Ilanarama!

If you're wondering why I haven't posted in a while, it's because I've been off at my parents' for Thanksgiving and a bit of touristing around the DC area with my husband, followed by several days of catching up with work and stuff, followed by being incredibly sick with a stomach virus that has been going around town, apparently. (Britt went out with some friends on Friday night to our monthly local open gallery night - the downtown stores stay open late and have wine and snacks - and as usual, ran into lots of people we know, and everyone asked him where I was, and when he said I was sick they all told him in excruciating detail how miserable they were when they had it, too, or how miserable their husband/wife/children/co-workers were, etc etc.)

Anyway, I'm beginning to feel better, but I'm not running (hell, it takes all my energy to walk across the room), I'm not skiing (not that there's any snow yet; Purgatory is touting 10" of man-made base on a single run, which, no thanks), I'm not doing anything other than reading, sleeping, and drinking broth and ginger tea. I don't have the energy to sort through Grand Canyon pictures yet, and anyway, we didn't take many and the other people on the trip haven't yet shared theirs.

So, basically, tl;dr to tell you I have nothing to say! But when I do, I'll be back.

I'm about to head out of town for our Grand Canyon raft trip and so I don't have much time for a report. In brief: 1:38:37, not a PR but my best time on this course, 2nd AG (16 seconds behind the winner, who I tried in vain to catch up with over the final 4 miles), 9th OA woman. I was running really well and feeling good, covered the first 6 rolling miles at a 7:16 pace; the next two were a bit slower because of the big uphill, but when I topped out at mile 8, the wind hit, and the last 5.2 miles were into a ferocious headwind that slowed me down and sapped my will to live. I was expecting to give up a little on the uphills but make up most of it on the downhills, but I couldn't even run fast downhill. (The woman who beat me ran a 1:35:xx last year, so obviously she was affected by the wind as well.)

I did have to post the photo above, though, because it makes me giggle. I fell in with this guy in the cheerleader's outfit somewhere in the middle and we chatted for a while. He had a French accent and said that when he discovered how comfortable skirts were, he decided to run all his races in a skirt - and besides, people always cheered for him when he went by. He took off ahead of me on one of the hills, but I caught up with him and passed again near mile 11 and ended up finishing about a minute and a half ahead of him.

As beautiful and well-organized as the Moab races are, I think I'm done with them for a while. The last three half-marathons I've run there were brutally windy (as well as the last 10K, although that wasn't bad since it's not in a canyon), and it's just not fun running into a headwind. Time to move on and find some new races.

This is it! The weekend of the Durango Running Festival, resurrected from the ashes of 2006 by race director Matt Kelly and the sponsorship of the Animas Surgical Hospital. When I ran the marathon portion (only) in 2006 I thought that it might be fun the following year to do the "double half" - the 25K trail race on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday - but then the race went out of business. When it was announced that the Durango Double was being revived, I jumped at the chance.

So today I ran the first half of my double, the Horse Gulch 25K. ( Read more... )



Final stats: gun time 2:21:54, chip time I was the 5th woman finisher (out of 71), and won a pint-glass trophy for 1st in age group 40-49F, but actually the 3rd woman overall was in my age group (she is 41, though, and I am 49!) so I'm really second - but they don't "double-dip" the awards. I was the 25th human being to finish, out of 116.

Tomorrow: the second half...

The morning of the 39th Annual (and my fourth) Imogene Pass Run dawned clear and surprisingly warm in Ouray. In previous years I'd worn arm warmers along with my short-sleeved shirt, as well as fleece hat and gloves, and kept my rain/wind jacket on as I lined up for the start, stuffing it into my pack at the last minute. This year, it didn't matter that I had forgotten my arm warmers back home in Durango; I wore a headband instead of a hat, and the jacket stayed in my pack as my friends and I headed for the start line.

