Monster Dash 10k (Race Recap)

Saturday, October 24
Louisville, CO
Weather - sunny and warm
A's second 10k

Halloween races are my FAVORITE. Ariel, Heather, Dan and I were looking to find a fun race that we would be able to wear costumes at. We found the Monster Dash race up in Louisville with both a 5k and 10k option. We gave A the choice of what distance to run, and I was surprised that she picked the 10k.

One of the best parts about the race is that it was NOT a morning race! That meant we would actually be able to sleep in! And there were tons of other things at the race for an afternoon/evening event.

With the race starting at 3 pm, we headed up around 1:00 to find parking and our friends. We arrived around 1:30 and found a spot on a side street behind the finish line with minimal difficulty. We spent the next hour doing pre-race pictures, talking to people and wandering around.

Team Goblin!

The 5k and 10k lined up at the same time - right before the start we ran into our friend and teammate, Maureen, and we all headed out together for A's second 10k.

A and Dan had both chosen horrible costumes to run in. Full length black robes and masks and head coverings. It was a fairly warm day and the sun was shining. I had a feeling that A was going to get HOT in her costume, and I was right. Between the hot costume and the annoying "medallion" - there were plenty of things BESIDES running for her to complain about.

Right off the bat this was a better event than the race we had chosen last year. Most of it was on "trail" and it was a lot prettier. Plus, there wasn't a giant hill on the course. A did great the first few miles, struggled a bit the middle 2, and then had a strong few miles for the finish.

Mile 3

The most fun we had on the course was when Dan ran ahead and while us girls were gabbing further back, we managed to jump out from behind a tree - scaring us all nearly to death. It was a fun race though.

Thankfully, we were NOT at mile 13... I think this was around mile 4

My only complaint was that they started the kids races before we had a chance to finish... The last 10th of a mile we were trying to run into the finish line and there was a sea of flailing arms of hundreds of kids and their parents and strollers and dogs headed straight towards us. That was a bit of poor planning, as at least part of the road should have been coned off so that we could finish.

There was no "chip" timing for this race so we don't have an official finish time, but my Garmin definitely showed a HUGE 13 minute PR for A!

Garmin time - 1:20:05
Garmin distance - 6.3 miles
Garmin pace - 12:43
Mile 1 - 10:56
Mile 2 - 12:33
Mile 3 - 13:17
Mile 4 - 14:19
Mile 5 - 13:21
Mile 6 - 12:27
Mile 6.3 - 10:49

We collected our wine goblets (with a comment from the volunteer "did you guys even finish?") and then we wandered around looking for the food and beer.

The finisher party was at a restaurant a few blocks away, so we all walked over and got a seat on the patio so Maureen could have her dog sit with us. It was a great evening of good beer and good food (seriously, the restaurant made an amazing mac and cheese with green chilies and bacon and to die for brussel sprouts!).

I went for a quick walk to the car to move it closer to the restaurant and to get our hoodies, as it was getting chilly in the shade.

A great time!!

Thoughts:

• Course was very well marked. Mile markers at every mile - chalk in the dirt at an "confusing" intersection.
• Plenty of aid stations with both water and Gatorade.
• Most people wore costumes - which made this FUN.
• The shirt was cute - with a vampire on it, but I didn't take one of course.
• The race was "time" and yet there are no results that I can find. I guess I don't understand why you would bother timing if there are no results anywhere?
• My only complaint, again, was the kids race starting before everyone had finished. We were not super slow by any means (I mean, not the fastest, but still) - they should have waited maybe another 15 minutes, or at least coned off a small section of the road.
• Yay for the free beer! 
• We had a great time and we will likely find another fun Halloween race for next year :)

Ragnar Trail Angel Fire (Race Recap)

Friday, August 28 - Saturday, August 29
Angel Fire, New Mexico

So I was surfing Facebook late one night when I was having trouble sleeping. My good friend and Runner's Roost teammate, Heather, posted that she was looking for another person to run Ragnar with them in New Mexico. I was interested, but knew that I would have A so I didn't think that I would be able to do it. She said kids were welcome to come so I committed to be on team "The Running Dead" assuming I didn't have any major scheduling conflicts at work. My attorneys were find with me taking Friday off, and I called A in from school.

Thursday

My dad dropped off A at my office so that we could head down to New Mexico right after. This was a bad idea. It's like I've forgotten that Denver traffic is THE WORST. It took us an hour just to get to Ikea, which is something like 10 miles away. Shortly after getting to Castle Rock (about 25 miles away), it started to rain - pretty heavily. We stopped in Colorado Springs and went to Hu Hot for dinner. I was thinking that we had missed a bulk of the storm as it had stopped raining by the time we were done.

