A Week Late and $7.00 Short - The Las Vegas Marathon Race Report

The primary reason I decided to run this race was so I could shake the 4 hour marathon monkey off of my back. When I ran The Little Grand Canyon Marathon back in September I knew I could get closer to 4 hours than I did if I had a little help from Mother Nature - by way of weather and terrain.

I cut back my training a bit through October to focus on the half-marathon I ran in Moab and to give myself a little break. Through the last part of October and November I ramped up my training to 45-53 miles per week to prepare for this marathon.

In addition to the increased mileage I added in some weekly speed work and a tempo-ish run every other week. My training looked something like this...

Sunday: Long Run (ranging from 14-21 miles)
Monday: Recovery Run (usually 1/4 to 1/3 the distance of my Long Run)
Tuesday: Cross Training
Wednesday: Medium Long Run (half the distance of my Long Run) OR Medium Long Run with 6-8 miles at Goal Marathon Pace - I alternated these weekly.
Thursday: Easy Run (4-6 miles)
Friday: Yasso's 800's (built from 4 to 8 with 1 mile warm up and cool down)
Saturday: Rest Day

The speedwork and tempo runs definitely gave me confidence going into this attempt - but I wasn't sure if it would be enough.

On to the race....

Bret and I headed for Vegas on Friday afternoon and after a long and boring drive through Utah we were in awe at the sea of lights that is Vegas!

Our plan for Saturday was to visit the expo at Mandalay Bay to pick up our race packets and then see the sights on The Strip. Our hotel was about a 1 mile walk to Mandalay Bay which wasn't too terrible but it was awfully blustery.

The expo was really crowded so we didn't spend too much time there. I did check out the pacing booth and found out that Matt Manning would be the pacer for the 4 hour group. I recognized his name as a RWOL forumite who recently completed a double-triple marathon streak. I know I was in good hands for this attempt.

When we left the expo we headed toward the casinos on The Strip. I'm not a big fan of giving my money away but it was fun to see all of the casinos and the opulence that is Las Vegas. Everything is bigger and better - apparently!

I think we over did the walking on Saturday. I was wearing my old trail shoes to walk around in which was a bad call. I kept having shooting pain in my left hip which has given me all sorts of trouble over the past year or so. I have recently been seeing a chiropractor to get everything all put together - and it's been helping, but after all of the pain I was seriously having my doubts about Sunday!

Fast forward to 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The weather report was not promising and not what I expected for Las Vegas at this time of year. Temps were supposed to be in the 30's at the start and nearing 40 by the end and overcast.

Bret is not a big fan of early mornings - much less when it involves running. :) We caught the shuttle from the hotel to Mandalay Bay at 5:00. After we arrived we hung out in a huge lobby area waiting to head towards the start. During this time I was trying to push the doubts of being able to run 9:00/mile out of my head. I decided on my mantra for the times when the going got tough - "forward; finish". The training was there - I needed to trust it.

I found the 4:00 hour pace group heading out towards the start line but I didn't see Matt - oh no! He found us in the corral and it was a matter of waiting for the start.

The spectacle at the start line was unlike any other I've experienced - show girls, Bengal tigers, and fireworks! There's nothing like Vegas style for a race! We were staged in Coral 7 and were about 15 minutes behind the gun.

The first mile lead us south on the strip and then north again near the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. As we neared the 1 mile marker there was a lot of "traffic" - apparently the coral start wasn't working as effectively as it should have. The marker was short by about .1 miles according to my Garmin, but none the less my split was 9:22. Crap I already had time to make up!

Miles 2-7 were pretty spectacular - being able to run on The Strip was so cool! It was a great way to see all of the casinos, lights, and craziness of Las Vegas. Crowd support wasn't great, but hey, I don't have that on my runs either. :) Around mile 7 I thought I was warming up (finally) and decided to throw my mittens to the side of the road - big mistake! After the slow start (I was passing race-walkers - how did they get ahead of me in the corals?) our pace group had some time to make up. I'm not sure if these faster miles made a difference later in the race, but it did help to get out some nervous energy.

