******WARNING******
This race report contains whining and complaining, if you are offended by this type of material skip directly to Chapter 2.
Chapter 1:
So last year my neighbor who is from Pocatello told me about
this race and said he was running it, I
thought it sounded fun since Britt was running the Halloween Half the week
before and I had to be an athletic supporter for her and couldn’t run that
one. We made it a family outing, stayed
in the Marriott the night before, the kids got to play in the pool, I met Rob
Murphy and Jeff Shadley for the first time and got to run with them, the
weather was perfect, the wife and kids had a great time in the park at the
finish line and as an added bonus Rob Murphy took a wrong turn at mile 11
making it possible for me to be the overall winner. (not complaining yet).
This year we decided to do it again, since I got a free
entry for winning last year. I e-mailed
the RD and told him I was coming back and he said “no problem I’ll take care of
it”, I made reservations at the Marriott, planned our family outing but on
Thursday the weather man changed all that, Britt decided she didn’t want to
come and sit in a cold snow storm waiting for me to run, she told me to just go
alone. Since I wake up at 4:00am every
morning anyway and the race didn’t start until 10:15 I just decided to drive up
this morning and cancel the hotel.
(still not complaining) Got on
the road by 5:00am and drove 3 hours in a blinding blizzard, I thought about
just turning around a number of times but thought, “nah, I told the RD I’d be
there and I try to always keep my word”
Got to the finish line, packet pickup got out of my car and realized, I
hadn’t felt 20degree temps for a while,
it was cold. Went to get my
packet and low and behold, no packet, no registration for Rob Rohde. I explained the situation to the packet guy
and he made a call (to Lance I presume) and then handed me a timing chip. I asked him if I needed a number and he said,
“nope, just the chip” OK, “do you need
my name?” he wrote it down on a piece of scrap paper and off I went to the bus.
Ended up with a second place finish, waited for the result
to be posted, low and behold, no Rob Rohde.
I went to the timing table and explained the situation, he went through
and found a “Bandit” runner chip time, with a time of 1:17:44, must be me. Since the next person back was 1:20:00. He told me he’d fix it, I said “do you want
my name” he wrote it down on a piece of scrap paper.
The RD was running the race, so when he finished I went and
told him what happened, and he told me “don’t worry, we’ll take care of
it” Well, when I got home he had already
e-mailed out the results (actually pretty impressive) most races don’t do that
for days, but low and behold, no Rob Rohde.
I suppose he still has time to make it right, but what about the poor
guy that thinks he got 3rd place and really didn’t, what about the
poor guy that got 2nd place (me) that there is no record for at all
and apparently ran the race “Bandit”.
This is the sort of stuff that drives my wife crazy, she always asks why
I spent so much time and money running races instead of just going and running
13.1 or 26.2 miles. What is the
reason? To get the medal and see your
name on a piece of paper with your PR on it.
To her point, I could have woke up at 4:00 this morning, gone to the
gym, set the treadmill to -1.5% decline and speed to 10.1 and run a 1:17:44
13.1 mile run and been back home before anyone even woke up. Instead I drove 6 hours in a snow storm to
freeze my butt off and got the same results.
*******Complaining done!*********
Chapter 2:
Pretty darn good race today!!! I was sad that Rob and Jeff weren’t going to
be there, but decided to just go have a good time, I wanted to run a 1:15:?? So
I made a famous paceband for the course and a 1:15:00, Marlin introduced
himself to me and we rode the bus up together and had a great conversation, he
is really a great guy and it was nice to find someone to talk to. Driving the bus up to the top I realized that
I should just rip off the pace band, the course was solid ice for the first 3
miles, and patchy ice for the next 3.
Oh! Forgot to mention, the race theme was “Super Hero” my costume
consisted of a “The Flash” pair of underoos with a lightning bolt across the….
Well on the front. A fairly attractive
Wonder Woman came up to me at the start and looked at my Underoos, then and me
and said “nice lightning bolt” That made
my day.
At the start line I overheard a kid saying he was going for
a 1:14 so I hung out with him on the start line, he was wearing regular racing
flats and I figured he would be a goner in the first 100 feet. We talked it over and decided to go out
slowish together, gun went off, and him and I were gone, I was surprised I
wasn’t falling but seemed to find decent traction on the side of the road, he
kept running and skating, I’m amazed he didn’t fall down. We hit mile 1 in 5:30, and that was being
careful, seriously ¼ of the total elevation drop for this course happens in the
first mile, it’s pretty insane, especially on ice, I looked back and couldn’t
see anyone else at all. Mile 2 I proved
that I can overheat even in 28 degree weather,
I slowed at the aid station just long enough to rip off my sleeves and
hat, Scott (the kid) got a small lead at
that point which was fine cause I just turned on my music and went to my happy
place. Had to concentrate pretty hard
through mile 6 just not to crash on the ice, then it got better, unfortunately
after mile 7, this course is no longer easy.
Rolling hills and then at mile 8 out of the canyon headwind with blowing
snow, I felt good and was happy for the
cold. I actually think 30 – 35 degrees
is probably my race temp. Scott was
slowly getting further away but I could always see him in range, by mile 10 I
realized I was gaining on him, thought for about 30 seconds “maybe I can catch
him” that was short lived cause right then a wicked headwind hit me. Then at Mile 11 the course plays a real cruel
joke and turns off the main road and goes straight up hill, Blah, I lost site
of Scott and realized I didn’t have time to catch him anymore. Never really died, I just couldn’t go any
faster.
Finished in 1:17:44, only 8 seconds off of last year and
only 20 seconds behind the winner, so I was actually closer than I
thought. Pretty darn happy actually, I
know it’s easier said than done but I think without the ice at the top that
today was at least a 1:15:?? effort, I’m going to call it my half marathon PR
on an ice skating rink.
I will post splits later, I need to go to the Chilli cook
off at the Church now. | Mile | Split | 2010 Split
| 1 | 5:31 | 5:00 | | 2 | 5:35 | 5:15 | | 3 | 5:56 | 5:48 | | 4 | 5:55 | 5:47 | | 5 | 5:44 | 5:45 | | 6 | 5:59 | 5:52 | | 7 | 6:08 | 6:04 | | 8 | 5:48 | 5:54 | | 9 | 6:00 | 5:58 | | 10 | 6:08 | 6:05 | | 11 | 6:25 | 6:21 | | 12 | 6:35 | 6:26 | | 13 | 6:32 | 6:32 | | 13.1 | :31 | :31 | | Total | 1:17:44 | 1:17:36 |
Humm, those splits don't quite add up for this year. They have me at 1:18:something. O'well, I like the official results better.
Here is a picture at the start line, I'm the second from the left with the Red Underoo's, the guy in the blue compression socks was the winner. Check out the ice on the road. 
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