it was going to be a long day.

I had to take my first walk break relatively early. The pace wasn't even that fast, but I was breathing insanely hard and my heart rate felt really fast. Christina and Jandy got ahead of me pretty early. I definitely had plans to just hang on. We ran within a close proximity for a few miles. Sean was photographing again and got a ton of pictures of us somewhere between maybe 2 and 3 miles in.

Christina fell back at some point around the first aid station (which I can't remember what mile that was). Jandy and I stayed together for probably at leas 6-7 miles. At some point I had to stop and take off my long sleeve layer because I was soooo hot. I ended up losing Jandy on the big climb (that I thankfully remembered from last year). 

This race kicks my ass every time! I stopped at the aid station when I got to the road and hoped to run it in, but I was just so tired. I did a lot of run/walk (no set intervals). Knowing the last mile was all downhill helped. 

I ran the whole last mile for my fastest pace of the race. I saw Ben near the finish line and he was poised with his phone to take pictures. I remember shouting "I don't especially want my grimace coming into this last hill."

Definitely was disappointed with the time on this one. Out of all the years that I have run, this was actually my slowest. I have had a few big races recently, so trying to cut myself some slack. 

Official Time - 2:52:32

Overall Place - 387/453

Division Place - 39/53

Garmin Time - 2:52:42

Garmin Pace - 13:09

Elevation Gain - 1,333'

Mile 1 - 12:43

Mile 2 - 13:09

Mile 3 - 13:48

Mile 4 - 12:07

Mile 5 - 12:00

Mile 6 - 13:13

Mile 7 - 14:24

Mile 8 - 14:57

Mile 9 - 14:48

Mile 10 - 13:36

Mile 11 - 13:06

Mile 12 - 12:54

Mile 13 - 10:35

Mile 13.13 pace - 10:20

We found where to get our finisher mugs and I filled mine up with water. For some reason, I thought chocolate milk might taste good, but it was weird to drink. Saw Jandy coming in and ran to get pictures of her crossing, and Christina was just a few minutes behind her.

We stayed at the finish line for a bit talking. Somehow we all forgot to get the pancakes though. 

Thoughts:

• I have run this event a lot, and I will likely run it again next year. It's well organized, relatively inexpensive, and good swag.