24 Hours of Utah (Race Recap)

Moab, UT

Saturday, March 21-22

Ultra Marathon #13

Weather - Sunny and warm

 

 

After having missed Gemini Adventure's 24 Hours of Utah last year, I made sure to sign up and get there however I could. In the weeks leading up to the event I realized that I was NOT trained for the event. Between having the fire calves and lack of running, I figured it was going to be a struggle from the beginning. But that is half of what makes it fun, right?

 

I didn't have anyone to travel with me, but the biggest hurdle was going to be getting the time off from work to go. I had plenty of PTO with my old firm but was not eligible for PTO at my new firm since I'm still in my first 90 days. "Luckily," the first week I was employed here was MLK day, which is normally a firm holiday. Because of our move, all of us in the Denver office worked that day so we were given a "floating holiday" for use at a later time. With the time off secured, I was mostly ready to go.

 

As per the norm, I didn't pack until the night before. Normally I have an idea of what I want to wear really far in advance. This time, I was still deciding at the 11th hour. I took the kids to school Friday morning, did a coffee run with L to Dunkin, and then grabbed my gear and loaded the car. I was on I-70 heading west by 9:30. Luckily the tunnel construction is done and I didn't hit any traffic. I made sure to hydrate on the drive (after I tallied it all up, 5 bottles of water) and stopped in Grand Junction for lunch. Since I was missing #pizzaFriday, I ordered some off the lunch menu and topped it off with a tasty beer.

 

For the first time the race was offering packet pick-up the night before. I arrived in town too early to pick up (around 3 pm), so I headed to the brewery. While enjoyed a tasty beer, I looked over and thought I recognized fellow blogger/runner Beth from SUAR. I introduced myself to her, finished my beer.

 

I wasn't hungry for dinner but I knew that once I grabbed my gear and headed to base camp that I would have no other opportunity for dinner. I grabbed a single slice of pizza from the pizza place next to the brewery and headed to Gearheads to pick up my stuff. While getting my gear, there were a couple of new and COOL things for the race. First, they finally have tech shirts!! The other events have all had cotton shirts (which is fine, I still wear them), but I like the tech tee. Also, I found out that they had plans to put LIGHTS on the course at night this year. Music to my ears! Since I was registered for the 24 hour event, I was given one of the lights for free as long as I agreed to carry it on me during the night. Walked over to King Soopers for another big bottle of water and some donuts (one for dessert and one for breakfast) and then drove to base camp.

 

The port-o-potties had been moved further back into the lot and I parked relatively close to them. I like convenience! Then I took a quick walk down the hill to get a shot of the rock...

I had plans on sleeping in my car. 1). Because I am an idiot. 2). Because I was too cheap to find a hotel. 3). Because I figured HOW BAD CAN IT BE?? (Answers to follow). As I was finishing my piece of pizza, I noticed some Runners Roost teammates and walked over to chat for a few minutes. As it started to get dark I realized I should probably get all my gear ready to go for the morning.

Stuff EVERYWHERE. I was pretty tired from the long drive and decided to start trying to go to sleep around 8:30 or 9. It certainly was dark enough. However. DID YOU KNOW THAT SLEEPING IN BEE RAD WAS THE WORST IDEA EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER? First off, I didn't bring anything WARM to sleep in. I had my hoodie, but nothing else. No blanket, no pillow. So every 45 minutes or so I would realize I was freezing and I'd have to start the car and blast the heat. Then I would finally warm up, turn the car off. Doze off. 45 minutes later, freezing, lather rinse repeat. I barely got any sleep and did NOT feel rested when I got up - I think it was around 5:30. The race was to begin at 7 with a pre-race meeting at 6:45. I waited until about 6:42 to use the bathroom for the last time and drop off my drop bag by the start.

This being my third time at this event, there wasn't anything that surprised me at the meeting. It was a tad chilly and I was ready to get going. (Even though the forecast indicated it was going to be a hot day in the desert).