( A few photos and a whole bunch of babbling )

We always get out of town for the long Labor Day weekend, since there are several motorcycle rallies in the area which attract the kind of rider who likes to make his or her bike as loud as possible. Next weekend I'm running the high-altitude Imogene Pass Run (more on that in another post), so I wanted to go backpacking at relatively high elevation. We decided to head for Endlich Mesa, sort of on the southwest end of the Weminuche Wilderness. We've done a number of hikes there; this time, we hoped to climb Sheridan Mountain and get to an unnamed lake on the flank of Emerson Mountain, which Britt had visited many years ago.



( More... )

Yesterday morning I ran the Kennebec Challenge, a 14.75-mile trail race I did three years ago (although running the lollipop-course in the opposite direction, as it switches every year). I didn't bring a camera this year, nor hang out with anyone who did, but here are some photos from 2009, and the GPS track overlaid on Google Earth - this year we went counter-clockwise instead. It's a pretty serious mountain race, and in fact this year all runners were required to have Colorado Search and Rescue cards - I figured I should get one anyway so I didn't mind! (It's $3/year or $12 for 5 years, although it's included in hunting and fishing licenses. It pays into a fund that pays for SAR services, so you won't get a bill if you have to be e.g. heli-evac'ed. Spoiler alert: I did not need to be heli-evac'ed.)

In 2009 I ran 3:19:20; this year I ran 3:03:49, an improvement I'm quite happy about even though I did not make my sub-3 goal. Oddly, both times I had an emergency bathroom break at exactly the same place; according to my watch this year I wasted a little more than three minutes on this, so I was awfully close to my goal without it! I also came in second in the 40-49F age group, about three minutes (again, those three minutes! argh!) behind a 43-year old (let me remind you that I am almost 49) who incidentally just ran the Hardrock 100 last month.

( Play by play )

Final stats: 3:03:49 official time, 2nd AG. 7/23 women, 19/49 overall. (Yes, it's a tiny race!) No woman older than me finished ahead of me, although a 54-year old man did.

I took two weeks (mostly) off running after the Steamworks Half, and now I am running again. Summer, for me, is not really a time for full-on training, because there are too many other things I want to do, notably mountain biking and backpacking. (As anyone who reads this journal knows!) But I've got some races coming down the pike, and I want to be ready for them.

I actually have done a race already: the Freedom 5K on the 4th of July. It was free, had no time recording, started at 9am (and therefore was quite hot), was downhill outbound and uphill on the return, and was really 3.5 miles (so as to put the start/finish and the turnaround in particular places, I guess) so I didn't take it all that seriously - it was more just a way for me to get some speedwork in, since as you all know I hate running fast except in races. I went out for an 8-mile warm-up first, then ran the race - I was second woman overall, which sounds more impressive than it really was because out of the ~400 people "running" probably only 50 or 60 were moderately serious runners. However, I felt good about beating all the girls on the HS XC team (except for their coach, who was the first woman but since she's probably 20 years younger than me, that's okay). My time was 26:44 by my Garmin, for a 7:33 pace, which I guess is okay.

I ran about 34 miles two weeks ago, and 39 last week, plus various mountain biking and hiking. I'm aiming at 40-45 for the next month or so, with a lot of trail running since I have a few trail races coming up; then I'm going to start building my mileage up toward the 55mpw range, and maybe even try to get back to the 60+ range before my November marathon.

Here's my current race plan:

August 11th: Kennebec Challenge (maybe). This is a ~15-mile mountain race I did in 2009 and thought it was great training for Imogene. (This year it will go in the reverse direction.) There is also a half marathon in Ouray that is tempting. Or I might end up doing something else, if Britt wants to go backpacking.

August 25th: Mountain Chile Cha Cha (maybe, unlikely). This is a trail race in Pagosa Springs, about an hour east of here, with 7-mile and 15-mmile options. It wouldn't be as good a training run, but if we do something the 11th I'd probably do this.

September 8th: Imogene Pass Run. This is my goal race for the summer. My best time (I've run it three times) is 3:54:26 - I'd like to come in under 3:50, and close to 3:45 if possible. And beat my friend Jen.