Mile 2 - 9:25
Mile 3 - 8:37
Mile 4 - 8:47
Mile 5 - 8:25
Mile 6 - 8:45
Mile 7 - 9:04

We settled into a nice pace after the turnaround and the traffic started to spread out. Around mile 10 the marathoners split off from the 1/2 marathoners and headed West of the strip. I have no clue where I was running to but I just kept going.

Mile 8 - 9:10
Mile 9 - 9:03
Mile 10 - 9:03
Mile 11 - 9:02
Mile 12 - 8:58
Mile 13 - 9:12

At the 1/2 I knew I had about 3 minutes "in the bank" - so I was figuring if I could keep my pace between 9:10 and 9:13 for the rest of the race I would be okay. Apparently that's easier said than done.

Between miles 14 and 17 I was getting really uncomfortable because of the cold. My legs were feeling great - but my hands were bothering me. They were getting red and puffy. My concern was how to warm them up. I decided I needed to ditch my water bottle and find a pair of gloves. I figured since I threw my gloves away chances were pretty good that someone else did too. So I kept scanning the ground for a pair of discarded gloves. I guess my attention was too focused on getting warm and this is where I fell behind the pace group. Crap!

Mile 14 - 9:04
Mile 15 - 8:58
Mile 16 - 9:31

Mile 17 was really good to me! I found a pair of gloves but I just couldn't catch up to that pace group. I knew my chances of 4 hours were slipping away but I wanted to keep giving it a fair chance. I threw the water bottle at mile 18 and just focused on going "forward" and getting to the "finish".

Mile 17 - 9:25
Mile 18 - 9:33
Mile 19 - 9:39

While I was heading towards the last turn around I was able to see the sub-3 - 3:30 runners heading towards the finish - so inspiring to see them looking so comfortable at such a fast pace!

When I crossed the 20-mile chip mat I knew I wasn't going to hit the sub-4 goal. Based on my splits for the previous 3 miles there was no way I could make up that kind of time. My legs still felt great, but not that great! I started with some negative self-talk, and self pity and I don't think it was a coincidence that mile 20 was my slowest mile.

Mile 20 - 10:10

I decided that the last 10K would get everything I had left to give. Since I threw my water bottle I had to stop at the aid station for water and Cytomax and decided to walk through them but to keep going forward!

I was definitely surprised by how good I was still feeling for the last 6 miles. I was able to pass many people during this stretch which was giving me some confidence.

Mile 21 - 9:42
Mile 22 - 9:57
Mile 23 - 9:22
Mile 24 - 9:22

As I spotted the pyramid at the Luxor I knew the end was in sight. The course meandered over a couple of over passes and I almost laughed out loud - knowing that these were the "hills" on the course.

Mile 25 - 9:53
Mile 26 - 9:36
Mile .41 - 3:36

Garmin Time 4:04:43
Chip Time 4:04:44

I guess I could make lots of excuses for the reason I got so close to 4 hours but not quite. But I can't change anything in the past so I am okay with the results. I had a great time on the course - I felt great throughout the race - and I know that I'll shake that monkey next time. I learned a lot about how to train for this distance this time around so I'll be ready to try again. Not sure when that will be, but it will happen.

Oh - and Bret had a great day on the half-marathon course too! He finished in 2:15:xx - which was amazing considering this is what he looked like 15 minutes before the start...


















He looked a lot better after the race...


















I love that he has a winter hat and coat on with a palm tree in the background!!!























Bret enjoying his crawfish at Hot n' Juicy!!! Great post-race refreshment!!!

This One's for Kodiak...

I am so ditzy when it comes to updating this blog. So I never realized that I didn't put up a race report for The Other Half Marathon that I ran about a month ago.

So - here it is.

I was excited about running this race, as it's the only one that I haven't run in Moab. It starts up at the end of the canyon at the sight of the Old Dewey Bridge (that's no longer there). This section of the canyon is quite a bit hillier than the end that's closer to town - so I wasn't so sure how this race would pan out.

