Canyonlands Half Marathon Race Recap

Race gear :-)

I can’t believe a whole week has passed since the race! It was honestly a whirlwind of fun though!! Aaron and I headed to Moab, UT Thursday after work with the pups. It was about a 5 ½ hour drive from Denver, and worth every minute! We arrived to our place around 11:30 PM and it was cute as could be.  A basement apartment with a full kitchen, living, dining, bath and bedroom! The dogs even had their own beds :-)

Pups with their own beds!

I highly recommend The Moab House for anyone going to Moab for any period of time. It is so convenient to downtown, we could walk to everything.

Friday

• Breakfast at the Love Muffin Café

•  Hiking Negro Bill Canyon - we did not want to exert ourselves too much so we decided on this hike - about 4.5 miles to Morning Glory natural landbridge. Moab is absolutely beautiful with its red rocks and gorgeous scenery

Natural Land Bridge and more Moab :-)

AA and I

• Arches National Park - if you have not been to Moab, go, and definitely go here :-) We did not even scratch the surface of places to go and things to see here!

Arches Collage

Saturday - Race Day!

I slept surprisingly well the night before the race! We were up about 6 AM to leave for our buses by 7:30. We had coffee and oats and got our gear on. The weather was supposed to get up to 70 but the forecast changed to 50s and overcast. I was not sure what I wanted to wear but I went with running capris and a tech tee and had a fleece to keep me warm before the race.

We were able to walk to the bus loading area, which was great because parking was tight! They bused about 4,000 runners to the starting area about 13.1 miles away up Rt. 128. I was anxious/nervous/excited but ready to go!

Starting area

Chilly! Waiting around for the race to start!

Course

• Start time was at 10 AM we were up at the start area by 8 AM but the time went by pretty quick
• We lined up, there were some signs for finishing times but we lined up behind the 3 hour marker (hoping it wasn't that long!)
• We were off! I settled in to a 10:21 pace the mile which felt pretty good and Aaron was a bit in front of me. My goal was to take it easy for the first 3 miles and then kick it up to race pace (whatever that was)
• I was feeling good, no longer chilly, and was just trying admiring the amazing scenery. Miles 2 and 3 were 10:12 and 10:09 and that felt good, a bit fast, but I thought I could maintain this speed. I had water at mile 2

• Right after mile 3 I saw Aaron and started running together. I felt like having him there really kept me motivated and at a good pace. We were silently pushing either but running very smoothly together! I downed a gu and water at mile 4 and had more water at mile 6. 
• The miles all flow together but really I just kept looking at my watching try to keep around a 10 mile pace. We were passing people and honestly it felt great!
• Mile 8 AA stopped for water (and the bathroom apparently) and I had water
• Miles 4-8 with AA flew by and kept a great pace (AND negative splits). I was definitely trying to keep the pace, but I wasn't over exerting myself (I thought)

•  Without Aaron there, it was a little bit different, I kept expecting him to come up behind me. It was almost like cops and robbers though so I really tried to keep a good pace. 
• I knew a big hill was coming at mile 9.5ish so I was trying to keep a good pace and get to mile 10. My previous race had been 10 miles so I was anxious to see how I felt here, and whether I could surge forward or need to slow it down

  

• Well miles 9 and 10 went great! I was hitting sub 10 minute miles and I knew the last 3 I was going to have to push it and give everything I had! Doing some quick math in my head I figured I was around 10:05 min/miles and would have to keep the pace to get that, Mile 10 - water and Gu

 

• Just after mile 10 we transitioned from Rt 128 to the highway. It was trickier to run on because it was narrow, there were lots of people walking, and it was tilted. It felt like I passed everyone the last 3.1 miles. I was cruising and it was a huge morale booster feeling good at the end of the race. I kept expecting to see Aaron but really geared up and just tried to keep up a good pace.
• This is one of the pics from the race, I really like it, I look determined. That's how I felt during the race :-)

My action shot :-)

• The last 3.1 miles were tough, no way around it. I was really trying to finish strong but at the same time it was harder and harder to keep up the pace. 
• With about a quarter of a mile of the race left, I feel a tug on my braid and it was AA! He caught up! Which was great...I was starting to struggle and really loved the extra boost of motivation! It turns out he stopped to pee and was trying to catch up!
• We turned the corner to the finish line, crowds cheering, and finished HAND in HAND for our first 1/2 marathon together! It was amazing :-)

Finishing it off strong!

The official finishing time was 2:11:36 - with a pace of 10:02!!! I could not have been more thrilled! My last 1/2 in October was a 10:50 pace! I shaved over 10 minutes total and nearly 50 seconds PER MILE! I quickly gathered my second medal and was so happy!

There wasn't hardly any water when we got off the course. We went to the picture line (bad idea) but immediately regretted not having more water. 

We  wandered around the zoo of people trying to find the food stands and more water. Finally we found the food line, but we were cranky by that point :-) They had oranges, bananas, cookies, chocolate milk. The cookies and chocolate milk were delicious!!! We sat down and felt 10x better. It was neat to see everyone in the finishers area. By this time the sun was out and we were quite happy with our race!! AA did great! He was taking it easy for the race but had a great experience and his 'old' bones held up great!!!!!!

Before and After :-)

We got our bags, headed back to get the pups/shower, and headed out of Moab back to Denver :-( Long ride home...snow on Vail pass, traffic, not worth elaborating though :-)

One of the first things I did when we got home though was hang my medal and race bib on my stand! I made this over Presidents day weekend :-) Something similar for AA too :-)

 More finisher thoughts to come...but overall I was so thrilled with the race! As I mentioned the first half was more about just finishing and not stopping! This had thought behind it as far as race pace and strategy. I was most thrilled with my negative splits...every mile!!!