The gun went off and we slowly moved forward to the official line and started running. We hit a little dirt hill that led us up from the track to the road, and people started walking. I followed Niki’s line through the crowd and made it on the road where we could spread out. We wandered on some residential streets before finally hitting Dry Creek Road, which would be the main part of the race.

My stomach was bouncing a bit, so I started in on the Shot Bloks at 15 minute intervals along with my water. As we ran, I realized there wouldn’t be any flat spots. The course was constantly climbing or descending. I knew it would be hilly, but I wasn’t sure how hilly. We didn’t drive the course the day before, and I figured ignorance was bliss on that one. With the hills and elevation I didn’t have a time goal. I told Zac to expect me somewhere around 2:20 or 2:30 finish time.

My main goal was to make sure I didn’t walk. I would run really slow up some of the climbs, but I didn’t walk. This caused me to constantly leap frog the same group of people who would walk up the hills and then sprint on the downhills. Just before mile 4 we hit a really long downhill that got steeper and steeper. I was having a great time looking around at all the rocks and cruising downhill until I realized we would have to come back UP this hill at mile 9. Oh well, don’t think about it until later.

I chatted with some of the other runners and met Tri Girl Colleen out on the course, who was one of the people I was leap frogging with. She had done this race the previous year and knew where the turnaround was. We turned off of Dry Creek Rd and I went on ahead. The hills got really rolling in this area. I kept looking for the turn, but everytime I figured it would be right up ahead I would see a string of runners in the distance. Finally we hit this crazy steep hill and I chugged up it, hoping the turn was at the top. It was, and Niki came into view as she had just passed the turn. Finally I was on my way back to town. I cruised down the steep hill and had to back off the pace a bit as my stomach wasn’t feeling well. I decided to increase the time between Shot blocks and drink more water to help my stomach empty. Later I started eating only half blocks to help.

We made the turn onto Dry Creek Rd and I started getting ready for the big climb at mile 9. Sure enough, when it came into view, everyone was walking. Not me! I leaned into the hill and chugged along. It wasn’t a fast run, but it wasn’t a walk. I passed a ton of people on the hill and finally made it to the top. The terrain flattened out a little before the next small climb, so I used this to recover and let my heart rate slow a bit. I hit the mile 10 aid station at the end of the major climbs. Just 5K left! I kept telling myself that over and over.

The last few miles on Dry Creek Rd were mostly easy downhill. Then we hit the turn on Hwy 89A and hopped up onto the sidewalk and started to climb again. This hill was a gradual climb, but it was still long. We had to stay on the sidewalk, which made it tough to dodge around the people walking. The course turned onto the residential streets again, and I was less than a mile from the end. Unfortunately there was a hill in the way. Of course, why wouldn’t there be? As I made the turn one of the volunteers yelled “one mile left” which made me mad because there was 0.3 mile left. Little things like that just set you off when you’re tired from running for over 2 hours. But I had a hill to climb. And this one HURT. The wheels were falling off the wagon at this point, but I swung my arms and powered up the hill. I hit the top and my heart rate redlined. The saliva in my mouth increased and came with the taste of Shot blocks. My body was screaming “Slow down now or I’ll make you puke and it won’t be pretty!” (As if puking is ever pretty). So I backed it WAY down but kept running. I wasn’t able to sprint to the finish, but I was able to run the entire way. I crossed the line and hit the timer on my Garmin to see 2:17. Wow! That was only 3 minutes slower than PF Chang’s last month. I couldn’t believe it.

Train on long, steep hills.

I grabbed some water an my finisher’s medal and a space blanket and started walking. I ran into Niki, who was feeling pretty bad and said something along the lines of “Oh my god that was horrible and I feel like I’m going to die!” So I made sure she walked with me. We turned to walk down a road a bit, and chose the flattest of all the roads around us (for some reason there were still hills everywhere!). After walking for a few minutes she started feeling better, so we grabbed some food and sat on the curb to stretch. We felt much better and made the car trip back to the hotel, where I got in the hot tub, which was the best thing ever!

I was really glad I had stuck to my training and that my training runs normally have hills. The hills in my training weren’t as severe as the ones in the race, but it was better than nothing. I still can’t believe my time was only 3 minutes slower than the PF Chang’s half a month ago, which was a flat and fast race. So that gave me the boost to keep up this crazy training as it is paying off for race day.

Update: I just checked the official results and I finished in 2:17:25. I placed 10th out of 30 in my age group of F30-34! This is by far the best finish I've ever had in a running race, since I'm not a runner. I finished 243rd out of 517 racers overall. So I'm pretty jazzed about that!


Ironman training. Have to balance the 3 sports. ;)