My training partner/teaching partner and I had a little "strategy session" a few days before the race. She definitely wanted to finish in under 2:00:00 and closer to 1:55:00. I didn't really have a goal in mind - but that sounded good to me. So we accounted for the flat beginning, the hills in the middle, and the grind to the end. We figured we needed to run 8:45 average splits in order to hit the 1:55:xx goal. We were planning on going out around 8:30 for the first 6 - 7 miles and slowing down on the hills to 9:30 (at the slowest).

The best part about this race experience is that a lot of my local friends were running it and for many of them it was their first 1/2 marathon. I remember being in their shoes about two years ago and was so excited for them!

We headed down to Moab on Saturday afternoon and drove the course on the way in. We stopped at Dewey Bridge to take some pictures. It was a gorgeous day - upper 70's and sunny! As we drove the course we were all enamoured by the magestic red rock spires and formations. So unreal! We also noticed the hills -- yeah - they were nothing to ignore, but nothing too unmanageable.

After picking up our packets we checked in to the hotel and met up with a couple of other friends who were in town to do the race. We all had a date with our friend Miguel at the Baja Grill for some serious Mexican food! Portabello enchiladas? Yes please! We also filled up the tanks at the diner with some after dinner ice cream!

Race day morning I hiked over to Starbucks for some pre-race fuel - coffee!!! I enjoyed a cup of Pike's Place while I downed my oatmeal. The weather was supposed to get pretty toasty towards noon so I made some last minute wardrobe adjustments and headed out to catch the bus.

The busses deposit the runners at the top of the canyon. It was a mad dash to claim a spot near one of the bon fires they light to keep everyone warm before start time.

As it got closer to race time I took my drop bag and my TP's bag to the truck. As I tossed it over the edge of the truck I thought I heard someone calling my name. It turns out that my TP left her Garmin in the bag - that I had just thrown into the truck. Oops! It was really up to me to get this pacing gig right! Yikes!

There aren't any formal pace groups at the Moab races but there are signs for different pace groups - so my TP and I made a guess at where we should be and hoped we were in the right spot.

The scenery was so incredible! I feel so blessed to live in this part of the country!! The first six miles just rolled by - totally uneventful.

Mile 1 - 8:42 (a little bit of weaving and bobbing)
Mile 2 - 8:24
Mile 3 - 8:25
Mile 4 - 8:37 (yeah - we needed to slow it down)
Mile 5 - 8:41 (not that slow!)
Mile 6 - 8:33

The hills started around mile 6.5 and continued until around mile 11. At mile 11 or so I told my TP that if she wanted to beat her 1:55:xx goal she could just cruise and if she fell back I'd hold steady for the 1:55:xx finish. She took off - looking great! I just kept on keeping on.

Mile 7 - 8:37
Mile 8 - 9:38
Mile 9 - 8:46 (ah - a little down hill!)
Mile 10 - 9:08
Mile 11 - 8:47
Mile 12 - 8:49
Mile 13 - 8:19

The finish was at Sorrel River Ranch which is such an idyllic river side resort. Once I rounded the last corner to cross the bridge and put the pedal to the metal - passed a few people - and crossed the finish line. So much fun!

Mile .1 - 7:12

Overall time was 1:54:30 - 8:44/mile.

The best part was seeing all of my friends cross the line looking so strong and happy! I really can't wait to do this race again - perfect day, perfect course, perfect weather, perfect friends, AND perfect execution of the pacing plan - can't ask for anything more!!!

I'll probably add some pictures later on.

On The Road Again...

Racing season is in full swing but I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of it since my marathon was so early in the "fall" and I'm focusing on another marathon in early December. I have to constantly remind myself that the local 5K's every weekend are not my focus. Frustrating. I have been planning on running The Other Half in Moab for about the past year and that's what's on the radar this weekend! I'm so excited to do this race, a little apprehensive, but excited!

A whole bunch of gals who I work with and have kids at my school are all doing this race. For many of them it will be their first 1/2 marathon and I cannot wait to share their experience with them! We'll be heading down to Moab on Saturday morning and the race is on Sunday morning (weird - this is the first Sunday race I've ever done in Utah!).