October 6th and 7th: Durango Double. There are trail races on Saturday and road races on Sunday, and if you want to "do the double" you do one on each day. I have not yet decided which races I will do, but am leaning towards the 25K/half marathon combo, because that would mean actual racing, and a chance at placing well in the individual events. I suspect if I did the longer distances it would be more of a just-cover-the-distance thing. But the 50K does tempt me...

November 4th: The New York Marathon. I'm still not sure how I talked myself into this one! My training in the fall will dictate whether I go for a PR or just run for the scenic tour.

There may be a few shorter distance races in there, but these are the main ones.

It's been pretty hot here in SW Colorado, so Britt and I decided that if we were going to go mountain biking (which we wanted to do) we'd have to gain some altitude to do it. So we drove up to Molas Pass to ride the Colorado Trail. Which was awesome.



( You know the drill... )

Short version: I ran the Steamworks Half Marathon this morning and made most of the goals I listed in my last post - not only did I come in under 1:40, I ran a 1:38:10, my second-best time ever, on a hillier course at higher elevation than my PR from 2+ years ago, so I'm happy. I did not win my age group, but I came in second - this small race (300 runners) has 10-year AGs, and the woman who beat me by a little more than one minute just turned 40; I'm 48. So there. And I got this cool trophy:



The one on the left is the finisher's glass everyone gets when they cross the finish line, and the one on the right is my trophy. So now I can drink twice as much! Speaking of, I also got a $10 gift card to one of the local coffee shops. Not that I'm planning on drinking coffee out of these. (Hint: Steamworks, the title sponsor of this race, is a brewpub.)

( Not too gory details )

I wasn't expecting a PR, so I'm not disappointed I didn't get one. This is still my second fastest half time by two minutes, and more than six minutes faster than the last time I ran this course three years ago. I think with more training and/or a flatter, lower-elevation course I can get down to the 1:35 range.



Here I am with Kevin, a friend who lives in Paonia and came down for the race. He has run this race three times now, and ran a 1:28, good for first place in his age group!

Britt left on a river trip on Thursday afternoon - he'll be back later tonight - and so I had the weekend to myself. Which I kind of like. (I could have gone on the river trip, but 1) I didn't want to take a day off work, because I'm quite busy, 2) it was a harder trip than I feel prepared for at the moment, as we haven't taken the boats out yet, 3) I'm really focused on my half marathon in 3 weeks and didn't want to miss 3 days of running, 4) the group of people wasn't one I know other than one person - so I opted out.) What I did instead:

Friday: I worked. And I made mint chocolate chip ice cream. And I wrote, and I read.

Saturday: I went trail running early in the morning, then went to the Farmer's Market (too late, alas, for the greens; I bought eggs and cheese and spring onions), then washed some of our windows. In the afternoon I went on a mountain bike ride (and have the scrapes to prove it, alas), and then, um, I pigged out on some of yesterday's ice cream. I did three loads of laundry. And then I wrote and read and goofed off on the net in the evening.

Sunday: Long run (14 miles, nice and slow and easy), followed by Taste of Durango; it's the festival season now, so pretty much every weekend Main Ave. is closed down for something. This is a benefit for the soup kitchen in which all the local restaurants and breweries have booths where you can buy little portions of something (food or drink) for $1-$6. There was music by a local bluegrass band, Waiting on Trial who were quite frankly AWESOME and I was amazed I hadn't heard of them before. Then I went home and washed more windows (go me!) and then got a wild hair to buy some plants and put them in our yard, so I did that (we'll see if the tomatoes survive the deer; I'm guessing they won't), and mowed the lawn for good measure.

Now it's Sunday night. I watched the partial solar eclipse with a pinhole; I thought about driving to where it would be annular, about 90 minutes away, but decided to just sit on the patio with ice cream and hang out. I guess I'll pour myself another glass of wine and read some more. And tomorrow is Monday.