Steamboat Half Marathon Results
I had a good race. Good, not great. What's the difference? I didn't accomplish the one goal I set out with: Go to race! or as my wife would quote Randy Jackson "He's in it to win it!"
Going into race week, I had high hopes of perhaps not crushing my PR, but pacing conservatively in order to set a reasonable PR. After all, the course drops 1k from start to finish. What I failed to pay heed to was the 3 mi climb basically from 7-10mi. The details of this would come out in my discussions with folks on Saturday and discovering first hand as I drove the course Saturday night. So any hopes of a good time went out the door and I focused on running hard and not being afraid to "be in it to win it".
I wasn't afraid to line up dead center in front to make sure I got in some of the starting photos to give a shout out to Team Fleet Feet Boulder and at the gun, I quickly found myself easily at the helm of the line. The first mile rolled by smoothly at 5:58 and already myself and another runner were already pulling away. Mile 2 was a more pedestrian 6:14, but we rolled into 5:40 and 5:45s soon after and put more of a gap on the field. Even though the pace was a little faster than I hoped, I felt completely in control and usually was half stepping him while trying to control the pace to where I wanted it. By mile 5 he tried testing the waters at the aid station as I struggled to gulp some water, but I was right there again, on his shoulder.
Mile 6 was the defining moment. We cleared mile 5 with a 5:42 pace then he quickly put in a short hard effort and put a gap on me. I wasn't quite ready to roll yet as I was anticipating the upcoming climbs, and was a little taxed with the last mile but I wish that I had not thought about it and just went with him. I was afraid of completly bonking like in Moab. Instead I should have seized the opportunity to get in another good mile and hanging on.
Over the next 2 miles of climbing, I felt like he was not making as much progress, but by mile 9 he was using the downhills efficiently and slowly pulling away. By 10 I don't think I saw him again. I pushed as hard as I could up the hills and rolled as fast as I could down the other sides. In town crowds were gathering along the streets after the 10k event and I passed a few straglers from that race as I approached the finish. Billy had gained 3.5 minutes on me over those 7mi that people were a bit surprised as I rolled in including a friend and my kids who came out to watch the finish. It was so nice seeing their faces as I enjoyed the last block.
So 2nd overall and 1st in my age group with a 1:19:02 finish. Billy Edwards rolled out an impressive 1:15:30 for what may have been a course record ?? View all results »
Afterwards was just as amazing, folks from the race came up to me afterwards and were asking how it all turned out since they saw me take it out and I got lots of smiles from people as I walked back to greet the kids. I watched more of the finishers from the sidelines cheering and making noise with the free cowbells.
Really cool to meet Gabe Small who won the marathon and watch Amy Schneider come in for the win on the women's side.
A huge shoutout to the organizers of the Steamboat Marathon and all the volunteers. They did such a wonderful job, including the cold towels they hand you at the end of the race. Thanks to Honey Stinger for all the product they handed out along the course and to Smartwool for all the great stuff in the winner's bags. The half marathon didn't present finishers medals, but with my 2nd place I took home 2 pairs of Smartwool socks, training gloves and a lightweight embroidered longsleeve T.
This week I am going to try and stay away from running save my regular #DenverLunchRun and racing the first of the Downtown Race Series: the Uni-hill 2k on Thursday (That's going to hurt!). Since I won't be running, I will try and fill my recovery time with lots of biking (climbing) yoga, and some pool time. Well thats the plan at least.