I'll be running the course with my good friend and training partner. We've decided our goal is 1:55:xx but since the course gets pretty hill between miles 7-11 it'll be an experiment. We've talked about our pacing plan and realized that we'll probably run positive splits because of the hills. Not crazy about that idea but we'll see how it works out!!

Marathon Pictures! Finally.

More pictures from the marathon...

Somewhere around mile 8? No clue...




























Around mile 22...




















My favorite picture - it reminds me of the Rave Runs in Runner's World!




















Finish Line photos...in reverse order.

Little Grand Canyon Marathon – Huntington UT – September 12, 2009 – Race Report

I am so excited about this race experience! I had set my sights on redeeming my effort during the Denver Marathon last year. I didn’t want to be injured, I wanted to increase my mileage in training, and I didn’t want to be sore for the week after the marathon. Check. Check. Check.

Early in this training cycle I fought off some injuries with my knee and my back and a sinus infection. Luckily a couple of visits to the chiropractor and some antibiotics and my training was back on track.

For the last five or six weeks of my training I had to re-work my original training plan to accommodate more long runs. I’m really glad I was able to do that as I’m certain the number of 17, 18, and 20 mile runs this time around really helped me during the race.

So…the reason I chose this obscure little race in the middle of nowhere is because it was earlier in the Fall, it was on a dirt road, and it didn’t have an enormous field of runners. Last year it was really tough to maintain my training schedule as the hours at school increased so, I figured if I did the majority of my miles before school started I might be better off. I also liked the fact that this was a softer surface…I’m sure pounding out all those miles in Denver on the concrete and asphalt didn’t help the ligament in my left foot. And, the fact that the field is capped at 400 marathoners was very appealing. I tend to get caught up in the moment and when there’s a frenetic energy in the air – I get a little crazy.

On Friday, my friend Cindy (she ran the ½ Marathon) and I left from my house for the drive over to UT. It took us about three and a half hours to get to Price, UT. Price is the largest town in the area near the race. We got settled in to the hotel and decided to take a drive out to the race course.

Huntington is about 20 miles southwest of Price. The race took place in a Recreation Area in the Buckhorn Wash. Luckily the race director was out setting out the mile markers so we were able to follow the course very easily. I’m really glad we took the time to drive the course because I was able to see the 17 miles of flat and open road I would be running on Saturday morning! As we continued on the course Cindy and I took some time to take pictures of the petroglyphs that were right along the course. We knew we wouldn’t have a chance to do that during the race!































"Pre-Running" the course and a shot of the finish line.

After previewing the course we headed back to Price to pick up our packets at the dinosaur museum. There were a few people ahead of us in line, but since this was such a small race it didn’t take too long. When we gathered up our shirts and bags we decided it was time to forage for dinner. Price is a quirky little town. There aren’t many restaurants to choose from and the majority of the restaurants they do have there – they’re fast food. Ick.

We were able to find a restaurant in nearby Helper, UT call Groggs. They had the typical sandwiches, burgers, and some salads to choose from. I enjoyed a spinach salad with grilled chicken. Good and safe pre-race food.

The alarm went off at 4:00 Saturday morning. We both set about our business – eating oatmeal, pinning on bibs, drinking Gatorade, etc., etc.

We were on the road to Huntington around 5:00. The temperature on the car thermometer was already at 55 degrees. Not good…
















Cindy and I - Pre-Race.

After parking we found the port-a-potties, checked out the other racers at the park, had a picture taken, and then hit the port-a-potties again.

Loading time for the marathon buses was 6:15. I hopped on and settled in for the ride up to the start. Got in line for the port-a-potties one last time at the starting line.

The race director gave us a few last minute instructions – the road is open, the Sherriff will be controlling traffic, and it’s the opening day of antelope season. What? Yeah, so if you hear gun shots – don’t worry. Okee dokee!

At 6:45 we were off for a lovely 26.2 mile run through the desert! The first 17 miles were extremely bland – flat open desert. The sun came over the horizon at around mile 5. I was definitely concerned with the heat as it was so warm at the start. When we drove the course on Friday the temp was over 90 degrees at 3:00 pm.
































The beginning of the Canyon.