We started just a few minutes late. I opted to keep my 1/4 zip on for the first loop as I was still chilly. I was carrying just a handheld with Nuun. In the pockets of my shorts I had chapstick, salt and a gel, and my phone was in a small waistpack.

Having barely run in the last two weeks, I knew it was going to be slow going. I secretly hoped for a distance PR (anything over 12 loops), but realistically I knew that was probably not going to happen. I had plans to take it slow and easy and just walk whenever I felt I needed to. I had my iPod on me but I didn't turn it on. As in previous years, I got a bulk of the pictures in the early hours - when the sun is hitting the rocks just right.

First loop was clockwise. I noticed immediately that at the entrance to the trail it seemed like the sand was deeper. I *had* packed gaiters. However, the tape on the back of the velcro would not stick to my shoes so I was out of luck. I realized that the Brooks Pure Grit were NOT going to be a good shoe choice for this course (sadly). Even in the early miles, the slick rock seemed harder than usual. The white markings on the rock seemed harder to see in previous years. BUT I LOVE IT OUT HERE. It is so gorgeous in Moab, it just takes my breath away!

 

 

Not that I remember much of any specific loop, but I will spare the details. I kept the long sleeves on for the second loop, although about halfway through I got pretty warm. It was going to be a hot one! I know people get bored/annoyed with loop courses, but I really like them. I like seeing people. I like knowing who is still on course and who is not. I didn't know how many people were registered for the 24 hour distance, but based on bib numbers I had a pretty good idea. I seemed to end up about a loop ahead of two ladies, one who dropped fairly early, and one that I think never ran a single step - but she certainly kept moving.

 

By about the 4th loop the sun was really getting to me. I was using my Orange Mud handheld (20 oz?) and I was filling it at base camp with water/Nuun at the start of every loop. Most loops I topped off at the unmanned aid station with water on the back side. I could not seem to get enough to drink. The sun was making me feel kinda sick. For the first time probably EVER, I had to force myself to eat - normally I'm really great about eating. I started to get a dull headache early afternoon.

 

DID YOU KNOW THERE WERE NO CLOUDS IN THE SKY AT ALL???

Until I was closing in on one of my later loops - but these weren't going to cool things down at all.

Even the west side of the course seemed sandier than in past years. I had to stop almost every loop to dump sand out of my shoes AND socks. HOW DOES SAND GET INSIDE YOUR SOCKS?? It's baffling. My feet were getting puffy and I was having a difficult time getting my shoes back ON.

 

Every time I am out here I see this rock that looks like a fist. I either fist pump it if I am feeling good - or I shake my fist at it if I am having a hard time. I think this is about when I realized the race probably wasn't going to go quite as well as I hoped.

I would love to say that if I had a better pair of shoes, or gaiters to keep the sand out of them, that I would have gone for more miles... I don't know if that would have been the case or not. I came into base camp around 5:45 - in time to see the "fun run" runners hanging out by the start. Dave (blog reader) was there and I would later see Todd (who has been out every year I've been to Moab). Grabbed my food, headlamp and long sleeves and headed out. Turns out I could have done that loop without light but I wanted it just in case. About a mile before base camp I saw the volunteers heading out with the course lights. They looked pretty neat!

Put on the long sleeves and changed into capris and then headed back out. It probably wasn't cold enough yet for capris, but I didn't want to change completely in the dark. The loop wasn't too bad and when I got to the backside I was the "fun runners" heading towards me on their first loop. The lights on the course were a variety of colors (red, green and blue) and lit it up SO much better. Finishing that loop got me to 48.33 miles - tying what I had run two years ago.

I could CERTAINLY do better than that... so I headed out again on a moonless night.

