what goes up....must come down

Backcountry Half Marathon Race Report

Backstory

Once upon a time when I was riding my mtn bike down a sketchy downhill (I was very proud of myself for riding) Dave was riding behind me.  At the bottom of the hill,  I proudly asked "How was that?  I did good, eh?"   And he said "You NEED to relax and let go of the brakes". 

Now before you hold that comment against Dave as rude - you have understand that he's an engineer.  He is very literal and direct (one of the MANY reasons I love him) and even tho that comment deflated my bubble a bit - it strengthened my resolve to improve on the downhills.   

To this day when I want to go faster on the downhills I tell myself "relax and let go of the brakes".

Peer Pressure

I haven't had any plans to race anymore half marathons this year, but with Kathy's encouragement - I have somehow found myself signed up for the Backcountry Half Marathon AND the Tucson Half Marathon in December.  You gotta watch that girl - you recall she became a Marathon Maniac this year and she has a way of making everything seem so reasonable.   (that will bring my total Halfs for this year to 7 - 5 of those being road races and 2 trail races)

The Race

Which brings us to the Backcountry Half Marathon - it's a mostly dirt course with quite of bit of singletrack and a  LOT of hills - but if there are hills that means there are downhills.

The weather forecast was for temps in the 30s/40s with the possiblity of rain, sleet, wind and snow.  Are you kidding me??   All week it's been GREAT Fall weather and race day was predicted to have crappy weather...oh well...what can you do but suck it up??  And suck it up we did.   My friend, Anne and I carpooled from Boulder and Kathy being a local met up with us at the race course.

The plan was for me, Kathy and Anne to use this for a training run and run it in a casual 2:30ish time frame.  Anne is faster than me on the uphills and flats and even tho we all started together - she pulled away.   Kathy and I were running comfortably together for the first mile or so, but then Kathy's plantar fasciitis flared up.   She pulled off the course and stopped.  I stopped with her, we were running so well together I didn't want to get ahead and lose her.  She said she was going to quit - that if her foot was bothering her this early in a 13 mile race that it would be bad to continue.   I asked if she was sure and after little bit more contemplation - she started running again.  That lasted for another couple of minutes and then she stopped again.   She said "I know this course all to well.  It wouldn't be smart for me to continue".   I was sad that her foot was hurting, gave her a hug, told her I would see her at the finish and started chugging along.

I was running a steady effort at the top end of zone 2. I caught up to Anne on the first sustained downhill about 2 miles in.   I went ahead a took advantage of that downhill, but as soon as the trail pointed up again - Anne caught back up to me.  She later told me "You are FAST on the dowhill and you look so confident - like a little ninja".   (too bad that doesn't apply to my uphill running!)

so that was my pattern for the race - slow and steady on the uphills and run with abandon on the downhills. At mile 7.5 there was a moderately technical, steep, sustained singletrack descent I flew down that hill.  I passed everyone that I saw (so damn fun!) - it was a bit sketchy at times and I would do my trademark "right arm windmill" to maintain my balance.  There was also a mix of snow/sleet/rain at this time and the trail got very slippery.  But I just did a couple of heel slides when the traction was non-existent and made it through.   I bet the people I passed were expecting to see me face down on the trail somewhere - but (knock on wood) no falls.

There was a lot of leap frogging going on - lots of folks passing me on the uphills and then me cranking the downhills.   I hope that wasn't too annoying for the people I was leap frogging with, but I had to take advantage of what skills I do have.    One lady that I went back and forth with for the last 4 miles said "you must run these trails all the time - you knew every nuance of the downhills"   I smiled at that comment and said "No - I have never run these trails.  I'm a mtn biker - I think that helps.".   She said "I loved running behind you - it was good for me to try to follow your line and keep up".

Of course the race ended up an uphill and I was happy to cross the line in 2:15:24.

Kathy was at the finish.  Turns out that one of the ladies(Denise)I was leap frogging with was one of Kathy's friends.   Anne came in a few minutes behind me.   I guess we both ran a little harder than we wanted to and were both a little worked over.  It was cold and drizzling with a mix of snow and rain - brrrr....

We went to the car to change into dry clothes and when we got back to the finish - Kathy told me that I placed in my AG.  I was surprised...but I got 2nd out of 17 in my AG.  It's GOOD to be old!  ;)

Afterward we went to a nice breakfast at Benedicts (yum pancakes!) and then booked it home for some compression boot action at the Fuelary and then a long nap!