20 June 2023
Stories Matter, Your Story Matters
12 June 2023
RACE REPORT: Drop13 Big Cottonwood Half Marathon
It's been a few days post-race and quite honestly, I'm still processing this race. Leading up to the week of this race I wasn't 100% sure whether or not I was going to do it. I've been running the canyon over the past couple of months, cutting weight and getting myself where I'd like to be.
However, I'm not just not where I'd like to be.
I had a million reasons to justifiably not run on Saturday. And, believe me, up until last Wednesday when I finally signed up I convinced myself of all million reasons, i.e. - my longest run was only eight miles, I haven't done enough mid-week runs, my quads will kill come Sunday, I'm too slow, I'm too fat, I'm too gassy, I'm not going to meet the cutoff. I could go on with the list.
But, I came to two realizations in my final decision to run the race -- one, I know I can do the distance. I've proved that 170 times before; and, two, I need to stop letting what I can't do get in the way of what I can do. Meaning, yes, I currently can't run as fast I did this time last year or a few years ago, but I can do it and I should do it instead of feeding my doubts.
So I signed up.
Luckily this race has an early start time for slower runners. This helped in my decision to sign up, because it helped ease many of my fears of meeting the cut-off time. So instead of the 6am start with the rest of the racers, I started at 5:30am with a hand full of runners like myself.
Since I opted to get my race bib on the morning of the race I had an earlier morning than most, so I was out the door by 2:45am. However, I grossly overestimated how long it would take me to drive to the pickup so I ended up with a lot of time before the buses were supposed to leave for the start line. So I decided to hop in and help load buses.
For about an hour I ended up loading buses, which sounds like a tougher job than it really is. All you need is a loud voice and make quick decisions with confidence to make it look like a pro. I had to laugh later in the race, there were a couple of runners who stopped to ask if I was the one who loaded the buses earlier that morning.
Yep, that was me.
I hadn't completely loaded all of the runners before I had to leave. Since I was starting at 5:30am I had to make sure I didn't take one of the last buses up the canyon, so I ditched my post around 4:30am to take an empty seat on one of the buses. I'm glad I did because if I waited for the other buses that were coming back for a second trip I would have missed the 5:30am start time.
However after the bus dropped us off at Solitude I took a quick trip to the Honey Bucket before walking the quarter or so mile to the start line -- which I got to RIGHT at 5:29am. Talk about perfect timing. After a 30 second stretch I was off.
My game plan for the race was simple, just follow my run/walk routine of run 3 minutes and walk 1:30 minutes. I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain this routine for the whole race so my plan was to do 3 minutes run, 2 minutes walk for the first 2-3 miles (until I warmed up) and then the regular routine for the rest of the race. For the most part I kept to the plan ... untiiiiiiiil about mile 9.5 when my watch died.
Since I don't use an app to keep track of my run/walk I had to eyeball my routine by watching the time on my phone. It was a little annoying, but to make it easier (especially since my legs were feeling a but mushy) I went back to a 3 minute run and 2 minute walk. Again, with no stop watch or app that was eyeballed. I'm pretty sure I had a few 3 minute walks and 2 minute runs in there.
With all of that said, I felt strong. Much stronger than I felt like I was capable of doing. During my mid-race miles I even ran through some of my walk segments because I felt good ... and the terrain was downhill, making it easier to keep running than slowing down.
But, honestly, I was just thrilled with how my body felt throughout the run. Was I slow? Absolutely. But, not as much as I expected. I still pushed myself throughout the run. But, even more importantly, my legs and feet didn't kill like I expected them to come Sunday. Sure, they were sore, but nothing a little Ibuprofen could fix.
So when I hit the last half mile of the race I was feeling pretty ecstatic. Especially when I realized my time was going to be under 3:30 hours. I won't lie, I got a little emotional about it because I hadn't felt this way, physically and emotionally at the same ... in a long time. It's a feeling I crave when I run.
Once I crossed the finish line I was greeted by my friends Jim and Richie T emceeing the race, Amanda with my race medal and a tub full of Fat Boy ice cream. Dang near nirvana in my opinion. I just couldn't be happier with how my race ended up. It was perfect.
Then I slept for pretty much the rest of the day.