I ran Moab Red Hot 50k as a fun-run recovery run to get the legs working again after Rocky Raccoon 100 last Saturday. This race is like an ultrarunner convention for Utah and Colorado runners because it is well attended by many of the usual ultrarunners from both states. The Colorado contingent is always kind to me and I have some good friends from that group, so this is a fun event to see many running friends from both states.
I drove down this morning, on the road at 3:30 a.m., arriving at the Gemini Bridges before 7 a.m., plenty of time to get ready for the 8 p.m. start. It was below 20 degrees at the start, so pretty chilly. This year there was a ton of snow. I think we ran on at least 15 miles of snow. Some of it was pretty deep.
I decided to not race this run, but just have fun, meet some runners, and not push it hard. After greeting many people at the start, we were off. I positioned my self mid-pack and just took it easy. For the first two miles I tried to keep up with fellow ultra team member from Salt Lake, Eve Davies, who was running with her dog. I kept her in view, but after two miles it felt like I was on loop 5 of Rocky Racoon. The left quad was sore and the knee was starting to hurt. I had thoughts of bailing out, but kept on going.
The snow was an amazing challenge. At times it was fairly deep, requiring some fast footwork and high stepping to get in a nice rythmn. On the flats you had to just lean forward and keep your momentum going to push through the snow. At the top of the rim it was about two feet deep. I wondered how the front-runners made it through the section. Usually there is a fast downhill from the rim, but it wasn't fast today, pretty slow. I had to be careful not to twist my bad ankle.
After two hours, I felt much better, more like Loop 3 of Rocky. I was able to push ahead of Eve and didn't see her again until the finish. At times I would test the legs out and run pretty fast, passing many runners, but I didn't want to get the heart rate up for very long so backed off.
What was really interesting to me is that I struggled the most on the flats. It would use the same muscles that weren't fully recovered from the flat 100 last Saturday. I really enjoyed the hills up and down much better and could push the uphills pretty hard, always catching mid-pack runners around me.
At the half-way point, I caught up with Cory Johnson of Ogden, and we had a fun time running and talking for a couple miles. He then went ahead. My knee was having challenges on the hard slickrock. It eventually calmed down.
I continued to really enjoy the afternoon. The snow was blinding in the sun, and I think I put my sunglasses on too late and sunburned the eyes a little bit. They are pretty tired tonight. Well, I kept on pushing ahead and got to meet other runners.
I did blunder at one point. I was following footprints instead of flags and started down a wash with many footprints. Obviously many runners had gone down this way, but soon I noticed footprints also headed back up and no flags, so I headed back and then saw that I missed a turn. That was an extra half mile.
As I neared the finish, very kind cheers when out, "Davy Crockett's coming!" Wow, that was nice. I finished in 6:45. Not bad. The course seemed to be about 15-20 minutes slower this year, we'll see in the results. I heard a rumor that they might have cut out a mile or two this year, but I didn't notice it.
In the other two years I ran the race, I felt wasted at the finish, but this year I felt super. I wasn't walking funny and felt fine on the drive home. It was a fun day. Now and then it really is fun to not "race" a race and just enjoy the run and do some sight-seeing. On the shuttle back, I was able to finally meet Chris Boyak for Colorado and also met FRBer Bryce.
To get a feel for this race, view the video I took during the race last year. Keep in mind that this year there was snow everywhere.
See a video of the deepest section of snow. | 