However, I was wrong. As we got closer to Pueblo, the rain got heavier. It was super dark and my wipers were going as fast as they would go and I could barely see. I was cruising along at an uncomfortably fast speed of about 40 mph. I had A call my dad to see where an affordable hotel might be and decided it was best to just stop for the night. We stopped in Colorado City at the Days Inn, about an hour north of the New Mexico border.

Friday

We got up at 5:30, giving us enough time to get dressed, load up the car and grab a quick breakfast in order to be on the road by 6:15. We had to make one stop in Trinidad to buy bottled water, and then we were on the road again. We arrived in Angel Fire just after 9, in time to see the fog covered ski slope that was the backdrop for our run. I found our team camp with no problems - it was the ever so wonderful theme "The Running Dead" and was decorated like the zombie apocalypse. SO FUN.

I was to be the leg 1 runner and still had a while to go. We sat around and talked, decorated our team shirts with fake blood, ate some lunch and drank a beer. Headed over to the start line for my 1:00 pm wave start only to find out the race was going to be delayed because of lighting. Arg. Headed back to the camp. Ate more. Around 2:00 there was still sketchy weather and thunder/lightning so the race was postponed ANOTHER HOUR. Sigh.

A was pretty terrifying in this clown mask

Leg 1 (Green Loop - "Easy")

Loop 1 - INKnBURN "zombie" tech tee

Finally, at 3:00, we were off. Due to the postponement there were quite a few of us starting at the same time. Even running a sub 10 pace (which really is the fastest EVER for me lately), I was dead last heading out for the "easy" loop. The first mile was on road and paved bike trail with a gradual downhill. That part WAS easy. However, I quickly overheated with my long sleeves, and I had to strip on course to get the top off as the sleeves were too tight to just pull up. There was a gradual uphill until the course moved onto the trail.

It was really pretty, but steeper than I expected. The green loop merged with the yellow but it wasn't congested or crowded. Steep climb towards the end of mile 3. Finally, we were at the top of the hill and there was a lovely downhill that I cruised down, jumping over ditches (glad I ran this section in the daylight first as all loops would run this last half mile). There was a weird section about a quarter mile out involving stairs and running on a boardwalk type surface before heading into the chute. I handed off to runner 2, Shelby. (Thoughts about the green loop? Not exactly what I would call "easy").

Headed back to the camp to for a beer. Most of the team stayed in the village. Probably 30 minutes after I stopped running, the rain and hail started. It was coming down so hard and so fast that the camp began to flood - there was seriously a river running in between our camp and the one next to ours. We thought for sure the race was going to end up getting canceled because the weather was so awful. Turns out the race was going to proceed as long as there was no lighting.

Spent lots of time just sitting around and eating. A participated in the "air guitar" contest. Sadly, she didn't win the overall prize, but she did get a stainless steel Ragnar pint cup out of it. I decided to lie down and take a short nap before my next leg since I was going to be running much later than originally planned.

Leg 2 (Red Loop - "Difficult")

Taken before it got dark so I could get a picture of our outfits

I was awoken by A hovering over me telling me to get up. I really didn't want to. I was so tired. But I dragged myself up and then went to sit in a chair, looked up, and saw Dan. That's who was handing off to me! He had run WAY faster than expected and I obviously wasn't there. Luckily I had all my stuff ready and I ran to the transition tent and headed out, half asleep. There was a full moon but it was obviously SUPER dark, and this was my longest and most difficult leg. The first half mile or so was on the road, and then it moved onto the trail.

I was completely alone, I could not even see other headlamps. The trail didn't seem too technical and I'm assuming it was pretty but it was dark so I have no idea. The first 3 miles was all uphill so there was very little running for me.

When I hit the three mile mark I knew it was mostly downhill so I ran as much as I could. I haven't done much running at night, and certainly not on trails, so this was fun. I had a great time on this loop. (And looking at my Garmin information - turns out my sprint into the finish was just that - 7:22 pace O.o)

Headed back to the camp and everyone else was in bed, except Dan. He stayed up with me while I had a few beers and then I headed to bed around 2. Was woken up fairly early, maybe just before 6 because everyone was starting to wake up.

Leg 3 (Yellow Loop - "Moderate")

Matchy matchy mummy tech tees!

