This race was a chance to get out and race outside of utah for the first time ever, if you don't include Boston. I figured the altitude would give me an advantage, but I didn't count on the heat. It was 80 at the start as the sun peeked over the mountains! I was sweating before we even got underway. There would not be any skipping of aid stations today, I intended to stop at every single one and drink a full cup, even the one at mile 1.2. One other thing I noticed before the start - the volunteers were mostly missionaries! It was hilarious. Being Vegas and all I expected the sinners table at the aid station to contain whisky shots but it turned out that the joke was on the Saints part of the name. And it went all the way through the race too.
The gun went off and so did I. The first 5k+ was all downhill through a bike path/aqueduct system, and I meant to hold back but I got a 5:04 anyway. Sounds of pursuit vanished after 200 yards. It was a little challenging to figure out where to go, since the canal had lots of branches, but only one way was down so I kept going that way and it worked out. Miles 2 and 3 were 5:20 and 5:30 so I did manage to cool it a bit. With temps already in the 80s there was no way I was going to push it hard, and I took two cups at every station - one to drink, and one to pour. It seemed to work pretty well as I did not overheat until mile 11. Mile 4 had a small uphill in it - I got 6:07. Miles 5 and 6 were still a little downhill so good for 5:57 and 5:46. Then we hit the flat. And I mean dead flat, not even a single pixel up or down on the GPS track. It was an out and return on a dirt trail over Lake Mead, through some giant tunnels. These things were big, like 40 feet tall and 20 wide, and one was long enough that I couldn't see the trail in the middle of it because it got too dark. Both ways felt a little uphill, but the advantage was that on the turnaround I could see exactly how I was doing in the race. The second place guy was in range - about 1.5 minutes back. He had been running warmups for a bout an hour before the race though so I knew he was in beast mode and closing the gap. My only hope was the last 2.5 miles of gentle downhill.
Once I got back to the paved trail I tried to let the downhill monster out but it was over 90 by now and really hard to push. I was only able to get a 6:16 and a biker yelled that 2nd was sneaking up as he passed me on the road. I pushed even harder, but the downhill was really a long series of light rollers. I still managed to get a 6 flat for mile 12. He had closed to 15 seconds when we hit the last .3, a nice steep downhill to the finish. I dropped it to 4:17 and streaked through the arch. This race had two arches though - a devil arch and a angel arch. I wasn't sure which one to go through but I was going too fast at the end to make the slight turn to get to the devil one so I just took care of business. He had a great kick as well, but could not close the gap.
I won two boxes of cake mix and $100 to REI. Bet you can't guess what the cakes were :)
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