♠ Posted by Paul Naylor
Big Cottonwood Canyon Half - Race Recap
♠ Posted by Paul Naylor in Half marathon,recap
The Big Cottonwood Canyon Half 2014 is in the books, this is a race that keeps getting better every year. I really love this race! This is an event that I'll be coming back to every year. I know that for my goal is traveling around to run a race in every state, but this is a race that I'll come back to. It is very well organized, the volunteers are amazing, and the scenery is beyond incredible.
Even that this was a great race, there was a different feel to it through out the training leading up to the event, during the race, and even after the race. I think that focusing so much on a PR for this race had a lot to do with how I viewed everything, but overall, a great race with great memories. There were many adventures that led up to the start line.
I left work early on Friday to make the journey from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. I wanted to give myself a lot of time because a section of I-15 was closed due to flooding. There was a long stretch of the highway that looked like this:
This caused travelers to take detours, I won't get too much into the detours, but I got to see parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona I never knew existed. This detour took a couple extra hours to get to the St. George Area. After finally getting to Salt Lake City, great friends of mine were good enough to let me stay are their place for the night.
I helped them move a few items in their new house that they were moving into, then we headed to Zaxby's for dinner. Now I know that its up for debate whether the Kickin' Chickin' is food that should be consumed the night before a race. I leaning toward that its probably not, but still, really good food that I eat whenever opportunity presents itself.
I got a great nights sleep and I woke up at 4:00AM to check my gear and made my way to start line for bus pickup. This is where my morning got a little interesting. I got to the parking lot early and they were not going to be loading the buses for about 25 minutes. So I though that this will be a great time to make sure I have all that I need for the race, also, a great time to eat something. Then I realized my first mistake; I had brought nothing to eat. Well, this is a rookie mistake if I ever saw one, how many races have I ran, and I forget to bring food to eat? From where the parking lot was, I realized that I was close to a Smith's, which is open 24hrs. This is great I thought, I have enough time to run over and pick up a few things and make it back before the buses load. I reached in my bag for my wallet and.......couldn't find it. I was thinking that I was sure the grab it on my way out, but must have forgot it. I was thinking if I had enough time to drive back and get it, so I started to look for my keys.....and then couldn't find them. This was not the morning I would have picked to start loosing things. To make a long story short, It took me almost 1/2 hour to find these items, and I was very aggravated, and somewhat relieved that I found them. Now I have to worry about getting to the pickup area.
I saw that I had a few minutes to the last bus, so I grabbed my gear and made a mad dash to the buses, only to find......a very, VERY long line for the bus. That was weird. It seemed that there was some mis-communication with the buses, which caused delays with the pickups. I thought about running to the Smiths at this point, but then I really didn't want to miss the bus if it showed up. So after waiting for a few minutes, the buses finally arrived and we were off to the start line.
The gun sounded at 7:20 AM, slight delay from the buses, At this point, I was really anxious to start the race. The sun was starting to rise, the air was really crisp and the temps were cold. The leaves were already starting to change color. I was really trying to calm my nerves since I had no food in my system and spent a lot of nervous energy trying to find my wallet and keys. But the race went on, and we were off.
Slightly cold morning....
Things from the race I remember:
-I remember not being able to warm up since the buses got to the start line late, and there was enough time to take a restroom break, then they were asking everybody to head to the start line.
-The benefit of being late to the start line was that at least were not up the canyon freezing to death waiting for the race to start.
-Because there was no warm up, my legs felt like tree trunks for the first three miles.
-Cold weather + no warm up +no food = long day of racing.
-Seeing all the trees that where turning color was amazing, and a reminder of one of the reasons I love this race.
-First 8 or so miles, I felt great and moving at a great pace.
-I was really happy to have the sun shinning towards the last four-ish miles of the race.
-The volunteers at the aid stations are always great. The stations handing out Swedish Fish made my day like you wouldn't believe.
-The last 5k or race, this is where the no food before, no warm up, and nervous energy spent looking for stuff finally caught up with me. I was completely out of energy, and every step was like carrying a bag of cement.
-The finish line was a great site to see.
-Tried to run as hard as I could to the end, but I was cramping up like mad, and there nothing in the gas tank.