I wasn't feeling all that great so I decided not to eat before my run. I spent some time in the village waiting for Dan to arrive. He took a lot longer than expected, so I was wondering if he even ran the correct course. I headed out for my last leg of the race just before 9:00. The first mile or so wasn't too terrible, but then the climbing began. It was substantially more difficult than I thought. It was more technical than the red loop with a lot of roots and rocks. And the climbing. So much climbing. It was steep and I was tired and it was already hot. There was very little relief from the climbing, not many downhills or flats.

There was a small section of downhill and then the course merged with the green and I was back in familiar territory. Bombed the downhill again and was super happy to be done.

Due to the late start and slower running (mostly because of trail conditions), our team was in danger of not finishing in time, so we had to "double up" our runners. Good - because then we would 1). finish and 2). not finish so late that I would be driving at night again.

A and I went up the hill to the Lodge and got some breakfast (I had a delicious ham/cheese and green chili quiche and A had a breakfast burrito). We started to pack up our stuff since were planning on heading out right after the team finished. Spent some time in the Elevated Legs after Heather and Dan went out for their last leg. Not more than 15 minutes after they headed out the rain started. AGAIN. A and I sat in the car and only headed over to the finish when we thought they might be finishing. They came in - cold and soaking wet. We got our team picture taken and then, of course, it stopped raining.

Runners Roost team members (Dan, Heather, Me)

We helped tear down the camp and then headed out around 3:00. The drive back was just about as adventurous with MORE torrential rain. We stopped in Pueblo for dinner (burgers), and got home around 9:00.

Whirlwind weekend.

Thoughts

• This was only the second relay I have ever run, the other being the SoCal Ragnar back in 2012. This was THE MOST FUN EVER. I had such a great time running this, and again, I really love being on a team that is not competitive. Takes off a lot of pressure!
• The courses were marked extremely well. At night they had LED lights of some kind on all the markings so they were easy to see even from a distance.
• The transition tent was well organized and it helped to have the color of the bracelets we wore match the color of the loop we were running.
• There was only one bib, and it was given to us on a race belt so it was really easy to change hands.
• I would 100% recommend a trail relay - ESPECIALLY if you like trails. So great. I hope to do another one sometime!

24 Hours of Moab (Race Recap)

Saturday, March 23
Moab, UT
Ultra Marathon #6
Weather - WINDY and COLD

If you have never read the insanely long saga of my 100 mile attempt at this event, you can check it out HERE.

The short recap of the event is that it was pretty much the exact opposite of last year. (Last year I trained, this year I didn't. Last year was a billion degrees, this year was Arctic, etc etc).

Friday

I was SO happy that my sister in law Lisa agreed to join me for the weekend. I had forgotten it was my niece's birthday and my dad said he couldn't come with me. All week long we had been watching the weather and it looked like we might hit some trouble in the mountains. Snow was in the forecast the WHOLE weekend. We took A to school and immediately headed out. There were some icy sections but it was not nearly as terrible as we imagined. However, we did get stopped for a bit near Vail for avalanche control.

And then by the time we finally got through, we of course had to use the bathroom. We stopped at a rest area on Vail Pass. There was a TINY bit of snow:

Lisa fell asleep and I had a fairly uneventful drive. I was STARVING by the time we got to Grand Junction. We put some gas in the car and after getting a bit lost, we found a Chili's. I had some delicious Cajun pasta.

We were touristy enough to take some pictures at the state line:

From the state line it wasn't that long until we got to base camp. Thankfully, I vaguely remembered the location from last year, plus it not being dark helped a lot. The plan was to get the tent set up and then go into town to get some dinner and food for the morning.

It was windy. I was doubtful about our tent pitching skills in PRISTINE conditions. This did not go well.

And then we finally got it up...

We ended up putting about 300 pounds of rocks inside the tent to weigh it down. The ground was so hard that only 1 of the 4 corners spikes was even in the ground. Crossed our fingers that the tent would still be there when we got back and headed into town. We had dinner at the Moab Brewery. It was DELICIOUS, along with a local beer, Dead Horse Ale. Tasty. We picked up donuts for the morning at City Market and then headed back to camp.

The wind had not died down at all and it was FREEZING. I had brought the same sleeping bag I took with me to Peru and figured I would be nice and warm. NO. I was NOT. Once it got dark there was nothing to do and we were both pretty tired so "lights out" was around 9. I barely slept. The wind was insane and LOUD. I kept waking up because of the noise and the cold and the fact the tent was pretty much collapsing in on us.

