At the last minute I decided to run a road race, the River Rail Relay
which runs the paved trails from Roy to West Jordan. I ran the entire
distance solo. I truly made it a solo run. Friday evening, I parked
my car at the finish, and then took Trax (light rail) and Front Runner
(train) to Roy (the start) and then ran 2.5 miles to a motel. Riding
the train all that way certainly put in my mind just how far I would be
running.
After 5.5 hours of sleep, I got up, got ready and did a 2.5 mile
warmup run to the start where I met Vince Romney who was also running
the course solo. I think we were the only two to attempt it. The rest
of the field were mostly Ragnar types, with either 2-person or 4-person
relays.
I ran with Vince for the first half mile or so and then decided to
open it up and see how the legs felt running faster. I was curious to
see what they would do after the back-to-back 100s the past two
weekends. Things went well early, mile pace: 8:16, 8:01, 8:16, 8:51,
8:45. I was keeping pace nicely with the leading relays. The relays
would switch runners about every 6-7 miles, so at the beginning of each
new leg I would get passed by one or two fresh runners.
But at mile 9, I warmed up and clocked some speedy miles, 7:59, 7:56,
8:13. My half marathon split was 1:53, OK. But at the second relay
point, the water station was about a quarter mile away at a parking
lot. They didn’t think through logistics. It is fine to have it there
for relays, but what about the solo runners. People kept encouraging me
to go to the parking lot to get refilled, they just didn’t understand
that I was running solo. I asked for a refill from the runners standing
around, but they looked at me with blank stares, couldn’t understand
why I needed a refill on the course. This was discouraging. I just
kept going and hoped for the best.
I was clearly going to run out of water. I was carrying just one
water bottle and I just had a little left. Finally two women riding
slowly on bikes passed me. I called out and asked for help. One rider
was so kind and filled my bottle to the brim. I thanked her over and
over again. OK, I could avoid deep dehydration now, but it had halted
my fast miles, I was clocking 9:52. 9:27, 9:38 now.
Once I reached the 3rd exchange point about mile 19, again the water
was about a half mile away. My bottle was empty. I stopped and
loudly explained to everyone standing around there that I was running
solo. I couldn’t go run a half mile away to get water! This time
runners started to understand and two of them filled up my bottle, also a
race volunteer finally understood and said he would radio ahead to make
sure there was water at the future stops on the course.
So all this bugged me and slowed me down. At least they brought down
water at this stop by the time Vince arrived. I continued on this leg
clocking miles averaging 10:10 pace. When I reached exchange 4, the
volunteers there quickly escorted me to the water. The race director
had personally brought it down for me. I reached the marathon distance
at 4:04, not bad for a 50-miler. I took my longest stop here,
bathroom, drank like crazy, and refilled my pockets with gels, candy and
bacon from my little pack. At the early stops there was no food for
us, so both Vince and I hauled everything we needed on our backs for 50
miles. I probably ate a pound of bacon along the way. It was
fantastic.
The Legacy Parkway trail was the worst part of the course. Boring,
exposed, and tons of bikers going by very, very fast without regard to
the runners. So I was very careful and avoided ear phones in that
section. My mile pace crept over 11:00 for the first time. I hit the
50K mark at 5:02, a nice solid split time.
Finally on the Jordan River Parkway in North Salt Lake, there was
more shade and more to look at. I enjoyed it a lot better. I’ve run
all this section before and that was very helpful because I knew what to
expect and knew all the turns. This race uses paint on the paved
trail to show the way and the paint doesn’t go away. That continually
bugged me. I noticed that some of the cities had painted black point
over last year’s markings but others still remained. Races should not
do that! It is as bad as tagging.
To keep myself entertained, I tried to greet every person I came
across with a cheerful hello. It was really interesting that at least
half of the people out for walks, runs, bike ride seemed shocked that I
said hi to them and a quarter of the people would look away as I
approached. I know that I’m not much to look at and probably looked
like a scary old man, but this urban road runner culture is much
different than those who run trails, always cheerfully greeting you.
Even half of the runners who passed me during the race would not
respond at all with my “Good job” or hellos. Odd. I don’t pretend to
understand the Ragnar culture, but my theory from reading reports is
that runners are focused on “kills”. I guess you wouldn’t greet someone
you just “killed.” That is opposite of ultrarunning where you
encourage your competitors and even stop to help them if needed. But
after awhile as I ran into the exchange areas, the crews and runners
knew that I was a solo runner and they started to greet with with loud
cheers and smiles. That was wonderful.
Things continued well. My pace was still pretty good at the 40-mile
mark, just 11 more miles to go. I was in high spirits and enjoyed
singing away as I ran, further scaring every person I met. Running
along the river in Murray is the best part of the course. The trail is
well maintained and there is plenty of nice shade. The clouds also came
in and helped cool things down. But overall, I was still somewhat
dehydrated. I probably should have ran with two water bottles. The
joints started to ache but I pushed ahead.
Nearing the finish, I hit the 50-mile mark at 8:48. That was good, I
had hoped to at least break 9:00. My pace all day was similar to that
at North Coast 24, two weeks ago. On the bright side, I really didn’t
feel any ill effects from last weeks 100. If anything, the legs feel
stronger.
I reached the finish at Gardiner Village at 9:03. I finished about
mid-pack for the relays. The finish area was mostly populated by women
teams waiting for their last runner to arrived. They were all
flabergasted that I ran the course solo. The race director made a nice
announcement and presented me my 1st place ribbon. One lady insisted on
taking my picture. I felt great at the finish and could have
continued on for a very long time. It had been a great unique training
run.
They won’t be doing this race next year, I heard that they can’t get
the permit as the race is growing (and probably because they tag the
trail like crazy). I heard the RD mention that they might be moving to
Antelope Island….huh? That is Jim Skaggs territory. Well, it would
introduce the Ragnar community to the island. They should instead go
run the Golden Spike railway bed. I wish there was a race there. | 