Run fast

For all but the ~73 minutes of the race I had a great time down in Moab for the Canyonlands Half.  I drove down after work on Friday with Brandon and Scott and stayed in a $27 room in Green River.  For $27 you can imagine how nice it must have been.  It did have a color TV, refrigerator, microwave, running lukewarm water, and electric outlets. Everything else isn’t worth mentioning. We got to bed early, left for Moab at 6 AM and arrived at packet pick-up a little before 7, just before the crowd arrived.  We then napped a bit in the car, met up with Kevin, then boarded the buses at about 8:15.  It’s a good thing the buses leave so early because we really needed that 1 hour and 20 minutes to sit around before the race, which started at 10. At about 9:30 we stashed our bags and did a short warm-up as we climbed up to the start line.  At 9:50 we got to start line and quickly figured out who would win, Patrick Smythe, an All-American from Notre Dame who has run ~62 minute half marathon.  He recently moved back to Salt Lake City for graduate school and is coaching the Westminster cross country team.

I went out with Patrick, a guy from Westminster and a green shirt guy who I think won the race a few years ago.  The first mile came in at 5:08 which didn’t feel too fast because there is a steep downhill right off the start line.  Mile 2 slowed to 5:19 because of a small hill and miles 3, 4 and 5 were 5:23, 5:25, and 5:36.   Patrick and the Westminster runner put a gap on me at about mile 3, green shirt guy dropped off for some reason at mile 2 and a former UVU runner Zak James slowly passed me at around mile 4.  Mile 5 was really the low point of the race because I still had 8 miles left, my left leg was already exhausted and my splits were starting to slow.  Fortunately this was when Scott caught up to me.  He could have dropped me in a second but instead he slowed the pace slightly to let me catch my breath and to let me run behind him.  He did all of the work for the next few miles while I got back some of my rhythm.  I can’t thank him enough for that because if he wouldn’t have been there I am sure I would have lost another minute.  We were still together up and over the steep hill at mile 9 (which sucked all that was left in my quads) and down the other side.  Scott then pulled away and I really thought he would catch the Westminster guy who was surprisingly still running very strong.  I held on as best as I could for the last couple of miles and finished in 1:12:27 about 30 seconds behind Scott and 45 seconds behind the Westminster runner. 36 year old Zak who passed me at about mile 4 ran a very impressive 1:11:13 and Patrick Smyth ran away with it in 1:09:55.  This course has a net drop of 77 feet but since there is about 350 of climbing mixed in it is deceptively slow.  Of course I wanted to run a faster time but at least it was a great workout and just shows how much work I need to do in the next few weeks if I am going to be able to run well at Boston.  I have to thank Scott again for helping me out during those middle miles.  Without him it could have gotten really ugly.

After the race we chatted with Patrick and Zak for a bit while they looked for our drop bags then Scott, Brandon and I changed our shoes and ran back to Kevin’s campsite so Kevin could change his shoes too.  We then reconvened at the finish area and Scott and ran another 5 miles so we could finish the day with 20.  Unfortunately I think I ran one mile too far because with a mile left I felt the twinge in my right knee. I won’t run tomorrow to see if the day off will help.

After the cool down everyone had low blood sugar so we found a little café for lunch then we hung out around Kevin and Amiee’s campsite for the next couple of hours.  I iced my knee in the river and hung out with Kevin and Amiee while Scott and Brandon took a nap.   It was nice to get finally get some sun.

After the naps we packed up the car and drove back home.  Fortunately Scott and Brandon had lots of interesting stories to keep us entertained. They are great guys to say the least.