My goal pace was 9:10 but I had doubts so I decided to keep it around 9:30 for as long as I could. At mile 18 we finally turned in to the canyon. The few spots where the walls offered shade were a welcome relief!

As the last 9 miles meandered through the canyon we ran over some small rises. There were a few other runners who were holding around the same pace I was so we played the leap-frogging game at the aid stations, encouraged each other, and pushed each other.

I felt great through mile 22, but it seemed that the heat caught up with me there. I had done everything right up until that point – water through mile 19, fueled with Cliff’s Twisted Fruit at miles 10, 15, and 21 – but it just got too darn hot!

I finally passed the petroglyph wall at mile 22. It was a great distraction to consider the people who had used this land before me – it made me think of the stories they had to tell. I turned off my iPod (I had been listening to a history book about Teddy Roosevelt’s adventure down the River of Doubt in Brazil) and just tuned in to what was around me and what was within me. I thought of a lot of my friends and how they deal with all of the trials and tribulations that life brings to them. I realized that these last four miles were pretty insignificant in the big scheme of life. I might have a rough time getting through my four miles, but compared to others – I didn’t really have a lot to complain about.

Petroglyphs at Mile 22

I knew exactly what I was looking for during the last mile. I set my sites on an incredible rock formation and just kept going towards it.

I purposefully set my Garmin to NOT show accrued time. I knew what my average pace was for the 26.2 miles and I knew I did not hit my goal. As I crossed the finish line the race director announced my time as 4:21:53. I was crushed. That’s no where near where I thought I was. I figured I was between 4:10 and 4:15. After crossing I just lost it – a sobbing ‘boo-hoo’ kind of cry. That lasted for about 30 seconds. No use feeling sorry for myself right? There are other marathons.
















Finish line area.

I was so happy with how good I felt throughout the race and after I crossed the line. I remember how miserable I was during Denver and was ecstatic that I didn’t relive that experience!

We loaded the bus back to the city park in Huntington for the post-race celebration and chow down. Unfortunately the lunch was something like Indian fry bread and chili. Absolutely the last thing I could imagine eating. I just stuck with water until I could find something more appropriate for recovery. As we hung out at the park the directors were announcing age group winners for the half-marathon. We decided to stick around for the marathon results too – just in case. With such a small field, you never know!

Would you believe that when they announced the 30-34 year old women that they announced my name as the second place winner! Amazing!!! That made it all worthwhile! I was like a little kid at a soccer team party – I didn’t want to take my medal off all day long!
















Receiving my 2nd place AG medal!

We finally headed back to Price. I picked up Subway for lunch (double turkey with pepperjack on wheat!) and some ice for my ice bath. After relaxing and recovering for a few hours at the hotel we decided to grab some pizza and Coldstone for dinner (nom, nom, nom!). Did a little bit of walking around and eventually headed back to the hotel.

The only things missing from this great day was a win by the Buckeyes (what the heck!).

I can’t believe how great my body feels today – nothing is sore, broken, or torn!

I am so glad to have had this experience – the training built a lot of confidence for me in my running. It took a LOT of hard work to come back after the torn ligament last year. I know my body can handle more miles in training which makes me think that another marathon is possible before year’s end.

As I looked back at the data in my Garmin I realized that the course ran long and my start time wasn’t the same as the clock time. So…according to Garmin I ran the course in 4:15:20 – nearly a six minute difference. I’m going with Garmin! I also realized that my splits were much more even than they were at Denver – which was one of my goals. Yeah! I held a pretty steady pace through 22 miles unlike having the wheels fall off at mile 16. Training has definitely paid off this time around and I can’t wait to continue as I set my sights on Vegas on December 6. I think.

T-Minus 6 Days...

Well - I'm a week away from my second marathon. After a few stumbling blocks along the way in my training, I'm feeling pretty good about reaching my goal. We'll wait and see what happens.

This week will be pretty low key - a good thing too. The last few weeks have been tough with the new school year starting and the highest mileage weeks of my training. This week will consist of...

