Moab Red Hot 55K Race Report
2/16/2013
Well, ready or not the 2013
race season is upon us and Moab Red Hot 55K was a great way to kick things
off. The cool temperatures and sunny,
cloudless skies were a welcome break from the toxic air and snow covered trails
that I have attempted to train on over the past couple of months. The red rock and dirt covered with just a
skiff of snow was truly a sight to be seen.
A little about the
course: First off, I underestimated
it. For some reason the vision I had in
my head of running along red dirt single track with a few rolling hills was
nowhere near reality. It was more like
running a few jeep roads combined with running across, over, around, under a
giant piece of rock all day long. Much
of the course was like playing a seemingly endless game of find the flag. These flags were hanging in branches; laying
under rocks and in some cases seemed to be hiding from me.
I started out with a
comfortable pace that I felt I could maintain and pretty much stayed at this
pace for most of the day. The aid
stations along the way were well stocked and helpful. Overall, this race was fairly uneventful and
enjoyable with the following exception.
I fell not once or twice but
THREE times! WTH is wrong with me? I have gone out of my way in cross training to
work on balance, core strength and flexibility.
I have even incorporated yoga into my regimen over the past few
months. I ran 33.5 miles and suffered no
residual soreness other than a sprained wrist, scuffed up knee and bruised ego.
ALL FROM FALLING!
One of the first things I
learned when brewing beer is that you can never take your eye off the
boil. The problem is every time you turn
your back on a boiling batch of water hops and barley it boils over. Well, I have developed a new motto…Never take
your eye off the trail! My third and
most embarrassing fall happened about 100 yards from the finish line when I
looked up to acknowledge a few people cheering for me. In a split second I went from elated I was
about to finish to complete humiliation.
My finish time was 6:58 and
I’m fine with that. This brings me to a
point I have forced myself to explore over the past few days. Why am I perfectly content being average when
it comes to ultra running? I hear people
talking about how disappointed they were in their performance or beating
themselves up that they didn’t hit a projected time. I often wonder why I don’t feel this way. Am I not a competitive person? Am I running
these insane distances for the wrong reason? Should I be pushing myself harder?
The conclusion I have come
to is NO. I may not be the fastest, most
graceful or skilled but I run ultra’s for the exact reason I want to. In fact, I am doing things now that I didn’t
even realize were humanly possible 5 years ago.
For me, it’s all about the journey and finish times do not diminish my
pride of accomplishment.
This may sound strange for someone who is lucky
enough to be on a sponsored ultra team.
Aren’t sponsored athletes supposed to be up on the podium or at the very
least running somewhere near the front of the pack? Well, maybe I was just in the right place at
the right time and a voice from the middle of the pack was given a chance.
I want to offer Aric Manning
a big Thank You for pulling together the HUMR ultra team. If you’re wondering, HUMR stands for Happy
Utah Mountain Runners. There are 10
athletes on our team and I sometimes wonder how I ever made the cut. We have received gear and financial
support from the following:
·
Pearl Izumi
·
Smith Optics
·
Petzl
·
Rooster’s
restaurant & brewery
·
Bomber Athlete
·
Buffalo Run
·
Stuart Roofing
·
Arete
·
I hope I didn't forget anyone
Finally, just a few words on
fueling strategy and gear, for carbs and calories I used strawberry Perpetuem
that I pre-loaded into 5 oz flasks. I
supplemented the Perpetuem with whatever sounded good at aid stations. Gear wise I used Altra Lone Peak shoes, smart
wool socks and Adidas compression socks.
All of my clothing (shorts, shirt, jacket and beanie) were Pearl Izumi. As it turns out, the beanie can be converted
to a yamaka (it’s a long story). The
final piece that I was grateful to have was Smith Parallel sunglasses. It was extremely bright out there!
Well, I guess that’s about
it. This has proven to be more of a self
exploration than a trail report. I’ll be
checking back in a few weeks. Next on
the race schedule is The Buffalo 50 miler.
It will be my third year in a row running this race. I finished in 10 hours flat last year and
would like to shave an hour off that time this year. If I don’t, oh well. I’ll enjoy the adventure! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you out on
the trails.
