The trail is more like a mountain run than a trail run.  I’m glad I have gotten to the point I can join these kinds of runs, but it definitely does it’s damage to me regardless. The views are incredible during this run, you go up and over flagstaff road, out through Walker Ranch, into Eldorado Canyon, and then back along the Mesa Trail.  Absolutely breathtaking, both visually and literally.

My Garmin had the auto-pause feature turned on, and at one point during some insane switchbacks, the thing kept thinking I wasn’t moving.  Talk about a blow to the ego.  I found myself looking at the watch saying… “I swear I’m still moving!”.  I turned that feature off and not long after forgot to turn the watch back on, so I lost about a mile of data around the 11.5mile mark, hence the instant drop in elevation you see around that point in the elevation chart below.

Towards the end, with all the downhills, my right knee started acting up again.  Similar to how Moab went for me.  So I started trying to take it easy on the downhills since I was still pretty good on the uphills and could catch the group during the flatter areas.  Most of the turnout was actually woman… and these woman were fast!  They would fly down the mountains as well as keep a great pace uphill.  If it wasn’t for the occasional flats I’d never have a chance of staying with them near the end.

All in all, the route was amazing.  It’s definitely something on my list to return to and do again.  But this time I’ll be ready for it.  It ended up taking us 5hrs and 15minutes, but we probably burned >30minutes just waiting and regrouping on occasions.

Mile 6ish - still having a great time obviously

I however am not quite that fast. I had set my goal for 1:35:00, the pace I’ll need to do in order to qualify for Boston… a 7:15/mile pace. I ended up with a 1:36:12, which I am extremely happy with. Being my third ever half marathon, my previous PR was set last November during the Atlantic City Half Marathon in New Jersey. That race came about 2 months after my first half Ironman and I signed up for it the week before since I happened to be visiting family in NJ. I had only been running for about 4 months at that point though and did a 1:43 time. Both the AC and the Platte were flat courses, with AC being a little more flat since it’s along the coast, plus being at sea-level, giving me a good advantage. So having beaten that time by 7 minutes means my running all through the winter has really paid off.

I started the day at 6am, which is extremely early for me considering I normally don’t wake up until around 8am for work. I grabbed a bowl of cereal and I had laid out all my gear in a pile. With everything in order I drove down to my friend Bryan’s place and we jumped on the light rail from there to get to the race start. It’s about 7:30 at this point and we still have an hour and a half before the race starts. I had decided to experiment with a lot more caffeine than I normally do. A cup of coffee, 3/4 of a pack of sport beans, 2 bottles of “5hr Extra Strength 5 hour energy”(spaced apart by an hour) were taken before the race started. In my hand held water bottle I had dissolved a packet of Clif shot with caffeine in it to drink during the first 8-10 miles of the race and stuffed another packet of sport beans in my pocket for later.

The race starts off with a quick mile around downtown Littleton, helping to spread the 1500+ runners out before getting on the 4-5 foot wide Platte River trail. I started myself near the 7:45 pace area of people figuring everyone will take off faster than they should and I’ll still be in a comfortable pace zone. My first mile was a 7:30, so this worked out perfectly. I was planning on 7:15s, but knew I wanted to first mile or two to be a little slower than 7:15 to warm up. From mile 2-10 I was pacing between 7:00 and 7:15 most of the time. With the slight head wind I took advantage of drafting other people as I went. I didn’t know it at the time, but my friend Ryan (who’s naturally faster than me, except he needs some help on training and consistency) was apparently keeping me in sight this entire time and sitting 300meters behind.

I still have a huge smile on my face near mile 10.

Ryan apparently figured he’d keep me in his sights, then around mile 11 he’d make his way back up behind me and then when the hill at mile 12 came, he’d put it in gear and try to burn me up the hill and beat me to the finish. It would have been a good plan, but there was a basic flaw in his design. His training consisted of 2 weeks… “a 1 week build period and a 1 week taper” as he put it. But 3 days before during his “taper” he went out to see what he could do and did a 10 mile run at 7:40s, 4 miles farther than he had ever run before. Lucky for him he’s more naturally talented than me and can do that kind of thing. But it probably cost him during the race.

By the time mile 10 came, I had began to open the gap on him and he lost sight of me. My pace dropped a little, but nothing extreme. My slowest pace was a 7:39 on mile 12 because of “the big hill”. I ended up beating him by only 1 minute 12 seconds. But still enough to claim victory. Now I just have to watch out because my original plan to beat him in order to teach him a lesson that he does need to train has apparently worked. Now he’s got me in his cross-hairs for whatever race we do together next time. I’ll be stepping up my training for Ironman Arizona, but that’s training for a lot more endurance than speed.