After all the events that happened before and during the race, I still managed to get a PR for the day.
This was my first goal, to at least run 1:30 or better.
I have downed my fifth cup of chocolate milk right before this photo was taken.
Had to stop by the pizza booth.
Got to see some great people after the race!
Overall, this race was phenomenal, and I'll be coming back next year. And even though I had a rough last three miles of the race, I was able to manage a PR, which will only make me more hungry to improve my time. I honestly can say that I left everything on the table to finish the race, and that ultimately felt great. I did feel a little bad that the turbo died after 10 miles, and almost felt that I did not deserve the finisher medal. Yet there were many factors that made the last three miles harder than it needed to be. Later on that day, I felt different, I felt a lot better, and was really glad that I did not give up and fought to finish.
Many played a part to help me be successful during this race, I want to thank all those that were involved and know that I really appreciate the love and support!
Big Cottonwood Canyon Half Marathon still remains my personal favorite of half marathons.
Tracking my race
♠ Posted by Paul Naylor
Race week
♠ Posted by Paul Naylor
I have been doing more visualization, trying to get my mind seeing the race and mentally preparing for many circumstances that may occur. Thing that I have been trying to work on the most is trying not to get too excited for the race, such as I don't want to psych myself out of the race. This can be easy to do, especially since so much time has gone into prepping for the race, and I want to run a great race.
Much of this week will be mental prep, most of the physical prep is pass. I look forward to this week and I hope that the rest of my preparation this week will go well.
The race is now only a few days away. During training, I though this day would never come, but now I enter the last few days of workouts. This is a tapering week, so the workouts for the first part of the week are not going to be as tough as previous weeks, and no running is going to take place on Thursday and Friday. And if there is any running, its going to be very minimal.
Runners drive Fiats
♠ Posted by Paul Naylor
About four months after moving here to Las Vegas, I got myself a new car; 2014 Fiat 500L Trekking.
Pacing Big Cottonwood Canyon Half Marathon
♠ Posted by Paul Naylor
On paper, the pace should be fast for the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon. For the course being downhill, and really doesn't seem to even out, at least not til the very end. Two things that come to mind about this race is that downhill does assist with running a faster pace, which could be a good thing. The other thing is that with a downhill race, your legs could take a beating. Running a half marathon on flat ground can sometimes be hard enough on people, but take that distance on a downhill course, and it could cause people to be in pain for a few days or few weeks after the race.
I have made a goal for this race to run 1:20, I expect my self to run at least 1:30. I like this goal, because the fastest half I have ran was 1:35, and this was several years ago in high school. I think that this is a course where I can reach that goal. And with the training I had last month, and the training I plan to do over the next 10 days, I think that this is a very attainable goal.
I have recently come across this website where you can figure your goal pace for a certain race and have it made into a temporary tattoo. This is a great idea for those who are looking to make a certain time. Usually because it is hard to keep a mental picture of what pace you should be running. In most cases, only very experienced runners are able to keep paces in their minds during a race. And this usually takes a lot of practice. After entering my information for the time that I would like to finish, the chart to the left is the pace times that go with the elevation drop. I have been studying this pace and seeing how it parallels with the elevation drop.As I look at the miles where the pace drops below six minutes per mile, this is the part of the course where it really turns downhill. So I'm looking at four miles are going to be under six minutes, for the rest, 6:29 seems to be the slowest mile, with an overall pace at 6:06 per mile.
One more thing that I keep in mind when it comes to pace, is mentally keeping focus on the pace. Such as keeping calm to manage the slower pace, and not loosing focus with a split time is not met. It is sometimes easy to panic when your split time is not as fast as it should be, and runners will tend to psych themselves out during the race. Then spending too much energy trying to calm themselves and regain focus. Another thing to keep in mind is that when a split time is not met, confidence can be an issue. Sometimes when runners see that they are falling behind their pace, they tend to give up on trying to make up time, or to finish the race strongly. Falling behind pace can happen, but it doesn't mean that the race is lost. Mental visualization and meditation can help with knowing how to react when pacing during the race.
In closing, as the race gets closer, I'm feeling the excitement and anxiety, but still trying to remain focused for a good showing and to achieve my goal.