The half marathon course will utilize well-maintained dirt roads, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Colorado Trail surrounding beautiful and historic Camp Hale. This will be a rare opportunity to compete on the same terrain that the troops of the 10th Mountain Division used for training during World War II. The 13.1-mile course is situated at 9,200 feet above sea level and will have minimal elevation gains reaching peak heights of 9,500 feet.
Based on this description, one would assume about 300 feet of gain, which is basically nothing when you run in the Colorado mountains. Well, foreshadow. They lied!!
Backing up, this area of Colorado about ten miles outside of Leadville is a place I fell in love with when I did the TransRockies Run last year. We stayed here for two nights. There is no cell reception and it feels remote. Here is one of my all time favorite pictures - Sylvie and I chilling after running 24 miles. And, after I did my first beer mile (I didn't even throw up!)
I planned to stay with my friend, Julie in Breckenridge. She texted me that afternoon.
Friday afternoon I headed up. What is usually a 2 hour at most drive, turned into over 3 hours.
We fueled with pasta and. I wasn't stressed about the race at all, but decided to put on my worry face anyway because it nicely shows off my wrinkles.
The race didn't start until 9am, and we had an hour drive. We got there by 8:30 to pick up our packets and empty our colons.
There were only a couple hundred people doing the race, so it was pretty chill. They did a countdown from ten and we started running. Uphill. By mile .7 (that's point seven) I knew this would be a grunt race for me. I felt like I was running in quicksand. I blamed it on the 9,300 foot altitude, but it might just be because I'm old and like wine. We continued climbing up a dirt road until we peeled off onto some single track. And, kept climbing.
I hate those races where you feel like you are fighting for every.single.step. The climbing continued and I kept thinking "Why the eff is this so hard? Am I really that out of shape?" There were some steep parts that you could only walk and these two girls behind me yelled, "300 feet of elevation gain MY ASS!!". Which was exactly what I was thinking.
For a minute we had a nice downhill and I hauled ass and passed a bunch of people. But, then the climbing resumed. We were on a never ending dirt road to hell. Finally at around seven miles, most of the climbing was behind us and we sailed down this awesome and shaded single track. We spit back out on the dirt road with about three miles to go. The road rolled for a bit, and I didn't care for those hills right before the finish.
At this point I had stopped looking at my watch because it was pretty depressing. Julie had long ago dropped my ass (well, she pretty much did that in the first .2 miles, and it was fine - we had agreed to run separately and she is much faster than me). As I came into the finish, I saw the clock said 2:14. I was pretty happy with that as I expected to run a 2:10. My average pace was 10:28.
Julie's husband, Wayne, snapped this right after I finished.
Turns out Julie also had tough race. I think we both were not prepared for the conditions. It turned about to be 1,366 feet of gain according to my GPS. Still not a ton for Colorado running, but some decent climbing.
The good news was that being 50 has its perks and I was second in the 50-59 age group. Here I am on the fancy podium. I was only 1 minute behind the winner, and that always pisses me off. Had I not just taken that extra drink at the aid station or that extra walk break....
I got a great prize.
I've never tried these. I'm thinking they're like Nuun, which I love
There were fresh donuts and burritos at the end. But, my stomach wasn't quite ready for that business. After all, we had a drive ahead of us and I didn't want to make any enemies in the car with my butt thunder.Final thoughts. If you do this race (and you should. It is well run, only costs $45 and is gorgeous), just know there is some climbing.
What race did you do this weekend?
Favorite pre-race meal? I love hearing about what other people eat. I can't usually eat much before a race. I try to do s 100 mg or so of carbs and some coffee, water and Nuun.
SUAR
