Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Hoka One One Longmont "Trail" Half Marathon - Race Report

Post Dizzy Goat I took some time to relax, but I kind of felt a void not having a next goal on the calendar. I didn't know if I really needed one. I came up short of my 50k goal in Nebraska, but I didn't feel like I was ready to go right back to such time consuming training for that, so I left it alone and decided not to sign up for anything right then. I had a pin in a half marathon in Longmont, I thought I may sign up for if I still felt like running after the Dizzy Goat. I put a pin in an 8mile trail race in Wyoming at the end of August, and was leaning toward making a weekend trip of that next. Then I was fortunate enough to win an Instagram contest for a free entry to an Endurance Race Series event. They boast the "Largest Trail Race Series in Colorado," holding mostly Halfs and 10ks within a couple hours of the Denver area. They put on the aforementioned Longmont race, but another one of their races caught my eye.

The Black Hawk Trail Half Marathon is one of the more challenging races they put on. It's not far outside of the Denver area, in a Golden Gate Canyon State Park near the eponymous gambling town, and I figured if they were going to give me a free race entry, I'd go ahead and pay for another and buy some merchandise from them. So I registered for the Longmont Trail Half Marathon on my dime, and used my free entry for the slightly pricier Black Hawk Trail Half Marathon.
At the time I booked the races, Longmont was only a couple of weeks out. I had backed off the mileage just a little bit from my Dizzy Goat training levels, but was still right around 30 miles a week. The course for Longmont is trail, really, in name only: much of it on concrete bike path, and very little elevation change. I figured this would be a good PR race in my first organized half marathon, even at my current long and slow training levels.

Right about the time I registered for the races, I did start to feel some fatigue, like the months prior had kind of caught up with me, maybe I didn't rest enough after the Dizzy Goat. So last week I took it really easy, not tapering so much, but making sure to schedule my runs to get the mileage I wanted through Thursday and rest Friday and Saturday ahead of the race. That plan seemed to work well, except that Saturday I went stand up paddleboarding for the first time ever, and it was more on knee paddleboarding for much of it, which works your quads more than one might imagine. It's always a surprise to me, for some reason, when I switch up activities to find out that even though I put 25-50 miles on my legs running each week, that if they're worked in a different way they're not in the shape for it. I see why crosstraining is so recommended.The paddleboarding was only an hour. My quads were a little grumpy Sunday morning, but it didn't feel like much to be worried about.

I took off for Longmont a little before 6am. Start time was 7:45, moved ahead last minute because of expected temperatures in the 90s. I had a green juice before leaving and had a protein shake on the drive, something I usually avoid, but I thought I'd experiment with it thinking might help with the fatigue. I drank another green juice between the parking lot and the registration/expo area a half mile away. After checking in, I went back to the parking lot, sunscreened, body glided, ditched my long sleeve shirt, affixed my bib and chip, then went back to wait in line at the restrooms while eating a banana. I got done with the restroom just in time for the call for runners to head to the start. I filled up my bottle and got in the group.

I started out a little hot after I found some room on the double wide trail around the lake at Roger's Grove Park. I kept an eye on my pace on my Garmin and tried to keep things a little slower than I wanted to go for the first lap.

The course quickly joined up with concrete bike path, with gravel to the side if you wanted to avoid concrete. The path left the park alongside the trickling Saint Vrain River, Y'd off to the right around a couple of ponds, out and backed to Y the other direction then back again and back to the starting area, then out to do it over again. Not the way I would have thought to design a race course, but it works, and it doesn't have any conflicts with motor traffic.

My first lap was a little faster than I wanted to go, but I recalled my race in April at the Loveland Classic 10k, where I kept looking at my watch to see I was moving a little faster than planned, but was surprised at how strong I felt, so I thought I'd just keep at it. At least I knew that if I slowed a little bit on the second leg, that I still had given myself a good window to hit my goal.

I actually started to get hungry around 5 miles in. That I did not expect. I suppose I trained too much for a shorter looped course with well stocked aid stations the past few months. This course had two aid stations, one only had Gatorade and water, the other had the Jelly Belly Sport Beans, but I hadn't looked into those beforehand. I did accept the Gatorade for sugar boost. I left two Larabars in my truck like a dope. One of those may have helped enough to overcome the lulls I hit on the second lap.

It kind of got rough between mile 8 and the finish. My arms were tingling. That was a new sensation, obvious that so much blood was being sent to my legs that there wasn't much left for the rest of me. luckily I never felt faint. If I slowed a bit on a corner or a hill, I could feel the tightness in my quads multiplying from my paddling adventure the day before. There were some ups as well, but the downs really cost me, especially at the point with less than a mile to go, and I could see the trail around the lakes going into the finish line and it felt like just too much, and I gave in to the temptation to walk a bit. I got passed by one of the people that, when I had passed her earlier, I was determined to keep behind me (because she and another girl were wearing Western Dairy Association cycling jerseys, and this vegan wanted to beat them, and I thought they were way behind me because one of them was sneaking off in the bushes for a pit stop when I passed them before they had reached the last turn around.) But her passing me gave me the boost I needed to at least talk my legs into giving it the gas for that last little bit and to stay on her heels. I let the pointless, one sided rivalry go easily enough since I'm 35 and only been running a couple years, and they are probably teenagers who haven't smoked for 16 years, and we're that equal. (And guess who the Western Dairy Association girls asked to take their post race photo? The vegan guy! Not that they knew that.)

Anyway, I received a cool finisher's medal with a bottle opener in it, and a cold wet towel at the finish line, that was welcome.

I think if I trained specifically for a flat-fast half marathon for a couple more weeks than I had, with some speed-work and such, I could improve greatly on my time, but as it was I beat my goal of breaking two hours with plenty of cushion at 1:55:22.

Endurance Race Series put on a good event. I'd like some other fuel options at the aid stations, and more veggie options at the post race, but what are you going to do in this weird world of mixing intense physical activity with burgers and hot dogs? Yucatan Guacamole was a sponsor, offering chips and guac, and that's the kind of thing I eat at home after a long run, so thumbs up there. There was also some bananas and cantaloupe, almond butter, bagels provided by ERS.

So now I focus again on real trail running as much as I can for the next week and a half. The Black Hawk race is listed as very technical trail and 2,900 feet of climbing, so it's a very different kind of race from Longmont and even the Dizzy Goat. I'm interested to see how I'll do and to learn what I need going forward.