Run for Regis Race Report

First off, I love this race!  This was the first time I have "raced" this course.  I was used to the old course on the Buckeye Trail.  I ran it in 2008 which was my first 50K, which I ran the majority with two of my close friends, Amie and Elizabeth!!!  Then in 2009, I killed myself in very snowy conditions to come up a little short as 2nd overall female.  2010, I signed up, only to sit out with a tibia stress fracture.  This yr, 2011 , I feared I was borderline tibia stress fracture re-occurence and opted to just do 13.1 (or 13.34 according to my garmin) and play it safe!

I think this was a good idea and I REALLY enjoyed my day!  My plan was to go out easy and just enjoy myself.  Yet, as usual we started off and the atmosphere caught up with me and I was running faster than planned!  We started off slipping and sliding through the snowy field.  My first thought was pretty much, holy sh!t, this is going to be some rough footing.  I was pretty much running at race pace, which for mile 1 was only 9:08 in that snow.  One of my training partners, CK, was just in front of me, and for some reason I just felt compelled to stick in that pack with 3 guys.  As we got into the trail the footing was slightly better, but my body was getting one heck of a workout with all the sliding.

In my head, I was just happy to be running this year but I kept thinking, "what are you doing, plan is easy run...no injuries".  Splits for 2, 3, and 4 were 9:21, 9:50, 9:53 and my respective avg HR, those miles 172, 170, 166, which for me is clearly not in my easy run range.  Around this point, the guy in front of CK let him pass and CK started to pick it up more and I opted to let them go.  My high school friend, GT closed the gap and then we started to run together and chat for awhile.  It was sooo nice to just slow down a bit and enjoy the day a little more rather than feel like I was pushing so hard.  It was actually aggravating my leg a bit when I was running hard and during the first 8 mile loop, I was considering not doing the 5 mile loop.  However, as the pace relaxed, my leg felt fine.  GT had me in good spirits and I was enjoying seeing the many friends out on the course, volunteering and running.

The course is just amazing and throws a little bit of everything at you-rocks, bridges, stairs, hills and that day, LOTS OF SNOW!

At the start, the 50k and marathoners headed right at the split to do the 5 mile loop first and halfers like me went left.  So it was fun to cross them a couple times and get to see a lot of the field.  The only issue was there was getting to be a couple packed down areas to run in and when we were passing, one of us was off in the snow trekking through deep footing which was a lot more work!  I usually popped off to the side, figuring they had a lot further to go!

GT and I rolled into the start point together and I grabbed a delicious glass of coke slushy and was off for the second loop.  The scenery is fabulous and I just settled in to a nice conservative stride watching GT take off after about a 1.5 miles, content to just enjoy the last bit.  As I headed back and hit the last big climb into the rocks, I hit an overlook.  I paused at the overlook as I had ran the course a couple times previously and knew this was not on the course.  So I backtracked and found where I missed my turn.  It was not the first time I had missed the hard left after all the rocks on the return from Happy Days.  I was glad I was pretty familiar with the course and realized my mistake early on.

As I headed into the finish I saw GT coming from the opposite direction.  He must have messed up somewhere, which is par for the course for him!  ;-)  Anyways, I was glad to be done.  For a half marathon, it was a lot of work!  That and the temps were dropping.  I think the start was 17 and it was probably 13 at the finish....my guess but somewhere around that!

So at the end of the day, I was the first female back for the half, 12th person overall with a time of 2:24....perhaps my slowest half ever!  Not too shabby, all things considered tho in those conditions!  Snow, cold and garmin says ~2800 ft of climbing (about the same descending).   Lots of other great female performances at other distances!!!

There were many people that did not even start due to the cold and snow and many people who had dropped down distances from the 50k/ mary to the half....so it was definitely an accomplishment for all racers out there to get in those miles!

I went into the shelter to stand by the fire for a minute before collecting my super sweet BRIGHT NEON green and black shirt/jacket.  LOVE IT!  I collected this from Tanya Cady, the race director who really puts her heart into the race.  She deserves mad credit for all of her efforts.  Lots of others deserve props too like Nick with all his tech help, Vince for all the support and all the volunteers that must have froze their little tails off helping us out!  THANKS TO ALL!


Glad I made the call to play it safe and just really enjoy a fun morning run with friends!