Saturday

I woke up WELL before my alarm went off. Turned out to be a good thing as apparently I don't move too quickly in the cold. I wasted probably 20 minutes just hovered in front of the heater in the car trying to get warm. When I had been looking at the forecast I figured with highs in the upper 40's that I would be fine wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Lisa thought I was insane. It WAS a bit chilly so I figured I'd dress a bit warmer for the first loop and could adjust later as necessary. I did NOT use any body glide (anywhere) and I wore a brand new long sleeve shirt as my base layer. Turns out, that worked out nicely.

Lisa had not registered yet for the 6 hour nighttime "fun run" and I needed to get my packet, so we headed over around 6 to get that taken care of. I was still SUPER slow getting my stuff together. I was still scrambling at 6:44, and barely made it to the mandatory pre-race meeting. I wasn't too concerned about it since I had already been through this all last year. Lisa got a picture of me at the start and then headed back to the car to stay warm.

In addition to NOT wearing shorts, can you tell I have ALL THE CLOTHES ON?? I had on a long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt and a jacket. Capris with compression socks, a ski hat and my awesome CIM bandanna/tube thingy for my face. Turns out, I would keep this ensemble on THE ENTIRE DAY. That should tell you how cold it was.

Start was at 7:02. This year there was a 50k added to the distance series so there were a few SUPER fast people out on the course. Like last year, I started in the back. Knowing the course, I had a conservative plan for the day. Jogging or walking up the inclines, running the flats and downhills at always an easy pace. I knew better than to care how "fast" everyone else was going. I knew how easy it could be to overexert myself.

The cold was brutal. I was wearing gloves and yet my hands were still freezing. I wanted to get some pictures on the course again, especially during the first loop when the sun is coming up and the rocks look especially red.

It was so cold that when I went to take my first drink out of  my hydration vest I couldn't because the water in the bite valve was frozen. Gross. I kept hoping that once the sun came up that it would get warmer. It didn't. For 2 loops during the day, I took off my jacket thinking I would be more comfortable. It wasn't. The winds made the already cool temperatures even colder. I was doubting my ability to even MAKE it to night, much less 24 hours.

Honestly, the race is a blur. I was cold and spent most of the race looking down, trying to keep the wind off my face. As I remembered from last year, everyone was really friendly and I made sure to at least wave to the other runners. I was taking a gel at the end of every loop so I could toss my trash at base camp. I had to pee every time I got there, so even though I wasn't draining my pack, I guess I was drinking enough for the conditions.

I think the rocks look like knuckles - every time I ran by I'd think - Moab is giving me fist bumps! (See, this is the type of crazy thoughts I have during an ultra. Maybe I've shared too much).

I remember getting TONS of sand in my shoes last year in the "beach" sections. This year I wore the Mizuno Cabrakans, and they were great. My feet weren't tired and I didn't have to stop to dump the sand out.

Sometime early afternoon, I noticed that it looked like storm clouds were rolling in. In addition to the fact it was not supposed to be windy all day, there was also supposed to be a 0% chance of precipitation. Not LITTLE chance, NO chance. And then, the snow started. Thankfully, it was a tiny amount of flurries for maybe a loop. Nothing major and it went away before it got dark. I met up with Lisa around 4:30 at base camp while she was getting everything ready. She snapped this pic of me, which is after 32ish miles:

Lisa had spent the day sightseeing at Arches and I was going to be coming in to base camp around 6:15, so she held off on starting her 6 hours until I got there. We made sure to get some pictures in before it got too dark:

Doing a zombie walk in my zombie shirt....

And then of COURSE we had to do a Pitch Perfect inspired picture:

Ideally, Lisa wanted to get in three loops. I was ready to stop after doing one with her. She was on fresh legs and kept telling me to "pick up the pace" and "I've never done 5 miles this slow" - I'd already been moving all day and was getting tired. She had to talk me into going out for one more loop. We were definitely slower the last loop. It was MUCH colder. My hands felt like icicles the entire time. I was really regretting not having picked up hand warmers, even though I had thought about it before I had even left Denver. Lisa was wearing Newtons and was having the same trouble I had last year and had to dump sand out of her shoes probably a dozen times.

We wandered back into base camp around 10:25 and I had NO qualms about calling it quits. We sat around the heater and ate some pasta. We had ZERO plans of trying to sleep in the tent again, so we warmed up the car and slept in there. Woke up a few times because it was cold, but it was MUCH better than the tent.

Sunday

In the morning, we stopped by the results tent to get our official finish times. While we were waiting, we got some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. YUM. Turns out, the cold had messed with a LOT of people and I ended up with this:

Second place female!

