rock canyon half marathon

Pretty good time for my first real half marathon.  We headed down to Pueblo early Saturday morning.  I got there about a half hour later than I wanted to but still had plenty of time to get checked in and run a few hundred yards.  I took my place in the back of the pack and we were off a little after 9am.  The temps were pretty cold when we got started, but the sky was clear and the sun warmed things up.  We ran two laps around City Park before heading out to the Arkansas River trail.  I really had to focus on keeping a slow pace those first couple laps.  I ran those first two in around 10:15-10:20 without much effort.

Once we got out to the river, we found ourselves on a concrete bike path which I wasn't terribly thrilled about.  Luckily there was some single track off the the side that I ran on.  We neared a little nature center and restaurant on the river where an aid station was set up.  I grabbed a couple swallows of Gatorade and pulled a Gu out.  After the aid station it was a pretty flat run up next to a little bluff.  It opened up into the "canyon" and followed the river almost all the way to the dam.  About 5 or 6 miles into the race, I started thinking how easy the race had been so far.  I wasn't exactly setting any speed records, but I felt I had maintained a comfortable pace and ran a smart race.  I quickly told myself not to get too carried away with those thoughts; I was sure it wouldn't be that easy for the entire distance.

As we neared the dam, more and more return runners were coming towards me.  I thought I was getting close to the turnaround, but it was still a ways off.  Once I hit the final outbound aid station, I started feeling a little sluggish and noticed a twinge in my left achilles.  It started to get difficult to maintain a solid pace.  I would feel myself slow way down and then have to talk myself into picking it up until a certain landmark or spot on the course.  This cycle repeated for the next couple miles.  When I approached 10 miles in, the head games started.  I really wanted to walk for a bit, but at the same time, I knew that it would be that much harder to start running again if I did.  I pushed on through mile 10.  I kept looking for short stretches where I would tell myself I could take a quick walk break only to keep running through them.  This pattern repeated itself until I got to the bottom of the hill leading back into City Park with about .2 miles remaining.

Like most hills, it didn't seem bad going down, but it was brutal looking back up.  I took a few strides on the way up and my calves quickly knotted up.  Even walking I could feel my hamstrings started to lock up as I made my way up the hill.  Once I got to the top, I managed to find a real slow run and jogged it in until the final turn for home.

I was pretty sore immediately after the race.  I grabbed some Gatorade and then laid on the ground for a few minutes and had my wife stretch my legs.  That did wonders to at least make me mobile, but it didn't take long for the outside edge of my right foot to start hurting so much that I was convinced I broke it.  Between the achilles on my left leg and the right foot, I hobbled around for a couple days but both of those issues seem to have taken care of themselves.  Looking forward to running this weekend between snowboarding and studying for finals.

Planning on running the PPRR Rescue Run on New Years Day, the PPRR Winter Series (long?), and then start focusing on full marathon training for Colfax I think. (yes, I'm crazy!)