9.6 - 5.5 mile recovery run
9.7 - 4 mile easy run
9.8 - SRD
9.9 - 5 mile easy run
9.10 - 4 mile easy run
9.11 - XT - 45 minutes of spinning
9.12 - Little Grand Canyon Marathon

Now...at the request of 'LA Runner' - a few photos from our garden. B and I have taken on the challenge of harvesting our own veggies this year. We started off very ambitious by planting - zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, and pumpkin.

The zucchini was taken over by the pre-existing horseradish in our garden, the eggplant keeps flowering but not producing any eggplants, and the broccoli turned a weird shade of yellow...but everything else has done fairly well!

Here are few pictures of the garden...
Cherry Tomatoes

The pumpkin...















Tomatoes on the vine...




















Peppers...




















I will definitely update next weekend after the marathon.

Time Flies...

So...I've still been running, but obviously not blogging. Below are the Cliff's Notes for the past couple of months.

April: Trained for the Colfax 1/2. Wasn't sure if I'd make my "dream" time of 1:45:00 here, but decided I'd give it all I had on race day and wait and see what would happen.

May: Ran the Colfax 1/2 on May 17. Finished in 1:53:xx. Per mile I shaved off 37 seconds from my last half in March. I was very excited by that. It gave me a lot of confidence for my next marathon training cycle. The 1:45:xx goal is still out there, but just on hold for the time being.

Also did a couple of shorter races - Mother's Day Mile and the Girls on the Run 5K. Both were great - as I got to celebrate my sport with all sorts of other runners and great people!

June/July: Began training for my second marathon. I'll be running the Little Grand Canyon Marathon in Huntington UT on September 12. Should be an interesting course as it meanders through a canyon on a dirt road. Can't wait!

This time around I decided to switch from a traditional 7 day cycle to a 10 day cycle. I have found that I need more time to recover and cross train so my body will hold up under increased mileage. The only caveat I'm finding with this method is that I tend to "over-do-it" on my rest and cross train days. Since my mileage is more spread out I feel like I'm slacking. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

My long runs have gone pretty well so far. I've done a 10, a 12, a 14, and a 17. My splits are a little fast and I know I need to slow it down if I want to make it to the starting line in September without injury.

Speaking of injury...I haven't run since last Tuesday because of it. My piriformis is flaring up again and creating pain all over my left leg - hip, knee, and ankle. I tried to ignore it, but it didn't go away. I haven't run in 6 days in order to let it "heal" but nothing's working. I'm headed to the chiropractor today - I hope he's a miracle worker!

Assuming all goes well and I'm "cured" today I'm not sure what to do about my training. Bret is on vacation this week from work and we have plans to get out and raft, fish, and backpack. I planned all of this activity in to my training plan, but I didn't plan the past six days off. So now I've taken 6 days off and will maybe run one or two times in the next week. Two weeks off in the middle of marathon training - not good. I don't know if I should jump right back in to where I was supposed to be or if I should reassess? I don't want to do too much too soon and end up in this boat again! I guess I'll play it by ear - I really want to break 4 hours in this marathon. I know I can finish it, but now I'm doubting I'll get the time I want with this break in training.

We'll see what the doc. has to say and go from there.

Simon Says What?

So, really, I haven't forgotten about this blog. I just haven't had much to say for the past few months. I have been training for the Moab Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon. Everything went according to plan. Tempo runs, sprint intervals, long runs - I've done the mileage at a pace that was good for me. Since I put in the work I figured Canyonlands would be a good gauge of how back to "normal" I am.

Last year at Canyonlands I ran the 1/2 in 1:48:18. My ultimate goal is to run a 1/2 in 1:45:00. The most recent 1/2 I ran was a few weeks before the marathon - way back in September. My time was awful, but I was also running on a messed up foot (probably an indication of the torn ligament to come during the marathon, but I digress). I figured I could probably run this year's Canyonlands between 1:50:00 and 1:55:00. My training pace was around 9:13, on long runs.

So...on to the race report.