The sand seemed worse this time around and the bottoms of my feet were hurting. I came into base camp around 11 pm (shortly after my 920XT beeped a low battery warning - which is weird, because at 16 hours, it should still have over 30% left). I got a grilled cheese sandwich and decided I was going to call it quits with 53.7 miles. The other girl who was still out there was a lap behind me. She said she was going to take a short nap and then go out for two more loops. In retrospect, I totally should have gone out to do one more... but I just... didn't.

 

I ended up having two sandwiches. I sat and talked with some people until about midnight, when I decided to go to bed. In Bee Rad. For the second night I got virtually no sleep.

 

I got up early to see how everyone fared for the remainder of the race. For the first year, there would be no 100 mile finishers. All (3?) quit in the night. I had lost victory to the woman who didn't run a step because she was NOT too lazy to go back out. The Wash Park team was running until almost 7 am - logging something like 134 miles between 4 people.

 

I collected my medal, cowbell and new hoodie (not pictured) and at just after 7 am, started the drive back to Denver.

 

Garmin Time - 16 hours, 17 minutes
Garmin Distance - 54.4 miles

Thoughts:

• At the time I was totally ok with NOT going the extra mile... now I gotta say that I'm kicking myself. For the solo runners, this was not very competitive field and I could have walked away with a victory.
• HOWEVER, considering all that I have gone through in the last few months I should probably be grateful that my body held up for the mileage I was able to get done.
• (A few days later) I'm not very sore and again, annoyed that I could have walked for a couple of hours and won. But anyway!!
• I love my new hoodie (you all will see it for sure on my blog as I live in these on the weekends!)
• LOVE my cowbell!
• LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this event. I will definitely come back for this again, although I would love to NOT have to rush back in the morning or have someone can come with me so I don't have the added concern of driving on little to no sleep.
• The lights on the course made all the difference. It was so much easier to see where the course was going - especially on the slick rock.
• Base camp is the best. Grilled cheese is THE BEST. They also had ramen, pasta, hot chocolate, and of course all the other goodies like cookies, chips and candy. (But no beer. I totally need to remember to bring beer).
• I used my handheld the entire time. It never got annoying! Although my arm is sore - so that is sad and I am weak.
• I missed a few spots of sunscreen on my back - the race singlet I have apparently doesn't cover my sports bra. I felt the burn in the shower. Owie.
• Did not turn on my iPod until after 10 pm. I have never gone that long running solo with music EVER!
• I WAS STILL RUNNING AT MILE 48 OR SO. For me, this is pretty huge. In most ultras, I am pretty much done by mile 40, with just small bouts of running.

March Recap

Well, to be honest, March didn't really go quite as planned. I had this overly ambitious plan of "rebuilding my base" back to what it was when I was beginning training for Moab 2012. I know that I am not fast, and honestly, I am ok with that. However, it seems that the "bigger my base," the more consistent I run, and I typically am able to maintain a bit faster pace for longer. Well, I did get more "longish" runs in, but I am still nowhere near at the fitness level that I would like to be. While I don't care that I am slow, it takes MUCH longer to get the miles in. I have been going to the gym in the mornings in an attempt to get more miles in without compromising time with A, but I gotta say, it SUCKS to get up 4:00-4:30 and only have time to get in 7 or so miles before I need to get ready for work. Anyway. Doing what I can.

Miles run - 142.44 (About half of this is from racing, which is pretty normal for me)
Races run - Lucky Louisville 5k, Little Rock Marathon (26.2) and 24 Hours of Moab (48.33)
Accomplishments - Training runs of 7+ miles? 5!! That is a LOT better. Also, finally volunteered again!
Current aches - Left calf seems way worse than usual. Right one has (knock on wood) been a lot better of late. Right IT band is a bit achy.

No real goals right now, but L and I are headed into a pretty serious race schedule. Coming up in April I have 2 half marathons and 1 marathon. REALLY excited to see some of my out of state friends in Eugene!!

With that said... I am considering some more idiotic longer distance races. Not sure if I want to announce it yet or if I want to be talked out of it. Curious to see how my base rebuilding goes.

