Mountain Air Marathon, from Crested Butte to Gunnison, Colorado. Start altitude 8800 ft, finish altitude 7700 ft. I
helped organize this race 2 years ago, and ran the 10k (now they only
run the marathon and a 10-miler). I decided I'd give the marathon a try
in late June. I was already running 18-20 mile long runs by March, so I
just kept it up and dealt with minor injuries as they came up.
Self-massage on calves, and careful lengthening of ITB and other
tendons was the thing that made the difference. About 6 weeks before
race, I started following the schedule at coolrunning.com. That called
for a full training marathon 3-4 weeks before race. I did that, and ran
strong through mile 20. Miles 20-26 were a genuine surprise. I had some
idea what it might feel like from long trail runs (3-4 hours), but was
really surprised how nasty my legs felt at 26.2. I actually had a hard
time stopping, because my legs were just moving by force of habit. 3
weeks before race I went backpacking in the Rawah wilderness, and hiked
out too fast. It really nailed my calves again, and I was worried 2
weeks before race that I'd either not finish or that I'd have to
walk/run. Again self-massage of the calves did the trick. Every night
or more. The field for the race was small, about 60 runners.
It's a very friendly local race, with a few locals running (I used to
live there until last year). At start I kept within the first 10
runners or so, and passed three before 3 miles. I came up even with the guy who rode across from me on the shuttle bus. He had just run 26 in Huntington, Utah the day before. There were 2-3 people on the bus who had run a 50-miler the day before--insane!
I made 10 miles in 75 minutes, then 20 miles in 2:33 (Nancy and the kids met me at that aid station and took some pics). Slowed significantly from there on out, especially after mile 20. There is a dip into a shallow flat valley at 20, and then a pretty long hill for about .75 miles at 23. I was about done for there. But I had stayed with my pal since mile 3 and he was super encouraging--kept pumping us both up all the way through the finish. I probably would have stopped to walk about mile 24 if it hadn't been for him. If we had kept up the pace from mile 18 we would have done BMQ times, but those last 6 miles were rough going for me. The race finishes on the Western State College track, and with 200m left to go he said, "Let's see you sprint the last 150" and I was just so beat that my mind just said, "Okay." So I kicked and he was right behind me for the last 150. Kind of exciting. I think he was a little disappointed I was in the same age group he was, but he was so cool and supportive even after the race--a real paragon of sportsmanship. Fun celebrating on the football field afterward: good food, cooling tubs for the legs, massage tables!
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