As our first true destination race, things went pretty smoothly. This was Aspen's longest trip. I imagine that her ears were popping as we drove through the mountain passes. Regardless, she was a trooper. Our one room cabin was crowded with four adults and two babies, but we all slept well (except for me nursing much of the night...I think Aspen figured,"We're in the same bed?! Why the hell not!")
The race itself was fun. I have some mixed feelings about the experience, which makes me realize that our local race volunteers and directors are awesome. I was really concerned about waking, nursing, eating, getting dressed, changing diapers, picking up our race bibs, parking, using the restroom and making it to the event on time. These were needless concerns. As Duane put it...it was a lot of,"Hurry up and wait...hurry up and wait...etc." Getting ready at the cabin and heading to the bib pickup was simple. If we had arrived in town earlier on Friday, I would have picked up our bibs then, instead. There was a good amount of waiting, but there are a lot of people in this race. Parking was a lot better than we had anticipated, finding a spot immediately outside of the bib pickup, then again only two blocks from the shuttle. The shuttle wait was long but this was a plus for two reasons. One, we discovered, while waiting (at 8am), that the race was actually at 10am, but that it was better to wait in the loading zone than at the race start, which was colder and windier. Secondly, I realized that I didn't have any food and was already hungry. I had plenty of time to run back to the car for an energy bar.
The start was a cold, windy wait. But, Duane, myself and a friend huddled and waited for the run to begin. I decided to start pretty close to the front. Once learning the topography of the race, a slight, rolling downhill, I was pretty confident that I could get a solid time. I figured that I would aim high and accept what ever results came about. I started with a 7 minute pace, and questioned myself the entire time. I figured I was going to crash and had gone out too hard, but I never go out hard, so I stuck with it. I finished with a 7:39 minute pace and a finish time of 1:40:19. Pretty astounding for a "9 minute pace" runner. I think the altitude and the slight downhill helped, but Duane's time was close to his PR. I might just have to raise my game. After all, I finished 27th out of 2021 females! Duane had a fantastic race, as well, even while fighting a monster cold. He finished third in his age group and 28th overall with a time of 1:23 and change.
The race is beautiful, especially if you have never seen the Colorado River and its surrounding canyons. We've rafted the Colorado over past Spring Breaks, and it has always had an incredible headwind. Race day was no different. I wonder what my time would have been without the headwind. The race name, Canyonlands, is misleading. It doesn't run through Canyonlands, and even though it is adjacent to Arches, it doesn't actually run through Arches, either. That would've been incredible...though there is probably no way to permit a race through a national park. Regardless, we enjoyed a little of Arches on the Sunday after the race and headed out of Moab on Monday.
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