After taking off nearly all of 2007 due to left ACL repair surgery, the Canyonlands Half was to be my first race. I registered way back in December, and then promptly forgot about until mid-January when I realized that I haven't trained at all. (I joked with a friend that with a year of taper time I should be able to set a new PR). I jumped into a 16-week training schedule around week 8. The overly aggressive schedule definitely helped to build a base, but ended with my taking off the week before the race with some pretty nasty shin splints. Even with the time off I felt like I was in pretty good shape for the race, and was looking forward to running a slower, but technically sound race. On Friday Lissa, Rosie and I drove down to Moab. I was supposed to volunteer at the race expo from 4:30 to 7:00 PM, but traveling with a 6-month old baby is not conducive to keeping a schedule. We rolled into Moab around 5:00 PM, I checked into the expo, and was put to work making sure all runners got their timing chips scanned. My entire job could be replaced with a well place sign, but I had fun talking to other runners I recognized. After the expo we joined some friends for dinner, then went to our motel for a night of sleep before the race. Well, not really. Remember the aforementioned 6-month old? She's still not sleeping through the night, and Friday night was no exception. She was up at least once an hour crying (which I'm sure our neighbors enjoyed), and I was out of bed on at least one occasion singing and calming her. My 7:00 AM alarm came much earlier than I was expecting. After a quick breakfast of dry, tasteless English muffins and banana I went to the start and met up with rest of the Locomotion runners.
After huddling at the start line for nearly two years the gun finally went off. I was hanging in the middle of the pack around the 8:00 minute/mile pace. My plan was to run a slow first half, then pick it up in the second half to hit a 1:45 finish time. The first mile went by, and I was running a
8:38/mile pace - a little slower than I was hoping, but I knew that I would speed up as the pack thinned out. The next few miles went by the typical dodging and cutting around runners who started out too fast, and were now slowing down, my average pace over the next few miles was right around 8:00/mile - now I was running a little faster than I had hoped, but it felt good, and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard, so I went with it. Through miles five through eight I started to pick up my pace to about 7:50/mile, mile nine went a bit faster, then I got to mile ten. This was going to be the real test as we were out of the canyon, and onto Highway 191. Something about running on that highway feels much more difficult than the serene run of the early miles - maybe it's because it flattens out, or maybe it's the cars passing by on the left - but everyone agrees it's the hardest mile of the course. I picked up my pace a bit in anticipation of the next mile. Mile 10 went by in 7:25 - I held that pace through Mile 11. Finally the Mile 12 sign loomed ahead on the road. I was feeling good, I hadn't hit the wall, and I knew I had a little something left in the tank, so I pushed it again. I started passing all kinds of people, including the kid I had been leap frogging for nearly two miles. My GPS beeped, I had completed Mile 12 in 7:05, and I could see the finish line just up ahead. I decided to go for a final kick, and sped up, the chutes walls were up, and the crowd was thick. I kept an eye out for Lissa and Rosie, and when I didn't see them I decided to push it a little more. Finally at an all out sprint I crossed the finish line. 1:42:45 - almost two full minutes below my goal! I walked out of the gates, and saw Lissa waiting for me, holding Rose in her arms. "Do you want to go back and do it again so I can get a picture?" She says as she hands my daughter off to me. GPS Output:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5135521 Note on the GPS Output: I started my watch before I hit the start line, so my time and distance is off a little from the official results.
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