Big Weekend, Part I

Waaay back at the end of summer, my friend from work told me about a 10K run she was thinking of entering in December, and would I like to join her? Hmmm, I thought, I've done a couple of 5Ks and they seemed pretty long. Can I run twice that far? I told her I'd think about it. By the end of the day I was googling "10K training plans." By the end of the week, I had printed one out, hung it on the refrigerator, and started crossing off the days I had finished.

Most of the training seemed pretty easy. At the end of September, the weather had cooled off enough that running was comfortable. When my runs got past 3 miles, I started venturing beyond the neighborhood park, where 4 laps equals 3 miles but running that many circles made me bored. And dizzy. Fortunately, we have some nice paths alongside the Colorado River, where Utah and I gradually worked our way from 4 miles to 6.4 at a time. I've been running two mornings a week before work, and one longer run on the weekend. Those morning runs have been before dawn for several weeks, and since mid-November most of them have been darn cold. It's been an interesting exercise to learn what layers work when it's 20 degrees out, and what I need to add when it gets down to 10.

I did a 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It was 12 degrees, and after waiting around for the race to start, my toes were painfully cold once I finally got moving. So I was relieved when the forecast for the 10K showed highs in the mid-40s.

The race was the Winter Sun 10K in Moab, Utah. When we saw that the weather looked reasonably nice for December, we decided to make a day of it - I would run in the morning, we'd get some lunch and then take Cailan for his first off-road ride on the yellow tandem (more about that in another post). The run started at 10:00, but shuttles were leaving from the race finish to the starting point at 9:00 a.m., so we needed to get an early start. We hit the road at 5 till 7 and arrived in Moab a bit after 8:30.

It was overcast and quite chilly at the start of the run, so I jogged a little and did sun salutations trying to stay warm. Every runner was given a bag marked with our bib number so we could peel off our outermost layers just before the start, toss them in our bags, and pile them on a truck, which hauled them down to the finish line. They had supplied big containers of hot chocolate, but the thought of that sloshing around in my belly during the run didn't sound appealing.

The starting line had markers so the runners could sort themselves out by their anticipated pace. There were markers for 6, 7, 8 and 9 minute miles. I got in line well behind the 9. This proved to be kind of tedious, as I was stuck in a clump for nearly the first mile; it was probably also a good thing, in that I didn't wear myself out in that first mile.

Even though it was cloudy, the scenery during the run was beautiful. I think that was one reason I didn't really feel tired; I was constantly getting refreshed looking at the red sandstone towers, the brown rolling domes, and the La Sal mountains spattered with just enough snow to highlight all their crags and crevices. The course had one big hill between mile 2 and 3 but otherwise it was flat or sloping downhill. I was surprised when I got to the mile 4 marker - "Already?", I thought. I talked to the runners near me a few times, and I always had my eye on this guy in front of me wearing a neon green vest, trying to keep that vest in sight. I started the run with an earband and gloves on, but within 3 miles they were crammed into the back pocket of my shirt.

Right around mile 5, we left the road we'd been running on and turned onto a bike path. Okay, obviously it's a multi-use path, but those are 'bike paths' in my vocabulary. It felt like the home stretch, and was a nice change of pace, having more curves and a few bridges to navigate. The path passed a couple of parks that I'd never seen before (more on those later also).

And then we took a sharp right turn and the high school, the end point of the run, came into view. We followed the path through an underpass, came up on the other side of the road, and turned into the high school parking lot. Some of the people around me started running faster at this point, so I did too and was a little surprised to find that I was able to. Chris and Cailan were there, waiting for me, waving and taking pictures. I tried to run slowly enough that Cailan could get a picture of me, but I would have had to be as motionless as a toy dinosaur for him to manage it.

We were funneled into a chute at mile 6 and then on to the high school track to finish the run. When I could first see the clock at the finish line it said 57:48 and I tried to go fast enough to get there under 58:00. My official time was 58:16.

There was a man who finished just in front of me, who I had been pretty close to throughout the race. I thought I recognized him, so when we were both in line for the post-race snacks I asked him if he was from Grand Junction, and he was! I had seen him on a couple of Saturdays running on the river path. His wife also runs but hadn't been able to do this event because she broke her foot. Very fun to meet them there.

I was happy - the run went well, I finished without ever having to stop, I felt pretty good, and it was fun.