I headed to Moab on Friday afternoon and stop in Grand Junction to pick up a friend of mine and her daughter who were also racing at Canyonlands in the 5-miler. We arrived in Moab and headed to the expo to pick up our packets around 6:00. By then we were all famished so we went to my favorite restaurant in Moab - Miguel's Baja Grill. They have the most delicious portabello mushroom enchiladas! After I stuffed my belly full of yummy food we attempted to find the condo we were sharing with some other friends. It was starting to get dark which made seeing road signs a bit difficult. Eventually we found the condo and got settled in for the night. Put the chips on our shoes, bibs on our shirts, laid out our clothes for the race, yada, yada, yada.

Our wake up call was 5:30 on Saturday morning. The race didn't start until 10:00, but since it's in a canyon it is a logistical nightmare to get everyone to the start line any earlier. Ate my breakfast (oatmeal, banana, yogurt) and started to get ready. Karah, Alexis and I left the house around 7:00 to head to the bus pick up area. We found a parking spot pretty easily so we just chilled in the car "people watching" until about 7:30. Hit the port-a-potty lines - OK sidenote...the port-a-potty company was called 'Prairie Dawg' (hee hee), and then hit the bus lines.

The buses snaked up the canyon to the starting line. I rode up with my friend Cindy and her sister and brother-in-law. A couple more potty stops and it was time for the race to begin. It was a cold wait in the canyon, but once we got going the weather was absolutely perfect!!

I decided not to line up with a pace group because it was SOOO crowded. I hung at the back of the pack where people were a bit more spread out. Since it was chip timed I figured I would avoid having to weave and bob through the first mile. We started with a nice down hill and continued on rolling hills until mile 9 where there's a "big" hill. Since I live in an area where you can't go anywhere without going up or down a hill during a run it didn't bother me too much. I took water at the first aid station, Gatorade at the second, water and my Honey Stingers at the third station (mile 6), and then Gatorade at 8, water at 10, and Gatorade and water at 12. Since it was hotter than it has been during any of my recent runs I figured I should really be careful with hydration. I slowed down and walked during aid stations but ran the rest of the time.

About mile 8 my calves started cramping something awful. Not so bad that I had to stop running, but I knew if I moved them in the wrong way, I'd be done for good. So I had a very uncomfortable run after mile 8, but kept going. I was really trying not to look at the Garmin too much. I didn't want it to mess with my head. I was most focused on enjoying the beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery. Between mile 9 and 10 there were drummers - that was a great sound - the reverberation off of the canyon walls, the river - awesome! That's what this race is all about.

Mile 10 spits you out on to the main road in Moab. It's not a fun part of the run - more like a death march, but that's when the crowds start to appear which helps a ton. I continued through town and finally made my approach to the finish line. I knew at mile 10 I was not going to hit my goal. Now I was focused on finishing in under 2 hours. I was a bit disappointed in myself, but I had nothing else to give during the race - the leg cramps got me. I headed into the chute and saw the clock time at 2:05. I knew my chip time was about 4 minutes delayed. My Garmin read 1:59:00. Close enough.

Here are the splits...
Mile 1 - 9:01
Mile 2 - 8:23
Mile 3 - 8:49
Mile 4 - 8:51
Mile 5 - 8:39
Mile 6 - 9:26 (trying to eat Stingers apparently slows you down!)
Mile 7 - 9:10
Mile 8 - 9:37
Mile 9 - 9:08
Mile 10 - 10:03 (the wheels came off here)
Mile 11 - 9:26
Mile 12 - 10:00
Mile 13.1 - 9:07

So...where do I go from here? That's the question I'm left with. Do I just chalk this up to a not so great race and trust that I'm still headed in the right direction - a 1:45:00 is possible this year? Do I set my sights a little lower and aim for 1:50-1:55 in May? I don't know. The only variable that is still out there is my weight...I'm about 7-8 pounds heavier than I was at this time last year. Is that really making a difference?

I'm still trying to sort out my goals for my next attempt, but one thing I definitely need to work on is evening out my splits...I feel like I'm all over the place! I'm also going to work on losing a few pounds and see if that makes a difference. I am ready to start training for the Colfax 1/2 Marathon on May 17. This week is going to be a recovery week and training starts next Sunday. Wish me luck!