Loop 1 (5.37 miles) - 8:23 am
Loop 2 (10.74 miles) - 9:49 am
Loop 3 (16.11 miles) - 11:22 am
Loop 4 (21.48 miles) - 1:04 pm
Loop 5 (26.85 miles) - 2:47 pm
Loop 6 (32.22 miles) - 4:33 pm
Loop 7 (37.59 miles) - 6:16 pm
Loop 8 (42.96 miles) - 8:14 pm
Loop 9 (48.33 miles) - 10:26 pm
Total Miles - 48.33 in 15:24
Overall Place - 5/9
Gender - 2/4

Last years winner ran 91.29 miles. This year, she ran 69.81. Last year I ran 64.44 and ran 16.11 less this year. I think part of that was lack of training, but most of it really was the weather. Throughout the entire day, I never felt like I was comfortable and my hands were cold all day. Overall, I am very pleased with my finish. Other than being cold, I had a great time.

Of note, this year there were only 2 finishers in the 100 mile division, whereas last year there were 3. This is NOT an easy course for the 100 distance!!

The drive back to Denver was ok. We stopped in Grand Junction again for gas and also got some food and coffee at Starbucks. We hit the snow about 20 miles before Vail. The drive was a lot slower as the roads were pretty icy and the snow was coming down pretty hard. Luckily, we missed the ski traffic and got out of the mountains by 1:30. We had lunch at Smashburger. After showering, it was time for naps. I unfortunately had to take her to the airport around 8:00 since she had to be at work the next day.

Thoughts:

• Every time I do an ultra I say:
• This is dumb.
• Why am I doing this?
• I'm  never doing this again.
• And then as soon as I'm done...
• Maybe I'll come back next year.
• I am really glad I had brought some warmer clothes for layering. They helped quite a bit, but honestly, there were people on the course in actual ski coats and pants. I could have put on more clothes.
• I really should have brought hand warmers. I might have done another loop if my hands wouldn't have been so cold.
• I only ate 4-5 gels the whole day. I ate LOTS of M&Ms and had some chicken soup after loop 7. I also ate about a billion Mike & Ikes. They are delicious.
• I filled my hydration vest with grape nuun. I only drank about 3/4 of what I had put in there. The entire day. Last year I think I went through 3 filled packs.
• I had some birthday cake after 5 or 6 loops. THAT was delicious.
• I am really happy I had different shoes this year, they were a lot more comfortable.
• I think if I were to do this again, I would need a for real, legitimate "pacer" to get me through the night hours. I get cold, and then I stop.
• I am pretty sure I will be back next year. Moab is gorgeous, the event is top notch and I absolutely LOVE that it is still a small event. I recognized a few people from last year and I know that the same people will be back next year. I just hope there is better weather next time.

So.... What next....

Wordless Wednesday

Alaska - Day Five

Even though I was supposed to have the day off from running, I had eaten so much for dinner the night before that I just felt gross. So I got up and went down to the fitness center anyway, figuring I'd do some time on the bike and walking on the treadmill. Figure that's always better than being a sloth :D

Treadmill - Walk with incline

Bike

 Last full day in Alaska with no plans, so we decided to head north and find something to do. The first thing, apparently, was going on a 2 mile hike here:

A thought it was hilarious to run up all the hills

The gorge

Looking down

The Falls

A victorious after running up yet another hill

After we were done with the hike (surprisingly successful even though it was super cold, 2 miles long, and we went with two kids under the age of five), we kept driving north.

And ended up here - in Wasilla. In previous years the Iditarod race has started here, although most years it doesn't get enough snow, so it starts even FURTHER north. This was actually open too, there was a museum (but no dogs). I gotta say, I've never put that much thought into sled dogs before, but they are pretty amazing! And watching footage from the races? Wow!!

Along the Coastal Trail

Behind A is Cook Inlet

 We had some time to kill before the Spaghetti "Zombie" Feed (AKA, Carbo load dinner sponsored by the Anchorage branch of Team in Training. Such a deal! For $10 there was salad, pasta, bread, drinks, dessert (soooo much dessert) and door prizes?? I was surprised only about two dozen people showed up. It was great!

Mmmmmm

Dessert!

A had the sled dog stuffed animal pulling the pack of her other animals. Hilarious.

Early to bed again. For the first (and probably only time), I didn't set an alarm. No doubt the kids would get us up with PLENTY of time for the 10:00 start time for the Zombie Half Marathon!