This weekend Catherine and I went south for the Red Mountain 30K in Ivins. Unfortunately, we didn't get to my grandparents' house in St. George until just before 10:00 on Friday, so we woke up at 4:30 on Saturday feeling pretty tired. When we signed up for the race a couple of months ago I registered for the 50K. But because the Buffalo Run 50K took a little more than a week for me to recover from, I decided it would be better for me to race the 30K this weekend and train through it. Right now I need to build my mileage consistently. And if I'm going to trash my legs, I'd rather do it at a larger race and just use these smaller ones for fun and training. And this race was small. According to what one of the directors told us in the morning, there were 50 or 60 runners in the 50K and only 16 in the 30K. I'll take him at his word, since it didn't occur to me to count, but there may have been even fewer runners in our race. But I like small races. They're casual and friendly, and lots of fun.
Of course, a small race usually means the field isn't highly competitive, and this was no exception. In fact, I took off at the start and after about a mile I never saw anyone again. I ended up finishing nearly half an hour in front of the second place runner, and he even missed a turn near the end and cut a little more than a mile off the course. My plan was to treat the race like a long tempo run, and in that respect it was a success. I had hoped to run under 2 hours, which for a 30K should have put me just under 6:30 per mile. Even though the course was half a mile longer than 30K, I met my goal comfortably, finishing with nearly 2 minutes to spare.
My pace of 6:11 per mile was a little faster than my pace at the SLCTC 15K a couple of months ago, and I think I set PRs along the way at 5K, 10K and 15K. It's hard to say how much faster I've gotten, though--with 1,500 feet of elevation lost and only 500 gained, the course was certainly fast, and no doubt all the descending played a huge role in my overall pace. Still, I'm pleased with how I ran the race. I finished feeling like I could have gone longer or faster, and I was able to bang out the last (mostly flat) mile at a sub-6 pace, so I feel like I was running strong. And because I didn't trash my legs (although they are sore now), I'll be able to get back to training on Monday. The race itself was well run. The organizers and volunteers were friendly and helpful, and the aid stations were plentiful and well stocked. And the course was beautiful, starting just west of Veyo and descending through the canyon past Gunlock and into Veyo. I've ridden that road countless times on my bike, and I loved running it just as much. All the race needs now is more runners. Catherine and I will both be back next year. Hopefully others will join us.
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