XTERRA Cheyenne Mountain 24K

It’s been quite some time since my last race – in fact, 4 weeks is the longest I’ve gone this year without racing! Despite that, I’ve had some pretty solid weeks of training, with Spring Break, Jordan and Willyum visiting me here, and a short trip back to Chicago for some fast miles at sea level.

But, I was still relatively nervous for this race, for two reasons. 1: It was being held at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, a mountainous and technical course that my worshippers followers will remember I raced back in October, and got my butt kicked, hard. Reason 2: this would be the furthest I’ll have raced, let alone run, since re-starting this whole running thing at the start of 2015.

For whatever reason, the whole ‘24K’ eluded me when I first signed up – probably ‘cuz I’m AN AMURRICAN!!!!!!1!1one!! (eagle screeches) But a couple days before the race I did some intense calculus and with help from the full moon, a math teacher at my school, and the Pythagorean Theorem, I managed to discern that 24K roughly equates to 15 miles.

Unfortunately, the race itself was on a Sunday, the worst possible day (for me) to race. This is because I have to essentially “waste” Saturday: no epic long run, no hiking all day, no Incline-athons. Just me, getting not-tan, playing videogames (I did manage to watch nearly the entire Frieza Saga, so the day wasn’t a total waste).

~

Waking up race morning, I downed some coffee, laced up my Hoka One One Cliftons (super cushioned shoe, and would be a godsend for bombing down these trails), and made the quick drive over to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. There would also be a 12K and 5K racing at the same time, and I soon learned that my race would consist of two 12K loops. So after an easy 10-minute warmup and some bouts of anxious self-doubt, I jogged up to the starting line, only to find a fellow Winter Series and recent 5K racer Colin Knaub. Colin had finished just behind me at the last 5K, and was in the middle of training for a May marathon – we both agreed to start nice and slow on the first loop, then pick it up the second.

However, that plan went totally out the window when the gun went off, as I quickly shot up front, finding myself in 2^nd place within the first 30 seconds of racing. First place (who’s name I later learned is Kory) looked fast, and I sort of let him go from the start, content with trying to ‘take it easy’ this first lap. By ½ mile in, Kory was out of sight, and I was leading a string of 4-5 runners, which soon became three, then two, then just me. By mile 2 I was all alone, half-worrying I took a wrong turn somewhere, then seeing another little blue flag to let me know I wasn’t totally lost.

Maybe we should rate this blog PG-13?

The course itself was interesting, as the entire first half of the loop was uphill (see below for the course profile), so after mile 3, I was able to really open up and start to push the pace a bit. Despite telling myself to chill the first 12K, I was feeling pretty good, and combined with the downhill and the pretty girls cheering for me, I threw down some faster miles to finish up the first 12K.

1,700 ft.+ of elevation >.<

As I finished up my first loop, and knowing what to expect this second time around, I decided to try and push this first half hard, considering those last 3-4 miles were primarily downhill. And despite that, I still managed to suck wind and slowdown bigtime that second loop. Uphill running is still not my forte, but it fortunately didn’t last too long, and getting to the downhill sections I was able to turn on the gas again, passing other 24K runners along the way.

At this point, I totally thought I was in first place – I’d assumed that Kory, running fast up front, had only completed the 12K race. Volunteers working the race all seemed surprised to see me (granted, could have likely been due to my lack of clothing), and so I told myself I was racing for the win. 

Coming into sight of the finish line, I threw down one last kick, crossing the line totally spent.

After some stumbling around and choking on my own saliva, I somehow managed to discover that Kory, in fact, was racing the 24K, and had soundly beaten me by nearly 5 minutes. Feeling like death, we waited a couple minutes for 3^rd place to come in (Colin!), and we soon received our medals.

*That's not actually Colin on the right there*

Overall, I was relatively happy with the day’s race. I would’ve like to have gone faster (and win, duh), but I definitely haven’t been training on mountain-y technical stuff – in fact, this just made me want to sign up for something fast even more. While I’m not quite sure what my next race will be, there’s a chance I’ll sneak one more in this April – there is definitely no shortage of racing in Colorado, so until next time!