K, it is late, and I'm tired, so I will spell and grammar check later...
Quick version: It was snowy, windy, and cold. But I am pleased with my time and feel pretty good post-race.
Long Version:
Well, the race actually got canceled at the start due to a blizzard in Moab last night. Woke up this morning and found a few inches on the ground... And it was cold!!! Got to the bus and Curt, the RD said that maybe we should start an hour later to see if the storm would pass but most people said lets just go! I was just excited to run and was gunning to win it so I didn't care either way.
The 26 mile bus ride ended up taking over an hour because of the snow so we didn't even get to the starting line till an hour after the scheduled start time any way. When we got there, Curt said he needed to call the race due to conditions... On top of the platuea the snow was really coming down and the roads were packed 1-2 inches with some drifts even deeper! A few guys, lead by Bill Mandler, said they wanted to do it anyway so we were told the race was canceled and to take our bib #'s off and if we choose to get off then so be it.
So 10 of us jumped out just as the snow let up and started out kinda slow, mayybe 9 min pace or so, haven't checked the garmin yet... then Bill and some other guy start to pull out and I said what the heck and went with them. The frist three miles were very slow as we had a really good headwind and little hail peices hitting us in the face as we went. At mile three the road turned and we had a nice little tail wind. I had put a few feet on Bill but stopped to take releive myself and he passed me. At that point I had thrown all time goals and other aspirations of winning the race out the window so I wasn't concerned.
So i start out again and before I know it I am doing about 6:15 pace. I am not really gaining on Bill though for the first 1/4 mile and decicded it was just too fast for conditions. Bill must have thought the same thing cause he seemed to slow too. Then before I know it I am gaining on him a bit and I check the pace and I am at 6:15 again! I decided that the snow was dry enough that the traction actually isn't too bad so I thought to myself, "maybe sub 3:00 is still doable!" And i decided 1st place would be nice too. So I passed Bill and never looked back... okay, started to look back near the end as I died, but still beat him!
Anyway, about mile 10 the ice is melting and becoming slushy in spots where cars had driven but shoes were still pretty dry. Then these idiots come whizzing by in a couple cars and jsut soak me! the first guy does it pretty good and I hear the second guy coming so I turn around to wave at him to slow down and he just stares straight ahead and sprays me like I wasn't there! I coulda banged out a few windows if I found him later but no luck!
So by this time my wife is stopping every 3 miles to give me water since they canceled the race and at mile 16 she asks if I want my other shoes so I decided why not, this is not a real race anyway right? I switch shoes and the dry shoes feel great but after running 16 in the other these feel horrible! But they were lighter and dry and my wife already took off so I just kept going. After about 3 miles my feet got used to them and they were good after...
My only dissapointment is the last 5 miles. I really died. I was on track for about 2:55 at mile 18, then we hit a nice uphill and some mud for 3 miles and after that I just could not go. I really trailed off and this is where I kept watching for Bill to creep up on me. I did see him about mile 19-20 during the mud but it must have got him too cause he didn't get any closer.
All in all a fun race though and I am happy with the 3:06. Now I will have to do UV or something else in the next 2 months though before STG! | 