This is a look of pure pain due to my calves cramping up 300m ago.

About 400m from the finish I noticed Sonja, of http://www.gosonja.com, who had done the Moab 100 while I was out there doing the 24 Hours of Utah (same race, but one is for distance and one is for time). Sonja had done an incredible job at Moab… 100miles is hard enough, but she was moving quick! So when I saw her on the sidelines waiting for someone else obviously I kept my pace, side-stepped and called out “Great job at Moab” to her. I got a shocked look back along with a “thank you”… I turned back and instantly got some of the most painful cramping in the top of my calves I’ve ever had. I couldn’t let it slow me down because I had no idea if Ryan was nipping at my heals or not. So I pushed the pace (6:48), and the pictures from that last 400m really show just how much pain I was in. It’s not a look of the normal “I’m almost there, lets go as fast as possible”, instead it’s a look of “This is the most pain I’ve ever had while running, but I’m not going to slow down”.

The happy post run picture with food and beer in hand!

Back in high school my cross country coach once told me: “When you get a cramp, it’s probably because you slowed down, so pick up the pace and see if it goes away”. Perhaps Coach Sarvis was simply saying that to me because I ran 5k races and by the time you get a cramp it’s normally around mile 2 or 2.5 and if you pick up the pace you’re just about done anyway so you’ll hang on and just finish. But either way, I still do the same thing today… get a cramp? SPEED UP!!!! So that’s what I did… thanks coach!

In the end, all of us that ran the race had great races. It really was an awesome day to be out there. Now that I know I can do a 1:36 half and I have 6 months more training before I make an attempt to qualify for Boston at the Marine Corp Marathon… I believe I’ll be able to do it.

But this half marathon tomorrow, although it is a ‘training’ race, I am aiming to do a PR in it. I’ve only run 3 halfs before, the first one back in 2003 in Seaside Heights, NJ were I did a 2:04, the half at the end of my half-ironman race where I did a weak 2:16, and my current PR from November at the Atlantic City Half Marathon where I did a 1:43. This race is going to be an indicator of where I’m at basically, so it’s much like a time trial. I am going to try to do it at the pace I’ll need to qualify for Boston, a 7:15 pace to hit 1:35 as the overall time. My assumption is that if I can come close to that pace now for half the distance, then given another 6.5 months of training aimed at Ironman Arizona in late November, I’ll be able to maintain that pace or slightly faster for the Marine Corp Marathon on October 31st, then start my tapering for Ironman Arizona the next day.

Now the day before a race, I try to get sleep. There is a direct correlation between how high in importance you rank a race and how much you can actually sleep the night before it. The more important the race is to you, the less you seem to be able to sleep. You start second guessing if the pace you’re aiming for is too fast… if it’s too slow… should you carry your nutrition or live off the land… should you carry a water bottle… is everything ready to go in the morning when you wake up… what if you oversleep… how early should you wake up… when you should start your caffeine intake (if you’re planning on using caffeine). All these things race around in your mind. My suggestion… get everything in order two days before the race, don’t wait till the day or night before. Pack it all up, put it in a bag or in a pile somewhere. Everything you’ll need, get it together and leave it there. That way you have the extra day in case you realize “oh, I should pack X as well”. As for your race strategy, write it out and put it on top of your stuff. Go over it the day before and put it back on your stuff to review it one more time on your way to the race. You should know it by heart… you should know what mile markers you’re going to have eaten or drank what by. Check out google maps on satellite images or Google Earth and review the course, pick out landmarks you’ll be able to see during the race (a road name, a tree all by itself, the lonely hill in the course, a certain turn, etc) and know what your plan is in segments. You don’t want to have to think about if you ate or drank enough during the race… you want it to be second nature.

With that, I’m off to go to a pre-race dinner with my friends who are also doing the race, because everything I need is all set up already… that was done yesterday.

Course Description:
The course is a 5.37 mile loop and you check in at the starting/finish location after each loop. You switch the direction on the loop you run each time so you feel less like a hamster on a wheel. It’s about 15 miles north of Moab on the Monitor and Merrimac Trail. We all did the first loop clockwise, so I’ll describe that direction and the counter-clockwise direction is obviously the reverse.  It starts off with about 1/2 mile of the typical gravel road Moab has all over the place.  It’s slightly downhill at first and you stay left at the Y intersection after about 300meters, that’s the point that branches for the loop and you’ll be returning from the road to the right later.

