This was a great little weekend get-away for hubby and me with a fun marathon thrown in. The rate for two nights in the host hotel was cheaper than the race entry fee. The Fri. night's king crab buffet was only $16. I broke all pre-race cardinal rules and ate a ton of king crabs and stayed up late to watch a movie. It didn't help that my legs and feet were very very tired and sore. At the restaurant, I met lots of runners from all over the country including an Asian lady eating spaghetti (the sensible pre-race meal), Lora Tang (age 43, a single mother of 5 from Riverside, CA). She has run 24 marathons and Hoover Dam was to be her 9th this year. Lora met us at 6am for a ride down to the start (3 miles from the hotel at Boulder Beach). After following some cars that went to the wrong water front, we finally got to the right beach with 30 min to spare. Did the pop thing; then put on my costume (couldn't find a bumble bee one; but this lady bug toddler size costume worked fine). I was the only runner with wings. One volunteer at a road crossing asked if the wind drag from the wings slow me down. I said, "Nah but my wings are getting really tired though!" :)
There were a few fun costume clad runners. The race director, Joyce, dressed in a checkered-race-car-pit-crew outfit, gave us some last min. instructions and with a "ladies and gentlemen, start your engine>>>" we were off, right on time at 7am. Starting temp was in the low 50's. Here's a description of the course from the race web-site (in blue) and my comments:
This course is just stunning in more ways than one! You'll start
your race at Lake Mead's Boulder Beach, Special Events Beach at the BBQ
area. The first 1/4 mile is a steady gradual uphill along a wide
roadway, giving plenty of room for runners to find their position among
the field before making a left hand turn onto the paved River Mountains
Loop Trail. Lora, Carol, Ernie, Ms. "celtic", Ms. bunny (new lady friends I met) and I started out together. This section of the River Mountains Loop Trail is
impeccably paved and about 12' wide, running parallel to Lakeshore
Drive. The course is undulating thru the spectacular Mojave Desert and
joins up with the Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail just before your mile
3. The "undulating gradual uphill" has a 500' elevation gain. Lora and Ms. bunny slowly pulled away with the fast guys.
This section of trail is breathtaking! You'll traverse a hard packed
dirt trail leading you thru several old railroad tunnels that were used
in the 1930s to transport supplies to the workers in the construction
of the then Boulder Dam- now Hoover Dam. The trail is perched atop of a
ridge overlooking the crystal blue waters of Lake Mead and the marina. Hubby had my camera so I stopped and took several pictures of the lake and the 6 tunnels with my cell phone. This was my favorite portion of the course, still shady with the mountain on my right and the blue lake to my left. Running thru these tunnels was way COOL. My Garmin lost signals a couple of times. I ran and chatted with Ben from Chicago who has paced the 3:50 and 4:00 groups in the Chicago Marathon the last two years. Also met a Boston'08 fella and we ran together till we reached the power plant.
After passing thru the last tunnel, your next mile is thru an area
which is home to power plants- Hoover Dam is the main producer of
electricity for Nevada, Arizona, and California. At the power plant mile
we started to see the leaders running back. Lora was still in the lead
pack. It was fun cheering all the fast runners. This is just a prelude
to the "Money Shot"! You'll zig zag your way down 6 switch backs (see the "Course Safety" tab!) delivering you onto the upper level parking garage at Hoover Dam. I stopped at the aid station to take a gel by the gate before entering the "no passing zone". That was a mistake to stop because the slower runners passed me and entered the "no passing zone". As listed under "Course Safety", absolutely NO PASSING or wearing of ear buds was allowed. The switch backs were 4' wide, only enough room for one runner going down and one runner going back up. Course marshalls were there to monitor us. Anyone violating the "course safety rules" would be disqualified. Well, Ms bats and her guy friend were blocking traffic. Oblivious to the rules, she asked if I wanted to pass her...DUH!
The 6 switch backs deliver you onto the upper level parking
garage at Hoover Dam. Running a counterclockwise loop you'll jump up
onto the curb, running along the edge for a killer sweet view of the
awe inspiring Hoover Dam. No need to break stride- you get a great view
as you run along the course. The only reason to look away is to smile
pretty at the photographer to capture this moment on film. We had to wear our bib on the left side showing the photographer our number, very cheesy. I passed the slower runners on the garage before heading back up the "no passing switch backs". Back to the aid station by
the gate, I again stopped to grab some oranges and carry another gel
and use the PoP. I wasted too much time there.
With the Dam now behind you, you'll retrace your steps back up the
switch backs, thru the tunnels overlooking Lake Mead, then back on the
paved trail. Arriving back at Boulder Beach access road you'll all
continue straight continuing along the paved River Mountains Loop
Trail. We saw the half marathoners (who started at 8am) on the return at the tunnels portion of the trail running towards us. I heard one fast girl called out "Smooth". Pretty sure it was Kelsey, a FAST blogger. She was the FIRST woman in the half. I hope she went on to win it. Half Marathoners will continue to their turn around roughly only
0.6 of a mile ahead, and marathoners will turn around less than 7 miles
ahead. At around mile 12.75, I heard a fast guy coming up behind me. I asked if he was a half marathoner and told him he had missed the sign that indicated he was supposed to run around back there. He was not very happy to hear that. I hope he didn't end up loosing his position.
This section of the course is beautiful as well, covering
rolling hills that treat you to Mojave Desert splendor at its finest.
It's a good thing the scenery on the second half was beautiful because the hills kept coming. From mile 12 on I was following one lone guy. I soon passed him at mile 13.5 and the next runner was almost a mile in the distance. It was fun to cheer on the winner around mile 17 coming the opposite lane. He was WAY ahead of the second guy. The sun was beating down on us from the clear blue sky above. It wasn't too hot as we had a steady headwind disguised as a nice breeze. I stopped at every aid station to eat, drink, douse myself with cup of water and thank the volunteers profusely. They don't call it "River Mountains Loop Trail" for nothing because it was very "mountainous" and "loopy". Good thing there were only a handful of cyclists or it would be very tricky to run the tangent.
The turn around was just before mile 19. The volunteers took down your race number and offered you a buffet of goodies. I ate, rubbed anelgesic cream on the legs so I could take the downhills on the return and had a VPB behind a bush (a first for me in the 18 marathons I've run). The fun part of running a course with a turn around is you can count how many runners are ahead. Lora was in 5th place among women, I announced that to her as I cheered and side-fivied her. I found myself in 12th among women. Between mile 20 and 21, I re-passed a handful of men who had passed me while I took a VPB break. No one was ahead of me until the last 1.5 miles where I passed 2 women and 4 men.
The finish line is back at Boulder Beach at the covered BBQ area where
the awards and finish line food await! I crossed the finish line with hubby and Lora cheering. According to everyone's Garmin, the course was long (mine was 26.52, Lora's was 26.48, another guy's was 26.76). I'm glad I ran this inaugural Hoover Dam Marathon. It's a beautiful and challenging course. Lora finished in 3:55 (5 min. shy of a BQ) and 3rd women overall. I was very proud of her. Lora and me holding my AG prize.
After the race, hubby and I toured the Hoover Dam. This is at the Colorado River side of the Dam.
Here's the downstream side of the Dam with the bridge under construction in the distance. Perhaps one day we could run on the dam itself when the bridge is completed. Me wearing the marathon shirt.
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