its hard to accurately determine how i did at this one since i was one of a small group that actually finished the full marathon...
i woke up (in Littleton) to rain, lots of it. on the drive to Colorado Springs it turned to freezing rain and then to snow. by the time i was 20 miles from home i was driving in 6+ inches of snow and could barely see the highway under me. thankfully there were almost no cars out because i was swerving from one side of the road to the other and the only thing keeping me from going straight off was the rumble strips... the one hour trip took almost two hours.
the sun was out enough to see by the time i got to Cheyenne Mountain State Park, but it was raining pretty hard, 34 degrees (according to my car), and windy.
i have yet to bash any race too bad, but the organization at this one was mediocre to say the least. no one seemed to know where they were supposed to go, or even when exactly the race was going to start, and seriously: what kind of race director forgets pins... that's all I'm gona say because in the end of the day i enjoyed the race and would do it again.
the race itself went pretty horribly. i started with some fast people who were running the half marathon and felt comfortable enough until about the half-way point. the cold stopped me from drinking, which stopped me from takin in anything for most of the race.
the course lived up to the Xterra name for sure. plenty of rocky parts, some slick muddy parts, and solid climbing throughout. there were a few times where falling seemed certain and a couple of downhills where i almost ran right off the side of the trail. i felt mildly nostalgic about the fact that i had been dreaming about running on trails like this for my entire running life. the snow was coming down in big flakes and the trail was steep, slick, and rugged, and by the 15 mile mark snow had settled onto about every leaf in the park creating a perfect winter-in-the-mountains look. i was beginning to really feel it, but the realization that i had made it (and i was doing what I've been dreaming about for so long) kept me moving forward as my energy completely crashed.
being soaked and cold must have taken a lot out of me. even if the course was 28 miles like a few people have said, i still shouldn't have crashed like i did in the last quarter of the race.
i got chick'ed right at the end of the race, but she was nice enough to give me a gel and a stinger waffle which instantly gave me my legs back. i finished in 10th place overall... and looking at the results, they put me in the wrong age group: I'm not 20-24 yet... pictures if i ever get them...
this was a great race to go into Moab with. other than getting one hell of a training run in, this race made me realize that if I'm going to run as fast as I'd like to I'm going to have to take in way more calories. -it made me realize how little I've learned.
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