1/2 mile in you hit your first uphill, not terribly steep, but it’s still dirt, there’s some water ruts and uneven footing to deal with, plus it’s only really wide enough for 4 people, but with the ruts, everyone tends to stay 2 (maybe 3) wide at any point.  That continues for about 1/2 mile and then it flattens out a bit and gets to a dirt trail wide enough for 2-3 people, you make one stream crossing, hoping on a rock or two (luckily the water wasn’t flooding because that could get up to 7-8 feet wide if it was, instead we just had two little 2 foot wide sections with an isle of sand between them.  After that though, the fun really starts.

About 1 mile into the run you hit a steep section that starts off with some deep sand to wear you out and then goes to the sandstone slab that Moab is known for.  Like all of Moab, the layers of earth are all sloped and clearly visible all over.  The uphill lasts for around 1.5 miles and probably climbs around 400+ ft in that time.  Definitely a time to follow the ultra runners creed “Walk any hill you can’t see the top of”, because this one seems to never end.  Sandstone has the worst traits of road and trail running combined.  It’s as hard as concrete (like running on a sidewalk), but at the same time it’s uneven terrain like you would find on a trail run.

You finally reach the top and it levels off for just a moment and then starts heading back downhill even steeper than you were going up.  This time you go down on sandstone that same 400+ ft in just 1 mile.  The aid station was about half way down this sandstone section.  Once you’re at the bottom you get on a nice dirt trail that has some occasional short steep sections that are mostly sand.  Over the next mile and a half you end up switching up from dirt trail, to sandy areas, to about 7 sections you have to jump or step over a small creek, you get to run in the sand next to that creek a lot, plus a couple uphills just to make it not completely flat.

Finally you hit get a little uphill, go between a fence and get onto the gravel road to head back to campsite.  You get a few small rollers here, get to that Y branch you went left at in the beginning and then have that last bit of uphill to get back to the parking/camping area and check in.

Race Report:
Packet pickup is from 5:30 to 6:30, a prerace meeting at 6:45 and then the race starts at 7am.  Unfortunately, I wake up at 6:45… which completely blew my plan of some nice eggs and sausage for breakfast.  Luckily I’m about 50yards from the starting line in my tent, so I jump up, throw some sweats on and a jacket and get over to get my bib number.  I was lucky, a relay team was there getting their stuff and they let me cut in front of them so I didn’t have to wait.  I grab my bib number and forget all about the free packet stuff.  I get back over to the tent/car and am definitely rushed.  I don’t even know if my support crew was up before that, but they were appearing out of the tents now.  As I try to throw some tights, shorts, my Garmin HR monitor, shirt, hat, and shoes on.  My crew is good enough to be getting me a water bottle of Heed made up.  I grab the MyAthelete GPS unit and number belt it comes with and snap on the bib number and turn on the GPS.  I grab a clif bar and get myself over to the starting line.  It is COLD!  Luckily another crew member notices I don’t have my gloves, so I run back over and get those and make it back just as they are starting the prerace meeting.  I was lucky that they ran a little behind I guess.

I position myself near the back of the start since I know I don’t want to get caught up with the relay teams that only have to do a lap each and then get a 5-8hour break.  The horn blows and we’re off!  But unlike any other race I’ve ever been in, just about EVERYONE starts walking… slowly building up to a jog.  Everyone is hollering, athletes are chatting away and we start that first little downhill at a comfy 11:30 minute/mile pace.  As we start to hill the first little uphill I found myself behind two guys I had met the night before.  Since they have done this kind of thing before I figured I should stick behind them and let them teach me by example.  We jog up that first little section, get to the flat and keep going.  We hit that big uphill that starts with the sand and they immediately drop into a walking pace of about 17minute miles.  I follow suit figuring they know a heck of a lot more than me.  We chat the entire time as we push up this long hill and finally get to the top.  We then build back into a slow run and start taking on the downhill.  I stick with them the entire loop and in those first 30 minutes learned more about ultra running than any research on the web could ever teach you.  I’m definitely smiling at this point and having a blast.  I had never seen a “race” where athletes would stop, pull out cameras and start taking pictures of the scenery and each other.  It was awesome!

I get to the starting line/finish line/check-in area and Ryan, one of my crew members is there waiting with another handheld bottle of heed for me and asking me what I want for the next loop.  They knew exactly when I’d be there because of the MyAthlete GPS and an iPhone.  I tell them something like: “No idea, maybe a package of shot bloks?  This course is F-ing rough” I turn around and start out again, 5.37 miles down, who knows how many to go.  I drank only about 6oz of that Heed and about 1/8th of that clif bar.  I’m basically still waking up at this point.

