Perfect weather and a spectacular course. What more could I ask? Here I was, back in Utah and only a hundred miles from Monument Valley to run a half marathon in Moab as part of my final taper for this year's big dance. With over a thousand runners it was going to be a lot different from my other races this trip. I only intended to use it as a training run but, as always, when the gun goes off I suddenly switch to trying to do it as fast as I can. Which, for a half marathon, is not fast. But I got third in my age group at a distance I rarely do so I must have done something right.
It was absolutely freezing - read about minus five - when the school buses deposited us near the race start ten miles up the canyon we were going to run. But what a place. The first rays of the sun were lighting the tops of the canyon mesas and the effect when the mesas were reflected in the Colorado River was magical. The river is an unattractive shade of brown but it holds a good reflection.
I tried to keep warm by strolling around and drinking coffee, which I knew I would regret later when the coffee wanted to exit. We had to walk half a mile up the canyon to the start line and this gave more opportunity to appreciate the scenery.
Although the route was a paved road the scenery could not be faulted. There were high canyon walls on all sides and interesting rock formations all around. It quickly got warm and I wished I wasn’t wearing my beanie and gloves and a jacket. I took off the beanie in the first mile and the gloves soon after. I wanted to remove my jacket but I didn’t want to stop. Since I had my iPod with me I took a few photos, stopping as briefly as possible.
There were frequent aid stations. It was odd to me that they had no food, but there's a short race for you. I tried not to walk through them as I would usually. Because the road was closed there were few spectators, basically only people who happened to be camping in the area.
I started out as fast as I felt prudent and let the hordes rush past me. I wanted to see if I could hold a reasonable pace but I didn’t want to die. I seemed to go ok pretty much running as fast as I could and I hoped the early downhill would not be replaced by too much uphill. It only took a few miles to be a quarter done, a few more to be approaching half way.
But around this time, half way, the coffee had had enough time in my system and my bladder was sending urgent messages. I didn’t want to stop and queue at a toilet and there was nowhere you could hop off the road in privacy. So when I saw a line of toilets I just ran on. Eventually at ten miles I saw a toilet in a roadside pullout and I asked a spectator if there was anyone inside. With a favourable answer I rushed in, used the toilet and removed my jacket.
When I left the toilet I felt I ran like a bullet. I had to run hard to catch all the runners I had passed earlier and then I just kept going. It felt really good and I was determined to hold on as long as I could. We soon left the road and moved onto a bike path, still beneath high canyon walls.
Before turning into Moab we ran right by the Colorado River and then had to run along the highway for about a mile, a definite lowlight of the race, especially as I have driven this stretch several times and knew how dull it is, but then we turned onto backstreets. Moab is a nice place and they have kept the commercialism to a minimum by American standards, so there’s plenty of hotels and trinket shops but it’s not excessive. The backstreets were lined by loads of cheering supporters. I had wanted to break two hours and I really should be able to, but I couldn’t today so I had a B goal of two hours and five minutes. I managed this.
They had a beer garden at the finish line so I joined everyone else in queueing for a very long time for a beer I didn’t really need, and listened to the band.
I have some observations about running this distance. It felt nice to try to run faster than I usually do. It’s such a different ball game from what I usually do; marathons and ultras are all about conserving energy and self preservation. You have to hold back, you don’t push but you still end up feeling wiped. I felt moderately wiped at the end of this race but the feeling soon went; there was none of that really deep exhaustion. Problem is, I feel that I like that deep sense of exhaustion - it’s my reward for the effort. Hmm...
No comments:
Post a Comment