As seen on my 8 mile run Easter morning

Wordless Wednesday (Moab)

Susette and me - late afternoon

Check out her recap HERE.

24 Hours of Moab (Race Recap)

Saturday, March 23
Moab, UT
Ultra Marathon #6
Weather - WINDY and COLD

If you have never read the insanely long saga of my 100 mile attempt at this event, you can check it out HERE.

The short recap of the event is that it was pretty much the exact opposite of last year. (Last year I trained, this year I didn't. Last year was a billion degrees, this year was Arctic, etc etc).

Friday

I was SO happy that my sister in law Lisa agreed to join me for the weekend. I had forgotten it was my niece's birthday and my dad said he couldn't come with me. All week long we had been watching the weather and it looked like we might hit some trouble in the mountains. Snow was in the forecast the WHOLE weekend. We took A to school and immediately headed out. There were some icy sections but it was not nearly as terrible as we imagined. However, we did get stopped for a bit near Vail for avalanche control.

And then by the time we finally got through, we of course had to use the bathroom. We stopped at a rest area on Vail Pass. There was a TINY bit of snow:

Lisa fell asleep and I had a fairly uneventful drive. I was STARVING by the time we got to Grand Junction. We put some gas in the car and after getting a bit lost, we found a Chili's. I had some delicious Cajun pasta.

We were touristy enough to take some pictures at the state line:

From the state line it wasn't that long until we got to base camp. Thankfully, I vaguely remembered the location from last year, plus it not being dark helped a lot. The plan was to get the tent set up and then go into town to get some dinner and food for the morning.

It was windy. I was doubtful about our tent pitching skills in PRISTINE conditions. This did not go well.

And then we finally got it up...

We ended up putting about 300 pounds of rocks inside the tent to weigh it down. The ground was so hard that only 1 of the 4 corners spikes was even in the ground. Crossed our fingers that the tent would still be there when we got back and headed into town. We had dinner at the Moab Brewery. It was DELICIOUS, along with a local beer, Dead Horse Ale. Tasty. We picked up donuts for the morning at City Market and then headed back to camp.

The wind had not died down at all and it was FREEZING. I had brought the same sleeping bag I took with me to Peru and figured I would be nice and warm. NO. I was NOT. Once it got dark there was nothing to do and we were both pretty tired so "lights out" was around 9. I barely slept. The wind was insane and LOUD. I kept waking up because of the noise and the cold and the fact the tent was pretty much collapsing in on us.

Saturday

I woke up WELL before my alarm went off. Turned out to be a good thing as apparently I don't move too quickly in the cold. I wasted probably 20 minutes just hovered in front of the heater in the car trying to get warm. When I had been looking at the forecast I figured with highs in the upper 40's that I would be fine wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Lisa thought I was insane. It WAS a bit chilly so I figured I'd dress a bit warmer for the first loop and could adjust later as necessary. I did NOT use any body glide (anywhere) and I wore a brand new long sleeve shirt as my base layer. Turns out, that worked out nicely.

Lisa had not registered yet for the 6 hour nighttime "fun run" and I needed to get my packet, so we headed over around 6 to get that taken care of. I was still SUPER slow getting my stuff together. I was still scrambling at 6:44, and barely made it to the mandatory pre-race meeting. I wasn't too concerned about it since I had already been through this all last year. Lisa got a picture of me at the start and then headed back to the car to stay warm.

In addition to NOT wearing shorts, can you tell I have ALL THE CLOTHES ON?? I had on a long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt and a jacket. Capris with compression socks, a ski hat and my awesome CIM bandanna/tube thingy for my face. Turns out, I would keep this ensemble on THE ENTIRE DAY. That should tell you how cold it was.

Start was at 7:02. This year there was a 50k added to the distance series so there were a few SUPER fast people out on the course. Like last year, I started in the back. Knowing the course, I had a conservative plan for the day. Jogging or walking up the inclines, running the flats and downhills at always an easy pace. I knew better than to care how "fast" everyone else was going. I knew how easy it could be to overexert myself.