The second lap starts and I’m alone, but soon after my two new friends come up behind me and I join with them again.  We’re going to opposite way this time obviously, and I realize my stomach just isn’t ready for food or Heed yet.  I feel a little nauseous… I know my new motto is “Throw up or die”, but really? 7 miles in isn’t the time for either of those.  I don’t throw up, but I also haven’t taken much nutrients in and had to back off on the Heed because it’s just not sitting right.

I finish up the 2nd lap (10.74 miles) and Ryan and Bryan are there waiting.  They go to give me another thing of Heed and I wave them off and tell them I’m switching to Gatorade.  So I get over to the table I had set up with my buffet of food, drinks and gear.  While they are getting me some Gatorade I grab some more shot bloks since those were the only thing going down at this point, take off the cold weather beanie and put on a normal hat and ditch the gloves.  I grab the bottle and head back out.

I end up catching back up with those same two guys AGAIN!  We stay together until about mile 3 or 4 of that lap when one of them ditches off to water a tree like so many others have.  I realize, it’s been 14+ miles and I don’t even have the urge… not good, but I do have the urge for #2.  I finish that lap up with the other guy, who I had just realized was only doing the 12 hour race and tell myself not to stay with him anymore.  I get back to check in and my knees are already starting to bother me from those hills and that sandstone after only 16.11 miles I told Ryan and Bryan I could go for some eggs and sausage when I came back, so I took off really looking forward to that with some more Gatorade in my hand and another packet of shot bloks.

I finish up lap 4 (21.48miles) and they are finishing up the cooking.  Perfect timing because of that GPS again!  As they finish the last little bit I rip off the tights and realize I didn’t have my calf compression sleeves on, so I throw those on, change to a white long sleeve shirt instead of the black one I was wearing since the temperature changes pretty drastically in just 4 hours out there.  Not sure what the temp was, but it was about 35 degrees when we started and was probably approaching 50 now.  I much on some eggs with cheese in it standing over the grill, I sit down to change out my shoes as I continue to eat some sausage.  Man that stuff was tasting good!  I grab a bottle of Heed this time since my stomach is back to normal and I think my digestive system is working again like normal now that I’m awake.  I run over to a port-a-potty and WOW! Ultra runners can definitely fill those things up fast!  I do my share to fill help fill it and get back out on the trail again.  Looking at my GPS data I think I was only stopped for about 15 mintues.

I’m still moving, the pace has slowed a bit, and I begin to realize why my friend Mike tells me “there are good hours and there are bad hours”.  The first two hours were not good… the second two hours were actually awesome.  I’m now on my 5th and 6th hours basically… not feeling too great, but still moving.  The knees are taking a beating still but I keep pushing.  Laps 5 and 6 are kind of a blurr, I was just out there doing my thing and making progress.  But I still hadn’t pee’d like I should be.  That’s still in the back of my mind that it’s going to catch up with me at some point.  I start taking down Heed more and more, trying to keep up, but I’m now running out of my 8oz bottles when I still have a mile and a half left of the loop.  The aid station is set up and I start refilling there, but it’s still not enough.  Lap 6 done, 32.22 miles… I’m happy I’ve made it half way to my goal, this is awesome… a 50k is completely doable!

Lap 7 comes and man… I’m starting to hurt bad.  I’m now averaging 17minute/mile!  My uphill pace is still around 18minute/miles, so I’m doing good there, but downhill has started to really hurt, I’m only doing like 14-15minute miles on those.  One of the awesome and not so awesome things about taking other runners as your crew, is that they see everyone else running and get the urge to go out as well   Since the trail was still open to the public, they went out and ran on it as well.  Unfortunately I was never running in the same direction as them, so I’d only get a few moments as we passed to say hi and get big smile on my face from seeing people I knew.  Around this time I start thinking… I could really go for a burger, but two friends are out running and the other two are now out on the course with the camera.  So I finish up lap 7 (37.59miles), much on some Doritos… wow, those tasted awesome too… I never eat junk food anymore, but man that reminded me how much I miss it.  I down some ritz crackers, refill my bottle and head out for lap 8, which I knew based on lap 7 was going to be brutal.

Lap 8 I’m basically walking.  No longer is a lap taking just an hour… lap 8 ends up taking an hour and a half, but it feels like it’s 2 hours.  I almost think the Garmin is lying when I look back at the data because I swear it took closer to 2 hours.  I’m now having to really walk downhill, definitely walking uphill, and the sandy sections have me walking as well.  I thought this was a RUN!… but I guess that’s the secret about ultras no one ever tells you… in the end, you’re definitely just trying to survive.

