Ilanarama!

We're not often in town over Memorial Day Weekend, but this year, we'd just finished a string of out-of-town vacations (New York city, Tobago, White Rim) and a friend invited us to his birthday party on Saturday night. So since we'd be around, I signed up somewhat last-minute for the Narrow Gauge 10 Mile Run. This race is actually the oldest continuously-run race in Colorado history, dating from 1978. One guy at the race has run it every year! I've run it twice before, in 2006 and 2009. The course has changed since then, but one thing's always the same: it runs from town up mesa to Fort Lewis College, a climb of about 500 feet in a few steep pitches, around the mesa rim, and then back down to town to the finish line.

This means that even if I had been in good shape (which I am not!) I was not going to challenge my 10-mile PR of 1:13, set two years ago at the CARA Lakefront Marathon in Chicago. (Hee, looking at those statistics it had less elevation change by an order of magnitude!) In 2009 I ran 1:24:20 at this race, and three weeks later ran 1:44:19 at the Steamworks Half Marathon, a PR at the time; that's 33 seconds slower than my recent Canyonlands Half time, and the current course puts the big hill at the beginning of the race rather than at the end (which I think makes it easier), so I figured I ought to be able to beat my 2009 time. Maybe 1:22 or so, which not-really-coincidentally is the time that the fastest 50-59 woman ran last year (I looked it up).

On the other hand, I haven't really been running a lot. I'd been managing a mere 29mpw before Canyonlands, but all those vacations in April and May got in the way of running, and my average dropped to 22mpw. Then again, in the past three weeks I've ridden my bike ~160 miles, which ought to count for something, right?

Here is a map and elevation widget for the race. (I don't know why it's in metric!)

Here is my map-corrected GPS elevation chart, with pace and HR superimposed:


The start/finish was conveniently located at a park 1.3 gentle downhill miles from my house, so I jogged there as my warm-up. Saw my friend Allan at the start and lined up next to him. We took off across the grass of the park, through the balloon arch, and then out to the road where things started going uphill fast. I kept my heart rate in half-marathon-pace territory and just tried to keep my pace comfortable-but-steady, knowing that if I blew up on the uphill I would be too tired to push the downhill.

Mile 1: 8:58 pace, 73% average HRR since it ramped up slowly, but ended the mile with 82% (156 bpm), right in the correct zone for HMP HRR of 80-84%.
Mile 2: 9:23 pace, my slowest split, and 82% HRR. At the end of the second mile, I'd climbed almost 400 feet.
Mile 3: Up on the rim things flattened out a bit. 7:44, 82% HRR. I was running pretty close to two guys who were yakking up a storm, and I hated them for being able to talk at this pace. I consoled myself by the thought that I was probably about their moms' age.
Mile 4: About halfway through this mile the last big climb started, another 100 feet to the high point of the race. 8:30 pace (which was essentially the average of my 7:45 at the beginning, 9:15 at the end), 82% HRR. The gabby guys finally pulled away from me, the bums.
Mile 5: Allan yelled out to me as he nearly caught me at the aid station at the mile marker, but the course turned downhill for a delicious half-mile here before leveling out in preparation for the big plunge, and I turned on my motor and pulled away. 7:44 pace, 80% HRR.
Mile 6: WHEE DOWNHILL! 7:10 pace, 77% HRR, and 185 feet down!
Mile 7: Still gently downhill, with a few steeper bits. Just before turning the main road to wind through the neighborhood, some friends drove by and hollered encouragement out of their car window at me. Gave me a lift! 7:45, 75% (possibly spurious HR here)
Mile 8: On the Animas River (paved) trail now, a familiar running route. Dodging the usual traffic of kids on tricycles and dog-walkers, passing a few runners. Mostly flat with a few dips and hills. 8:01 pace, 82% HRR.
Mile 9: I can see the yappy guys ahead, too far to catch up to. I do manage to pass a few other racers, though I'm definitely fatiguing. 8:09 pace, 81% HRR.
Mile 10: Up to here my Garmin has been a bit ahead of the mile markers, but it's all added on at the end. I get 1.03 miles for this one at 8:15, which works out to about 8 minute flat pace, and an average of 83% HRR, though it maxed out at 90% at the end. At the very end, the course goes over maybe 20 yards of packed river-rock surface, like cobblestones, which almost makes me fall over; a little pavement through a parking lot; then 50 yards of grass. Oog. But the clock read 1:21:44 - I made my goal!

Allan came through maybe 30 seconds later, and we congratulated each other on a race well run. Then we got water in our finisher's pint glasses, and cans of beer from the cooler, and collapsed on the grass.

They haven't posted full results yet, but I got a look at the scoring computer before I left. My time of 1:21:44 put me in 15th place among women, and if they'd done age groups (which they don't) I would have won the 50-59. I think I was the third woman over 40 to finish. Not sure how many runners there were, something like 200, so this is not particularly a spectacular finish...but all things considered, I'm perfectly happy with it!

ETA: Yep, I came in 1st F50-59 (out of 17) by about 4 minutes, and 3rd F over 40 (out of 47). 15th woman out of 95, 36/170 overall. And here is a picture!

Okay, I didn't, like, win, or anything. But I came in at 1:24:20, which is a big PR over my time 3 years ago in this race (1:30:33) and beat not only my publicly stated goal of 1:26 but my seekrit goal of 1:25. I also made my goal of "not walking up the big hill." Also of "not feeling like I want to throw up."

It rained all night - I woke up at 5 and it was still pouring, went back to sleep, woke up again at 7 and realized I had to scramble to get to the race which started at 8. Had a cup of coffee and a couple of fig bars - it had quit raining but was still beautifully overcast and cool, yay. Jogged to the start, did a couple of strides, said hi to the people I knew, and it was time to run!

I felt really good - no cramps, no aches. The only issue I had was that I started getting a sort of asthmatic wheeze going around mile 3.5, and looked forward to the aid station - and they didn't have water, just this red sticky Powerade, and I drank a little, and ICK. So I kind of wheezed my way up the big hill and the next water stop they had water, thank GOD, and I drank it and felt a lot better.

The other sort of amusing thing is that the course crosses the tracks for the tourist train to Silverton right around mile 2.5, and it parallels the tracks for a mile or so before that, so I could see the train coming and it looked like we might get to the crossing at the same time! Fortunately it worked out (and I adjusted my stride) that the train just finished the crossing as I got there, with all the tourists waving at us - I ran right behind the caboose! (Two runners got caught and had to stop and wait.)

Also it started raining around mile 8.5 but by then I didn't care, it was fine.

So, let's play the game of "guess the course profile"! Here are my splits: 8:10, 8:15, 8:28, 8:36, 8:42, 9:44, 8:29, 8:06, 8:01, 7:48. I guess you can see the big hill, huh? My pace on the steepest half-mile of the hill averaged 10:32, not bad considering the 7.7% grade! The total elevation gain/loss was around 500 feet.

Anyway, I am totally thrilled with this result. I wanted to average 8:20-8:30 without the big hill (up or down) and I think I got it. That 8:06 is actually for a pretty flat mile, and overall I averaged a little better than 8:30, which gives me a lot of confidence for the much-flatter half marathon in another four weeks.