The cold was brutal. I was wearing gloves and yet my hands were still freezing. I wanted to get some pictures on the course again, especially during the first loop when the sun is coming up and the rocks look especially red.

It was so cold that when I went to take my first drink out of  my hydration vest I couldn't because the water in the bite valve was frozen. Gross. I kept hoping that once the sun came up that it would get warmer. It didn't. For 2 loops during the day, I took off my jacket thinking I would be more comfortable. It wasn't. The winds made the already cool temperatures even colder. I was doubting my ability to even MAKE it to night, much less 24 hours.

Honestly, the race is a blur. I was cold and spent most of the race looking down, trying to keep the wind off my face. As I remembered from last year, everyone was really friendly and I made sure to at least wave to the other runners. I was taking a gel at the end of every loop so I could toss my trash at base camp. I had to pee every time I got there, so even though I wasn't draining my pack, I guess I was drinking enough for the conditions.

I think the rocks look like knuckles - every time I ran by I'd think - Moab is giving me fist bumps! (See, this is the type of crazy thoughts I have during an ultra. Maybe I've shared too much).

I remember getting TONS of sand in my shoes last year in the "beach" sections. This year I wore the Mizuno Cabrakans, and they were great. My feet weren't tired and I didn't have to stop to dump the sand out.

Sometime early afternoon, I noticed that it looked like storm clouds were rolling in. In addition to the fact it was not supposed to be windy all day, there was also supposed to be a 0% chance of precipitation. Not LITTLE chance, NO chance. And then, the snow started. Thankfully, it was a tiny amount of flurries for maybe a loop. Nothing major and it went away before it got dark. I met up with Lisa around 4:30 at base camp while she was getting everything ready. She snapped this pic of me, which is after 32ish miles:

Lisa had spent the day sightseeing at Arches and I was going to be coming in to base camp around 6:15, so she held off on starting her 6 hours until I got there. We made sure to get some pictures in before it got too dark:

Doing a zombie walk in my zombie shirt....

And then of COURSE we had to do a Pitch Perfect inspired picture:

Ideally, Lisa wanted to get in three loops. I was ready to stop after doing one with her. She was on fresh legs and kept telling me to "pick up the pace" and "I've never done 5 miles this slow" - I'd already been moving all day and was getting tired. She had to talk me into going out for one more loop. We were definitely slower the last loop. It was MUCH colder. My hands felt like icicles the entire time. I was really regretting not having picked up hand warmers, even though I had thought about it before I had even left Denver. Lisa was wearing Newtons and was having the same trouble I had last year and had to dump sand out of her shoes probably a dozen times.

We wandered back into base camp around 10:25 and I had NO qualms about calling it quits. We sat around the heater and ate some pasta. We had ZERO plans of trying to sleep in the tent again, so we warmed up the car and slept in there. Woke up a few times because it was cold, but it was MUCH better than the tent.

Sunday

In the morning, we stopped by the results tent to get our official finish times. While we were waiting, we got some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. YUM. Turns out, the cold had messed with a LOT of people and I ended up with this:

Second place female!

Loop 1 (5.37 miles) - 8:23 am
Loop 2 (10.74 miles) - 9:49 am
Loop 3 (16.11 miles) - 11:22 am
Loop 4 (21.48 miles) - 1:04 pm
Loop 5 (26.85 miles) - 2:47 pm
Loop 6 (32.22 miles) - 4:33 pm
Loop 7 (37.59 miles) - 6:16 pm
Loop 8 (42.96 miles) - 8:14 pm
Loop 9 (48.33 miles) - 10:26 pm
Total Miles - 48.33 in 15:24
Overall Place - 5/9
Gender - 2/4

Last years winner ran 91.29 miles. This year, she ran 69.81. Last year I ran 64.44 and ran 16.11 less this year. I think part of that was lack of training, but most of it really was the weather. Throughout the entire day, I never felt like I was comfortable and my hands were cold all day. Overall, I am very pleased with my finish. Other than being cold, I had a great time.

