I've posted my official chip time. Division place was 20 out of 174.
I'm not one of these people who can remember exactly what happened mile by mile, but I'll see what I can come up with. I actually slept pretty well last night, just not long enough. I didn't manage to go to bed early. We got up and got out the door this morning just a few minutes later than we had planned. We had to drop our oldest son off at work at 5:30. He was a couple of minutes late, but that's no big deal. Then we picked up a couple that we know and their neighbor who were also running the race. My husband was our designated driver and it was nice not to have to deal with busses and drop bags and the like. He drove us up to the start in Georgetown and was able to park there. Several people were parked in Georgetown and I wondered if they all had designated drivers, because they do shuttles from the finish to the start before the race, but there are no shuttles back to the start after the race. I ran about a mile warm up before the race started, but then a guy stopped me and needed help with his timing chip. They were weird disposable timing chips that were stuck to the bibs. You had to peel it off, thread it through your shoes laces, then peel of a paper backing and stick it to itself in a loop. I hope they worked. After that I went and stood in line for the port-a-potty and then gave up at about 5 minutes before race time. I should have stayed in the line because the race started about 10 minutes late. Note: All split times in this race report are on Garmin time and thus do not add up exactly to the total time.
Miles 1-2 (9:07, 9:16): Even though the general direction of the race is east, this race starts out going west. You do a two-mile loop within Georgetown and then head west to Idaho Springs. It was quite crowded for during that two-mile loop. I had to do a lot of weaving and dodging people. I had a hard time getting a decent pace going. At least it was shady. The sun wasn't high enough in the sky to shine directly on Georgetown at that point. Miles 3-10 (8:14, 8:18, 8:19, 7:58, 8:00, 8:15, 8:11, 8:07): I wasn't running with my mp3 player, which I have been done on my training runs lately. So I started reciting poetry in my head. I spent a while on "'Twas brillig, and the slivey toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe./ All mimsy were the borogoves,/ And the mome raths outgrabe." Unfortunately, that was all I could come up with of that poem and I struggled at times to come up with that much because my mind was a bit fuzzy. I continued to recite that verse in my head through out the race, sometimes struggling to remember what was brilling and what gyred and gimbled in the wabe, even though I had had the words shortly before. I also tried to recite other poems to myself, but was only able to come up with a couple of short Emily Dickinson poems and a somewhat inappropriate limerick about Brigham Young. I wished that I knew more poems. Much of the course through this section was dirt roads and was fairly rocky. I didn't mind the dirt, but the rocks were a bit annoying. At one point we passed some kind of kennel and there were a bunch of dogs barking. Later we passed the Clear Creek Sportsmans Club where there were a bunch of men gathered and apparently were shooting things. We heard a few gunshots as we passed, which was kind of jarring. At this point, the urge to recite my Jabberwocky lines outload to someone and shared them with some poor woman whom I was running beside for a while. Somewhere within this section a man ran up to me, and stayed just slightly behind me and I never got a look at him. He said that he had been trying to catch me and couldn't because I kept going ahead. We ran together and visited for a minute and then he dropped back saying good luck in case he didnt' see me again. Miles 11-13 (8:07, 7:51, 8:12): I was still feeling pretty good at the start of this section and I remembered how I felt at that point at the race when I ran this race last year. I concluded that I felt a whole lot better today and I was going faster. Nevertheless, I was tired and struggling a bit by the last full mile. Last bit (7:02 pace): I wasn't going too terrifically fast at this point and was wishing that it was over. Then I heard a voice behind me saying, "I'm going to catch you. You better pick it up." It was the guy I had talked to before. So I started running faster and he said, "That's the way." That's the last I saw of him. (This maybe happened before the end of the 13th mile, but I'm not sure.) So he spurred me on to the end and I tried to run as fast as I could to the finish line. I was really glad when it was over. I never saw the guy after that, but I wouldn't have recognized him even if I had. But I appreciate his getting me going there at the end. It was a nice race and the weather was great. I'm a little disappointed that I ran basically the same time that I ran in Moab. I would have liked to have gone a little faster. I guess I'll have to keep trying. In other news, my oldest son has recently replaced the bass player in a semi-established local band. They've got a gig tonight at some venue down town. They're one of four bands playing and apparently they're first. My husband and I are going to go to it, but we'll probably leave after his group plays, lest we go deaf. Updated to add: I forgot to mention that the blister on the bottom of my right foot that I got from walking barefoot on Tuesday and popped on Thursday revived itself and took on new life during the race. It didn't really bother me until after the race.
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