XTERRA Marathon of Trails 13.1

Well, as I’m sure all of you, my loyal, doting worshippers fans have noticed, the supposed Breck Crest 13.1 that I mentioned at the end of my last post…yeah, that didn’t happen. The week after the Pike’s Peak Ascent was an overnight school field trip, and because kids are just festering harbingers of death and disease, I found myself sick for the first time in forever. I definitely have no regrets DNSing this one, but I’m still curious how racing up in Breckenridge will be, so next year fersher.

The reason I’m updating this blog though, is because yours truly tore it up (literally…ha, I’ll get to that) this past weekend at the XTERRA Marathon of Trails over at the Cheyenne Mountain State Park. However, before I delve into my embarrassingly dismal performance, there’s a good 7 weeks that I need to update y’all with!

For a bunch of really good reasons (read: pitiful excuses), my training this Fall has wavered between nonexistent and weekend-warrior-hobby-jogger. But Lucky Charms, (for cereal) (seriously) being a first year high school teacher, on top of coaching middle school cross country, leaves approximately negative time for things like having a social life, sleeping, and doing laundry. (Tee bee aych, I wouldn’t do that last one if I had all the time in the world.) But running now ranks (arbitrarily) 14^th in things-I-must-do-to-survive-on-a-daily-basis, right after eating and just before beating the Elite Four in Pokemon Yellow. So, while I’m working 12 hours a day during the week, my lack of social life provides me with ample time to run on the weekends, where I attempt to cram in 20-30 miles over the span of two days.

This has (surprisingly) yielded some pretty good training runs, including some lung-burning jaunts over on Barr Trail, Red Rocks Open Space, and Columbine Trail. Unfortunately, following these runs with 5 days of grading papers and Pumpkin Spice Oreos effectively brings me back to ground zero each week. So why I decided to race a half marathon over on Cheyenne Mountain 5 days before the race is beyond me. I guess, with the Moab Trail Marathon now less than four weeks away, I figured I needed to bust some rust, and what better way than forcing yourself into a race that you have no right running in?

I managed a disturbingly tough 40-minute jog the Saturday before the race, sapping any ounce of confidence I had going into this race. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why I was so out of breath within no more than 3 minutes of running. Now, I realize that was because I’m ridiculously out of shape.

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Race morning had me up at 6:30 am, with a conservative 8 am start at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, luckily less than a 15 minute drive from my place. A brisk 45 degrees, I was downright frigid driving over to the start, where I picked up bib, then sat shivering in my car for the next hour, Snapchatting away my woes. I managed a 5-minute warm-up, which was a fantastic way of confirming how much this race was going to suck, and before I knew it, we were off. Like an idiot, I was “that guy” jockeying for position within the first 400 yards, watching a couple studs fly off into the distance and finding myself, uncomfortably, in about 8^th.

For some reason, I still had delusions of magically throwing down the hammer and proving the running world wrong. I CAN race a new trail 13.1 PR off of exactly zero training! You don’t need to actually run to run well! This was not the case. Within a mile (quick at that, too) of mostly uphill, I found myself sucking wind, hard. Like, way too hard for a race that included 12 more miles. I let (ha! As if I had the choice) three runners pass me, finding someone in orange (let’s call him orangey) to trail behind. Again, for whatever reason, I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so bad (IT’S BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN TRAINING IDIOT), but I found myself trailing behind orangey for miles 2 and 3, where he slowly slipped away. However, mile 4 finally afforded me some downhill, and like magic, I found myself, for the first time all race, feeling good. I hammered the downhills, opening my stride and attempting to close that gap back to orangey.

It was probably around mile 5.5 that my mind started to wander, and BAM! Found myself face-first in the dirt, busting up my knee and chin in the process. Feeling like a doofus, I frantically picked up the pace, and soon caught Redshirt, who was recently passed by orangey (who was probably 15 seconds ahead). Running easily my fastest miles (you can check my Strava run here: http://www.strava.com/activities/206635731), I inched my way closer to orangey, wondering to myself how I could all of a sudden be feeling so good (IT’S ALL DOWNHILL STUPID).

Busted knee, made me look pretty BA or like a n00b

It was around mile 9 where we hit the uphills again, and surprise-surprise! I started dying, hard. The uphill became really technical in this part as well, and I found myself walking over the rockier parts. The minute we hit these uphills, orangey took off, and by mile 10, redshirt soundly passed me, out of sight within a minute. Totally alone miles 10 and 11, I know I could’ve/should’ve pushed this section harder, but soon, around 11.5, I ran into the inevitable downhills, and I was able to open up my stride again.

Just wanting to finish, I recklessly flew down the next half mile, soon catching sight of redshirt. Without orangey in sight, I made beating redshirt my new goal, and by mile 12, quickly passed him, and pressed on the gas. It was difficult finding a good rhythm, as we had switchbacks every 50 feet, and my long stride afforded me (maybe) 3 strides before a clumsy 180 degree turn. However, I made sure to make it hurt, sprinting the final straightaway to finish in 1:41:29, good enough for a 6^th place finish.

I managed first in my age group (somehow 25-29? Still don’t understand that), but more than 7 minutes behind first place (results: http://marathonmajic.com/xterraCMSP2014octHalf.html). I was actually pretty embarrassed by how quickly I sprinted in the finish; clearly, it’s these uphills that are giving me trouble, and something I REALLY need to work on before my marathon next month. It’s also time I get some real trail shoes, as my Newton Gravitys, a most-definitely road shoe, are looking pretty torn up after all these trails. With coaching cross country over, I’m hoping to use this extra 2 hours per day to log some mileage. Be on the lookout for next month’s suicide suckfest race!