Of note, this year there were only 2 finishers in the 100 mile division, whereas last year there were 3. This is NOT an easy course for the 100 distance!!

The drive back to Denver was ok. We stopped in Grand Junction again for gas and also got some food and coffee at Starbucks. We hit the snow about 20 miles before Vail. The drive was a lot slower as the roads were pretty icy and the snow was coming down pretty hard. Luckily, we missed the ski traffic and got out of the mountains by 1:30. We had lunch at Smashburger. After showering, it was time for naps. I unfortunately had to take her to the airport around 8:00 since she had to be at work the next day.

Thoughts:

• Every time I do an ultra I say:
• This is dumb.
• Why am I doing this?
• I'm  never doing this again.
• And then as soon as I'm done...
• Maybe I'll come back next year.
• I am really glad I had brought some warmer clothes for layering. They helped quite a bit, but honestly, there were people on the course in actual ski coats and pants. I could have put on more clothes.
• I really should have brought hand warmers. I might have done another loop if my hands wouldn't have been so cold.
• I only ate 4-5 gels the whole day. I ate LOTS of M&Ms and had some chicken soup after loop 7. I also ate about a billion Mike & Ikes. They are delicious.
• I filled my hydration vest with grape nuun. I only drank about 3/4 of what I had put in there. The entire day. Last year I think I went through 3 filled packs.
• I had some birthday cake after 5 or 6 loops. THAT was delicious.
• I am really happy I had different shoes this year, they were a lot more comfortable.
• I think if I were to do this again, I would need a for real, legitimate "pacer" to get me through the night hours. I get cold, and then I stop.
• I am pretty sure I will be back next year. Moab is gorgeous, the event is top notch and I absolutely LOVE that it is still a small event. I recognized a few people from last year and I know that the same people will be back next year. I just hope there is better weather next time.

So.... What next....

Musings

Normally I would have saved this for a Thursday post, but I have the time today and I likely won't tomorrow.

• Mother Nature obviously hates me. Last year it was 82 for a high in Moab. This year (and the number keeps dropping) the HIGH is projected at 46 degrees. Which means I am going to freeze to death at night.
• Poor L is actually racing in Denver this weekend. Forecast here is even worse. HIGHS in the mid 20's (which obviously it will NOT be at the time she is racing) - and Saturday is predicting 4-8" of snow. I think I'll pick a cold 24 hour jaunt over that. Blech.
• Really curious to see how Moab goes. Last year I put in about 1000 miles of training for it. My brain broke and I dropped after 64ish miles. I have... less than half those miles in training this time around, and even the miles that I have been running have not felt easy or strong. Sooooo. Should be, um, yeah. Interesting.
• After Moab, I guess I need to maintain my mileage a bit since Eugene is just over 5 weeks away! Other than the Big Horn 50k in June, it is my only "distance" race on my schedule... um for the foreseeable future. There are, however, TONS of half marathons coming up. I guess that means I should work on speed a little bit. I'd love to "shatter" my current Colorado half marathon PR - 2:10ish range.
• Thanks to my "flash giveaway" the other day, WE raised $205!!! Thank so much to everyone that donated, I've notified the winner - Alex Detrick (he was in my tour group when I ran the Athens marathon in Greece in 2010) and I will be sure to post what he picks!
• I'm a little over a third of the way to my goal (YAHOO!!) - but of course, please donate if/when you can. You can donate HERE ($10 will still get you in my raffle - and the GUARANTEED prizes right now are Pro Compression marathon socks, Nuun AND a gift card for INKnBURN!) I am still working on getting more prizes, so keep checking back!
• Lately, A has really been into taking silly candid pictures. So, if you missed this on social media, here ya go!

I posted this on Facebook. My dad asked, "who is in the pictures with A?"