Red Hot 50k
I was really looking forward to this race to get in some miles on dirt under the warm sun, but as I was driving down to Moab from Ogden Friday afternoon, something on the stretch between Price and I-70 didn’t look right? Oh, it was the foot-and-a-half of snow on both sides of the road. Solid snow covered ground all the way into Moab, no exaggeration; you could ride a snowmobile from Price to Moab. My first thought was, so much for running on dirt. My second thought was, even if there is only a quarter mile on dirt it would be more than I have run on solid ground in the last 2 months.
Sure enough, lots of snow at the start, and lots of snow on parts of the course. Most it was no big deal, just snow packed roads, but we probably had a solid 3-4 miles of real snow that varied from 160 lb breakable crust (I’m 180 so . . .) to mid calf to sometimes knee deep junk snow to plow through. The go-fastie guys up front must have really had it bad through that section.
Despite the snow, the weather was great, sun out all day, I ran in shorts and a t-shirt. I usually have at least a little nervous excitement before a race. Not today, I was excited to run, but not nervous. Maybe it was the lack of expectations because of the knee injury? I was totally content to take what the day gave me. Before I knew it, it was 3-2-1 go, and we were off up a snow covered Gemini Bridges road.
I started off next to a strong Ogden area runner named Tom Remkes. I knew if I could stay anywhere near Tom I would have a good race. I ran with Tom for a ways then lost track him as we wove through slower runners. As we reached a long flat section I could see I was in about the front 1/3 or so of the pack. Good I guess, everything felt great, no knee pain, low heart rate, just in cruise mode. Into the first aid station, no one I was running near really stopped, I was planning to fill the bottles on my waist belt here, but wasn’t sweating much due to the cool temps, and not wanting to drop a bunch of places, I topped off my hand bottle and kept moving.
As we left the aid station, the pack I was in was really moving fast and happily, I felt comfortable with the speed. Not for long, within a mile or two we hit the 160 lb crusty snow section. I had to really slow down as about every fifth step my 180 lbs would break through deep and my knee would let me know not to do that again. Tom passed me at this point and I tried to just latch onto his hip and go with him. Luckily this section didn’t last long and we were soon into deeper soft snow and I could move faster and pain free. A good group of us stayed together through the climb, alternating walking, slogging and running through the deepest snow and short, dry sections.
After what seemed like a while, we were back on snow packed road and cruising down to the 3rd aid station. I settled in behind Tom and a few other and tried to match thier fast pace as we slowly reeled in a group in front of us. All felt great, though I noticed myself running a little tense and favoring my right leg. I had to keep telling myself to relax my legs and let them spin. It seemed just as I would settle into a relaxed rhythm, boom, I would step on a rut or rock wrong and zing the knee.
Into aid 3 and, again, super quick aid stops, everyone seemed to just grab and go. Good because it’s quick, bad because I wasn’t paying attention to how much I wasn’t drinking and I ended up pretty dry at the finish. A common mistake for me, I gotta learn!
The next section pretty much did me in. To this point the course was mostly road or snow, and with the exception of the breakable crust, had been fine with my knee. The next section was almost all slick rock. The short up and downs and uneven/unforgiving footing had me dropping expletives every few minutes as pain would shoot through my right knee. Super frustrating because I usually thrive on this kind of terrain, I love to try and float over rough terrain fast and let the legs go limp and blast the downs, not today. I just keep telling myself, relax, it is what it is today, just enjoy it. I managed to hang on to Tom and few other guys I had been running near up the big climb to the 4th aid station. As we started the downhill, All I could do was manage a shuffle trying to keep from tweaking anything again, and I watched as the group I had been running with pulled quickly ahead. From that point to the finish it was me passing a few people here and there, but mostly I got good at saying “hi, great job!” as trains of runners went by. I felt fine, and was having a blast, had plenty of energy, I could still go uphill o.k., but the legs were shot from too much braking and running tense to favor my right leg.
The course was definitely what I expected. Wide open and fast through the first half with lots of climbing/descents some longer, some shorter through the last part. Moab is beautiful and this race does a great job of highlighting that. Great views, fun terrain, good turn out of strong runners. Gotta love the ultra community too. It’s great to come into the finish as a mid-pack runner to hear cheers from faster runners who have walked back up the course to rally in slow guys like me. I finished in 6:05, which I was totally happy with. In my head I had hoped to be about 5:45-6:00, that was before the strained Meniscus. I might have been able to pull off a 5:45 healthy, who knows, maybe, maybe not. The course was 1.5-2 miles short this year, but it seemed the finish times weren’t any faster, I think due to the snow. If I had to guess I would say 10-15 miles of the course were snow covered, most of it packed out and no big deal.
Overall I am completely happy with my race. I used to really struggle with stomach issues and cramps, but through the end of last year and so far this year I have been able to avoid all of that by sticking to First Endurance gel and S-Caps (obviously no sponsorship bias here, they don’t give free stuff to slow guys, this stuff just works for me) with the occasional banana and some pretzels thrown in at aid stations. Feels good to finally have nutrition more or less dialed. I gotta remeber to drink better out there though! Mentally I felt great, never had that “where is the next aid station” feeling. The pace of the race always felt intense; there was always someone just in front or a pack of people coming up just behind me. The knee hurt, but to put it in perspective, I ran the first few miles next to a guy with a prosthetic on one leg from the knee down. A little temporary knee pain is nothing compared to the challenge that must have been.
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