The week of the race last week the course kept getting shortened each day. Until by race day, it had gone from an epic 28 miler to logan peak with 7200' vertical, down to an 11+ mile out and back up dry canyon with 3500' vertical.
I was minorly bummed that we couldn't run the whole course, but it wasn't going to stop me from having a great time running and racing on Saturday.
I ran with the lead pack from the get go. I raced hard and did my best to flood my mind with positive thoughts the entire run. I didn't wear a GPS and was unconcerned about my pace or heart rate. Just focused on running as hard as I could up the mountain, so I could give myself a fighting chance on the down hill. I ended up placing 5th overall after a hard and fun hour and 51 minutes of running. But I took a wrong turn at the end, so technically I am probably DQ'd, but it wouldn't have made a difference in the placing. It was a really fun race. Here's some more detail on how it went down:
I was in 3rd place after 25 minutes after surging past Ty Draney who was starting to walk some of the steeper parts. He wouldn't let me go though. He would drop off a ways back, then surge back up. After a few minutes of that he took the lead and I didn't go with him and he put a gap and was out of sight a few minutes later. This was the toughest part of the race for me. I had to keep repeating to myself that I was fit, strong, and fast. So that I would keep pushing and not just ease off the pace. I had memorized this poem on the way over to Utah and I found myself repeating it over and over to myself on this section while I was alone. It was a good distraction from the pain, and motivated me to keep pushing and thinking positive thoughts:
The Victor - C.W. Longenecker
If you think you are beaten you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you like to win, but you think you can't, It's almost certain you won't.
If you think you will lose, you have lost. For out in the world we find, Success begins with a fellows will. Its all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are. You've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But soon or late, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can!
In between repeating that poem to myself, I would tell myself I was strong and I would finish in the top 3. I'm pretty certain the forced positive thoughts helped a lot in keeping out the mediocre thoughts and slacking to some degree. But by about 1000' to go in the climb, it was getting pretty steep, and I was starting feel worked. And my right foot went all numb, which felt extremely weird and annoying to run on. I was in 4th place at this point behind Seth Wold, Joe Furse, and then Ty Draney. Some guys were coming up behind me at this point. So I stopped to shake my foot out and get the blood flowing again. I've had that happen before on steep sustained climbs, and I knew it would just take about 30 seconds of standing there to get the circulation going again. So 3 guys passed me. But I kept two of them in sight.
Then we arrived at the snowy part.
I was the only one in the top group of runners who had packed micro spikes, and I was all about using them now after packing them up. I noticed a pretty quick difference. It only took 20 seconds or so to put them on, and I was still right behind Tim and one other guy and we had to go straight up a steep snow bank. They started slipping all over and going really slow and I just blasted right past them. Within a minute they were out of sight behind me as I went flying full speed across a 1/4 mile section of tracks running straight across a steep snow field. It felt good to be able to take advantage of the spikes after having carried the extra weight up the hill. This put me into 5th place by a good margin as we hit the turn around.
Seth Wold however, was 8 minutes up on me at the turn around. Joe Furse was next, then Ty Draney and Chris were together coming down and had a few minutes of lead on me.
After the turnaround I did everything I could to blast back down fast. One time I took a super man dive across a snowy section when one foot sunk to my knee.
After about half way down, running as hard and as fast as I could and having gone close to 3 miles and 2500' descent, my quads were getting pretty worked. And I wasn't catching sight of the guys in front.
As I reached the dry gravelly section near the bottom of dry canyon, I took my eyes off the trail for only a moment to see the view of the canyon and soon found myself in what felt like a slow motion stumble to the earth. And then I had skidded to a stop on my left side.
I jumped back up, saw a gash in my left knee, and started running again. It was a little slow and painful at first, but soon enough I regained my tempo, not wanting to get caught by the dudes behind. But at that point I lost hope of catching anyone in front.
Then I missed the turnoff to the trail at the bottom of the canyon and went running at probably a sub 5 minute pace straight down the road. I was disoriented and had no clue where I was. I ran north through a neighborhood, when I should have been going south to the park across the shoreline trail. Finally I stopped a car in the middle of the street to ask where the park was.
I made it back to the park, via the wrong way, but still in 5th place. The next guys didn't arrive until 3 or so minutes after that.
I enjoyed that race a lot. I liked the shorter distance actually...it made it pretty fun to just go all out the whole time. It was quite a different experience than the pace I would have been able to sustain for 28 miles.
I missed out on a lot of action in front of me though. It turned out to be quite a battle at the lead. I thought Seth had it in the bag...but Ty and Chris actually caught up to Joe on the descent, they must have flown! And then all three of them sucked up Seth who said he was just jogging pretty easy with a HR of 120 on the way down. But by the time they passed Seth they were near the bottom of the canyon, and he turned on the speed. He re-passed them, and Joe was the only one to hang, but he couldn't out kick Seth. They ended up in a sprint to the finish with Seth beating Joe by only about 1 second.
Sprint to the finish, followed by a puke on the nearest tree by Joe. Way to give it everything you had Joe! You were so close.
Then Ty came in followed by Chris. I arrived about 4 minutes after Chris, about 5 minutes behind the leaders. So I gained a few minutes on Seth on the down hill, but didn't gain anything on Joe or the others.
Ty finishing third
Chris finishing 4th, he took a spill on the descent also it appeared
A slightly bloody finish
The risks of bombing the descent. Better keep my eyes on the trail next time. It could have been a lot worse I'm sure...
Oh yeah, and the fall. So I cleaned out the gash in my knee, and surveyed a few folks as to whether they thought I should go get some stitches. It was a pretty unanimous consensus for stitches...so I headed to the "5-minute clinic" south of town. Glad I did too, I would much rather not get an infection in my knee if I can at all help it.
So in the end...it was a bummer we couldn't run to the peak and around the awesome single track up high. But not enough to ruin the fun time had racing and being out on a beautiful morning in the mountains. I especially enjoyed the snowy sections of the course up high.
Kudos to the RD and volunteers for putting on a great event, despite the challenges with the weather and the course.
L to R: Seth, Joe, Chris, Cody (injured reserve list, CR holder last year), me, after the run.
