Since I was early for typical 3pm check in, I fully expected not to be able to check in right away. The clerk at the desk immediately found me a room so I could go put my stuff up. I was hungry so decided to head out to Old Town to look for food. In the pre race phase so no mexican food today! Ended up with a tasty chef salad with bread.
Walked around a little but after walking too much pre Boston, I was cautious. Later on, went for dinner and a quick trip to Walmart to stock up on water and snacks.
Earlyish to bed, watched bad TV, read a book and got about 7 hours sleep. Up for a 7:30 am pre race run with the team. That could have been a race breaker right there. Karen seemed a little cranky since she had injured herself and couldn't run. The turn around place was not clear and everyone overshot it. Karen then proceeded to chastise me for a misunderstanding between her and some other runners that involved a comment I made and that put a damper on things. Thank goodness when I talked to the others about it, they told me Karen had completely misunderstood what they had said. Whew...everyone happy again. Quick breakfast and the first of what seemed like 100's of bottles of water. It is very dry in New mexico, and you never tire of drinking water like you do in Austin. Even when you know you feel hydrated, you are still thirsty.
The "expo" was down the street at the Hotel Albuquerque which was a whole lot more swanky than the Best Western. The expo was nothing special. Only a couple of venders. Jeff Galloway was the featured speaker...no one from our group was impressed by him saying we would go faster if we run/walked - more on that later.
The rest of the day was filled with lunch, tea and a cookie at Starbucks while I sat on their patio soaking up the sun and pleasant temperatures and read my book - felt like a real vacation. A group of us drove the course and were surprised at how moderate the hills up and down were. Not nearly as bad as we had been led to believe.
Dinner and then to bed by 9pm. Wake up call arranged for 2:30 AM.
Slept on and off - total of maybe 4 hours of sleep. No trouble getting up. Ate my breakfast, used my stick on my legs and headed downstairs. It was not cold out in the slightest but pleasantly cool. I wore a jacket and long pants over my race uniform. Champion Chip was timing and instead of those ridiculous sticky tape things Austin makes you use, they had disposable chips which laced onto your shoes.
We took a school bus from the hotel to the start on Tramway Bvd. They had a small strip mall for us to hangout at. Plenty of porta potties for the small marathon field. Official photographers got some good pictures of our red and green team. A classical guitarist helped us relaxed with soothing music and they had luminaires all around the parking lot. Quite a different feel from a big city marathon. James Gelb had a problem with his Garmin and after trying to get someone from our group to give him their watch (no one would) he managed to get a watch from the race director. Try accessing the race director 15 min before any large race!
Low key start - I think there was a sign that said start on one side and finish on the other. Luminairies lined the course for the first few hundred meters. Decent job on the national anthem - here was another difference. Everyone was quiet...there was no chit/chat. Then the race director said on your marks, get set, go. No air horn, no fire works.
The first 8 miles were gently rolling up and down. I planned to run pretty conservatively on this part. I stuck to my plan and pretty much nailed my goal time for this section. The mountains were to our right, Albuquerque to our left. It was pitch dark - occasionally we would run by a street light. Brandon Smith and I ran together through this part. I felt great - no effort at all. Not a lot of people out cheering but hey...it was 5:30 AM! The police were very friendly, traffic was light (the roads are not closed) and the hydration stations well manned. As we ran up the base of the mountain, the sun started to peak out over the mountains. It was a little cloudy so probably not as spectacular as it could have been. Way, way out over Albuquerque, you could see pink light starting to light up the city.
The next 8 miles essentially were down hill. Not net down hill like Boston but DOWNHILL. It was some very easy running. People in our group claimed to see all sorts of animals. I didn't see any. I could feel some tension in my abds and back near the bottom of the hill but nothing bothersome. I was on target for pace and nutrition.
Saw Karen, Ryan and Matt on their bikes at mile 16. I was still doing OK at this point and was still with Brandon. By mile 17 the wheels started coming off. Had trouble getting my legs to turn over and felt like I was working too hard. I did pass some guys who were walking so it could have been worse. I kept reminding myself that this was a C race. Time didn't matter, being smart did.
The race went for 4-5 miles on a bike path. Nice to have if you are training but it sucked for the race. Not sure what it was about the path...it was paved and the footing was good but I just could not stay in the groove. I decided that I needed to focus on hydration and nutrition so I did something I have never done before. I walked through 3 water areas. So I can say with authority that run/walking does not make you faster...it makes you slower. So I had 3 slow miles on the bike path. I accepted them for what they were. Nothing I could do about it...what was done was done. I passed quite a few people in a worse place than me. There was some freak on a bike attempting to sing while biking and it was bad! Once off the bike path I was amazingly able to pick up my pace and with 4 miles to go dug down deep and got going. A high point was the four girls walking the half marathon who wanted to try and keep with me because I was so fast (ha!) and then one of them informed the rest of them in a hushed voice "she's on mile 24". Brandon was out of sight at this point and I will admit I was surprised. In the end he had a great race. I saw Karen et all one more time and tried hard to keep the faster pace coming. One more slight sinking spell but I yanked my self out of it and kept moving. I visualized Karen in front of me with a rope tied around her pulling me along.
I was glad to see the finish...but not completely relieved as I was at Boston. I felt OK. Not completely trashed like in Boston. I got my medal. Cool pottery medals. Grabbed some water, orange slices and cookies and my post run bag. Met up with Karen and Mary and proceeded to cheer the rest of our team and lots of other people into the finish. One guy from Austin wearing a Rogue trail race shirt looked surprised and then really happy when he got a bunch of tired Austin women screaming for him at the finish!
After everyone was done, Karen was hot footing it back to the hotel so she and Ryan could leave. She reminded me to do an ice bath but as a quick after thought, I went to check the results. Crap...8th overall woman?? 1st in my age group??? The winning woman was 48 and had a decent time. My time was not so great but I'll take it given we have done no speed work at all. Pretty much everyone from Team Rogue Roadrunners settled down on the ground to wait for the awards ceremony. Imagine that...they gave out all the awards...not just overall men and women. They madfe everyone feel equally important and even had some random draw prizes too. Our team definitely deserved the spirit award. We cheered hard for anyone from Austin that placed...and there were several. My only physical complaint was my left foot. Some pretty significant neuroma pain from mile 17 on. Took my shoes off after I finished and had some foot cramping. Karen felt that was from the downhill. I hope it won't be such an issue at Houston.
My overall impression - Albuquerque is a neat town...nice weather, less traffic than Austin, cool scenary. Pretty much everyone in our group was wondering how they could move there. Brandon deserved the MVP award for our team. He stopped to help a lady who had fallen...the best I could do was slow down and wait for him. Pretty much everyone in our group though he deserved to place in his age group...he had a really good race and finished 4th in his grp. If you look at reviews of this race, they aren't great. I could find no fault. I would certainly go back again and I can't say that about all the races I have done. The hotel was reasonably priced and convenient..had a pool and hot tub and a decent restaurant. Old Town was within walking distance and had several good restaurants. We went to a Mexican one for lunch and then for dinner had salads and pizza and beer and then headed over to the Chocolate Factory for dessert. Ate candy and ice cream outside (cool enough for a jacket) while we watched a Labor Day fireworks display.
I usually feel overwhelmed after I race and don't often make an effort to get together with others afterwards. This time was different. I feel a much better connection with the team and we really had a good time. It was like a mini vacation.
1 comment:
Great report! It sounds like you had a relaxing and fun time (if that is possible running 26.2 miles!). Thanks for sharing your experience. Great time for a 'c' race, too, altitude and all :).
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