I finish up lap 8 around 6pm.  I’ve been forced to start side stepping a bit on my way downhill.  I grill up a cheeseburger and take an hour break.  That cheeseburger was yet again… AWESOME!  The 12 hour guys finish up at 7pm and I finally motivate enough to get back out there.  Pacers aren’t allowed until 8pm, but I am not even sure if I’m going to make it long enough for them to walk with me.  Plus I feel bad if they were to come out with me and are subjected to such a slow pace, they are runners also… I know they want to run.  But I get out for lap 9.  Half way around the loop it’s been an hour.  I can barely make it uphill and the downhills have me really having to sidestep just to move my feet.  Every step is painful, running!? ha! no way.  About a mile away from the end of the loop I figure… if this is going to be my last, lets see what I have left. So I start to run while there’s a flat section.  100yards later, I’m out of gas… I managed to get to a super fast 12minute/mile pace in that 100yards and although I knew I was barely moving, it felt like I was putting enough effort in to be sprinting a 12second 100m dash.

I get back to the check-in area and go back to my crew.  I sit down and tell them that with my knee feeling like it is, and having to side step down the hills I just can’t risk pushing to the point of injury and ruining the rest of my season.  So I was throwing in the towel… HAND ME A BEER!  48.33 miles, took me from 7am till 9am… 14 hours, but I did take some breaks in there.  But considering the biggest training week I had in the last 10+ years was only 42 miles (just a few weeks prior)… 48.33miles in one day isn’t too bad.

After I told the organizer I was dropping out, so they weren’t wondering if I was dead somewhere on the course, I had the thought… “Would I do this again next year?…. hm… maybe just the 12 hour”  I get a good night sleep after hanging out with my crew that had helped me so much that day.  I still feel bad that I wasn’t able to last long enough for them to come out on a loop or two with me.  It was something I was really looking forwards to considering how alone you are out there… sometimes it takes so long before you see someone else you start to wonder if anyone else is even out there running anymore.

We get up in the morning and I get asked if I plan on going for a run…. I look at them with a puzzled look… and then they point out that I still have my shorts and shirt on from last night.  I was so immobile after the run I couldn’t fathom trying to use energy to get changed, so I slept in them.  I was feeling a little better on Sunday morning, once I was moving I was walking ok, but sit me down for 5-10 minutes and everything tightened up again and I was walking like a penguin for a few minutes.  The crew had never been to Moab, so we drove over to Arches National Park.  We ended up going to Landscape arch and after a little issue with some heights and scaling of the fins we got a little separated.  I end up hiking out to Double O Arch with Bryan and by mile 3 I was hurting again.  With a mile left to go I knew I was slowing Bryan down big time.  It simply reinforced that if I couldn’t do a 4 mile hike I had done a dozen times that I considered easy after getting 10 hours of sleep… there was no way I was surviving another loop on that course the way I felt the night before.

Monday rolls around and I get myself out for a 5.5mile jog, nice easy recovery jog around a 10:45 pace.  By mile 5 my knee was giving the first signs of “WTF are you thinking?”.  But now a day has passed and I think back to the race.  That same question: “Would you do it again next year?”… my answer… “Oh yeah!  screw the 12 hour, I’m going back for the full 24 to see what I’m really made of now that I know what to expect!”

I can’t say how much I appreciated the support from my friends: Shelby, Ryan, Bryan, and Erin… who I believe all think I’m a little nuts with not just the number of races on my schedule, but also with the size of the races, but yet they continue to support me. A huge congrats should also go out to my friend Mike Priddy who did the 12 hour race, finishing second overall, not far behind is friend Ben.  They both did 12 laps (64.44miles) in under 12 hours.  Mike has helped me a lot by keeping me in check with what my goals for ultra running should be.  I tend to look at everything and think… I can do that! Mike helps by saying “yes, I’m sure you can one day… but first you need to build up to it”.   Thank you to both John and Andy at MyAthlete for supporting my addiction to endurance sports and supplying the gps device my crew depended on to see where I was at all points during the race.  With my drastic changes in pace and how long it took for each lap, they knew exactly where I was at all times.  My friends and family in other states that couldn’t be there have also told me how they enjoyed watching me  online.  Even though I’ve taken a few verbal jabs from my brother because he saw me take that hour break and not move.

I look forward to next year, where 48.33 miles should be a piece of cake…. hopefully.