I decided this cap off my week of training with a long tempo run. With Tahoe Rim 100 a week away, working on some foot speed would be helpful. My climbing training went well this week, so I need some speed work and signed up for another half marathon. I hoped that the course would be fast and let me break my half marathon PR.
I ran in the new Hobbler Half Marathon put on by race13. This half starts up in Hobble Creek and finishes in a park in Springville. They bussed us up and dumped us off in the middle of the road, not much room for a start of the race. I warmed up by running a couple miles up the canyon, up on the Squaw Peak 50 course on the dirt road at the top of the canyon. Three other runners did the same.
At the start, we were all very crowded with lots of slow people near the front. There was about 434 runners in the field. The crowd near the front slowed me down in the first few hundred yards but I soon broke free and was running in the top 20. A Kenyan was with the leaders and eventually won the race.
I have run up the Hobble Creek Canyon several times as part of the Squaw Peak 50 and Katcina Mosa 100K but never have run down it before. It had some great downhills. For the first few miles, I ran near Lorenzo, a solid tall runner a few years younger than me. I've never beat him in a race and still didn't today. He soon was a small figure down the road. My splits for the first miles were: 5:53, 6:32, 6:33, with a 19:35 5K split, better than my 5K PR.
Things were going well. I banked time and eventually was up to 1:30 ahead of my PR pace. I was very surprised how many small hills there were along the way and lots of winding turns. The course wasn't as fast as Utah Valley Half. My splits for the next three miles were: 6:37, 6:32, and 6:43, with a 40:07 10K split, two minutes faster than my 10K PR. The downhill was helping a bunch.
More short hills appeared and things started to slow down. I tried very hard to keep my splits near 6:40. Miles 7-9 were: 6:42, 7:04 (hills), and 7:03. I knew I now only had about a minute cushion on my PR pace. I pushed it harder and mile 10 was 6:47. I was hanging on.
But then things fell apart as the heat blasted us now that we were out the canyon and the sun was pounding on us. Also the last three miles were a gradual hill and my legs could feel it. I had to stop at an aid station for about 15 seconds to fill my bottle and pour water on me. Coming in my splits were: 7:25 (aid station), 7:25 (heat), and 7:56 (out of gas). I reached the finish at 1:30:41. It was only 27 seconds over my PR. I was pleased.
22nd overall and 1st in my age group. It took 1.5 hours for the awards to be given out. They need to do better. Also, to help with the heat, they should have started an hour earlier. I ran laps around the park to use some of the time waiting. My legs feel good. I need some more heat training this week during my taper. Next up is Tahoe Rim 100 on Saturday. It runs on the ridges high above beautiful Lake Tahoe.
Today I can't keep my thoughts away from Hardrock 100, going on now in the mountains in Colorado, the toughest western 100. I have so many friends in it and they are all still climbing the mountains. I'm envious. One of these years I'll go do it. Sorry to see Karl Meltzer had to DNF. I'm sure his injuries caught up with him. Tough to run with a healing broken arm.
P.M. More heat training. Five miles with the dog. | 