Sedona half marathon (Race Recap)

Sedona, AZ

Saturday, February 1

Half Marathon #197

Weather - chilly at the start, sunny

We planned to get up pretty early, even though it was only a 25ish minute drive to the race. Basically, the race guide was somewhat confusing and I wanted to make sure that we would be able to get a parking space. We were able to grab some food from the lobby on our way out, which was nice. Imagine our surprise when we got back to Sedona and the high school where we parked was right by where packet pick up was. 

Pretty sunrise!

We used the bathroom in the hotel before grabbing our stuff from the car and walking to the start line, about a half mile away. Cycled through the bathroom line a few times and then we headed to the chute. Pre-race selfie!

View from the chute

I had told Ben that we needed to run our own races, so we started at the same time, but I lost him within the first five seconds. So fun backstory. We signed up last fall, as I really want to hit 200 lifetime half marathons, but I want to do some new ones and scenic races. I *knew* this would be hilly, but like most races, I didn't look at the profile until we got to Arizona. In my head I thought it was 500ish feet of gain. Nope, turns out it was going to be over 1,000'!!! Ok, so modify all  my goals and just walk as little as possible.

The course actually wasn't too crowded once we got going. We had a nice half mile or so of downhill, which on an out and back course meant we would have an uphill finish... 

Climbing started basically right after that first climb. First mile I managed under 11 minute pace, and I think I made it about 15 minutes before I started to take walk breaks. 

There was also a 10k race, and they started either 10 or 15 minutes after us, and it wasn't too long before they started to catch up to us - I felt bad for the fast people trying to weave in out of other runners. We had some fairly runnable road until about mile 3 (which again, meant that there would be a big climb on the way back).

There is really not much to say about the course itself. On a closed road. I had missed the first aid station because there was no signage prior to it and I was on the wrong side of the road. I had managed to stay ahead of the 2:35 pacer (which was much faster than my initial 2:45 goal) for the whole first half.

I saw Ben when I had maybe 3/4 of a mile to the turnaround. 

My stomach was feeling a bit off, so I peeled off and used the bathroom at the aid station. I felt a lot better, but I could see that the 2:35 pacer had passed me while I was stopped. We had already done over 600' of gain, so I knew there was less climbing on the way back and I cruised down a the hills - at one point I saw Melissa!! The way I was pacing I thought there would be a chance for me to come in under 2:30 if I worked REALLY hard. Once I got up the hill by the 10k turnaround I pushed my pace (and mile 11 was my fasted of the day) - I thought I had lost my 2:30 when I got to the last hill before the finish, but I pushed and managed to cross with about 20 seconds to spare. Wooo!

I didn't see Ben when I crossed so I slowly made my way to the beer garden, and didn't see him. No phone service made it tough, but we finally met up back near the finish.

Official time - 2:29:38

Overall place - 818/1383

Gender place - 413/813

Division place - 35/91

Out split - 1:15:09

Back split - 1:14:29 (with the bathroom stop, still negative split!!)

Garmin time - 2:29:38

Garmin distance - 13.12 miles

Average Pace - 11:25

Elevation Gain - 1,052'

Mile 1 - 10:48

Mile 2 - 12:59

Mile 3 - 10:45

Mile 4 - 10:49

Mile 5 - 11:36

Mile 6 - 12:24

Mile 7 - 13:13 (not bad with a bathroom stop!)

Mile 8 - 10:36

Mile 9 - 10:21

Mile 10 - 11:48

Mile 11 - 12:28

Mile 12 - 9:56

Mile 13 - 10:52

Mile 13.12 - 8:08 (wowie!!)

We hung out in the beer garden for a bit, waiting to see Melissa:

Thoughts:

• Lots and lots and lots (and LOTS) of emails for this race. They did Zoom calls as well for course talks and Q&As.
• Multiple options for packet pickup in the days leading up to the race, and I think they even had race day pick up.
• Lots of options for parking and shuttles, etc. With the multiple distances, I'm glad that we arrived early and were able to get in/out pretty easily.
• Race is absolutely beautiful, especially for a road race! 
• Definitely challenging for a road race. 
• Aid stations were ok, and cup free. Mostly just water, but sometimes when I asked for water I got some electrolyte mix that was also fine. Spaced ok, but there should have been some signage for them ahead of time, and a notification of which side of the road!
• Pace groups - I don't normally use them or want to run with them, but on a tough course like this, I did like to see where I was in relation to those paces. 
• Stupid gender neutral shirt.
• Awesome medal!!
• Beer garden was not free, you had to buy tokens, and they ran out of good beer, but we had already bought the tokens? So that was annoying.
• Early registration is $70 plus fees, which is pretty standard. I signed up in October and paid $80 plus fees, so not much of an increase. This was the first year the race sold out. Other distances are 10K ($45) and 5K ($35).
• Would I run again? Probably not, but only because it was really expensive for lodging, etc - nothing around Sedona or Cottonwood (half hour away) for less than about $200 a night (unless you were to go somewhere super sketchy).