RACE REPORT
I've had a couple days to recover and try to gather my thoughts on what the heck happened on Saturday. Going into this race I had alot of confidence, mileage has been at an all time high, workouts have been spot on thanks to Riley and Mr. Starrett. But I never thought that we would get dealt with the weather that we did on Saturday.....
Met the Crew at the buses early. Weather was perfect! No wind, no rain, temp was in the mid 50s. Great way to start the day to see that. Ended up gettting to the start of the race with 90 minutes til go time. Riley brought up a tarp and space blanket which was perfect. We were able to stay warm and relax. Then we started to get a light drizzle which was fine because that was expected in the forecast. 45 minutes to race I took a double dose of UCAN which setttled in the stomach perfectly. Ken< Riley and I ended up doing maybe a half mile warm with a Secret Bathroom stop and now I was ready to roll.
The race started a tad early which caused for a little confusion. Bryant almost didnt make it to the start on time but he did so it was good to see that. The group immediately seperated about a half mile in. Lead group was Anthony, Riley, Bryant and Collin. Ken and I were the chase and that was it. Early miles flew by, we were hitting between 530-540 splits. Felt really easy even though we were fighting a 10-15 mile an hour headwind and pooring rain. I had high hopes still that this was going to be a great day. Around 7 miles Ken had to pull off the road for a quick pit stop. So now I was on my own for the remaining part of the race. Hit the rollers in the Valley in the 540s which was fine, I felt relaxed and still felt really good. Came thru the half way point around 1:13:30, perfect! Could see the lead group just slightly still but had some work to do. Well as I came around to the quick 90 degree turn just after the half point all Hell just broke lose. It became an immediate monsoon! The roads were rivers and on top of that we had 50-60 mile an hour microburst winds come thru with the rain that dropped the temp down to low 40s and it just became a battle against the elements.
At this point I thought to myself I just need to get to the canyon and I will be okay. At 14 I took another serving of UCAN and was ready to power thru. Mile 15 I almost got put on my back a couple of times, the wind was so strong! I literally started to praying out loud to myself, praying that the weather would ease up and that I would be able to feel strong to the finish. As soon as I was done praying, a huge gust of wind shifted me like 2-3 feet, and I was like HOLY SH*%!!!! COME ON! REALLY! From there it just got worse for me. The rain started hitting my skin and it felt like daggers. My pace started slowly decreasing going from 5:50s to 6 min/pace, now my vision was getting blurry, my arms and fingers locked and I couldnt move them, I started shivering and couldnt stop then around mile 18 I blacked out for a couple seconds which put me into a walk. As soon I started walking my legs started seizing on me and I was done for and called it quits for the day! I flagged down a police officer which at first wasnt very nice. I asked him if he had a phone and he told me to walk to the next aid station and took off. I ended walking to this cabin that was off the side of the road to find out that Bryant had dropped out as well. We were both shaking and couldnt stop. Paramedics were called and the police took Bryant and I about a mile down the road where we met them. I had a temp of 93 and I had to strip my clothes whiched helped alot. They gave me warm blankets and dried me off. Temp rose up to 96 and the shaking was limited. From there they stuck us both on the bus and we had to wait for another hour or so to get out of the canyon where I got some food, and dry clothes and met my wife and kids. What an awful morning!
I ran into Riley and found out that he had won the race by over 10 minutes and ran an awesome time in crazy conditions. Any other day the course record would have been destroyed. Was really happy to see him win he had worked crazy hard and deserved that win more than anybody in the field.
Plan from here is to gather myself and press forward with the Utah Valley Marathon in 3 weeks. I feel that I am in really good shape still and I need to test my fitness again and nail a fast spring race.
Congrats again to all the finishers that gutted it out. This was by far the worse race conditions that I have ever seen.
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