This race didn't go quite the way I planned. First I had planned on running around 1:35 and trying to be in contention for an age group award. After I broke my left big toe a few weeks ago those plans went out the window. Next I thought I would just run with Vicki and try to see if I could help her run a PR, which would be around 2:10. However, she told me not to run with her. I had to take a couple weeks completely off and in the week leading up to the race I had gone for some shorter runs to see if my toe was going to be OK. I had no problem at all with the toe, but I must have altered my stride just a bit because my right knee started hurting. Not bad, but I usually never have any knee pain. I kept my runs short and on the slow side. I took Thursday off because it was cold and snowy and I didn't want to take any chances of slipping. I had a nice run on Friday and tried to pick up the pace for a couple miles to see how everything felt. Toe was good, knee was back to normal. So now I wasn't quite sure what to do.

When we got to Pueblo, the temperature was a bit on the cold side, but it was supposed to warm up nicely. I did a little warmup run and decided I felt good enough to just run as normally as I could and if any problems developed I would shut it down. I ended up wearing shorts and a long sleeve shirt even though the temp was only in the upper 20s at the start. I also didn't take my gloves because I figured they would be to warm in a short time. I ended up being slightly cold for the first couple miles, but then I was dressed just right for the remainder.

The race was a few minutes late while they waited for the last people in the potty lines. Then all of a sudden the start command was given and we were off. I got into a comfortable pace right from the start and pretty much had no problems at all for the first 4 miles or so. I noticed George ahead of me during the first mile and I worked to catch up to him as he is usually a little faster than me. I passed him just before the 4 mile mark. When the trail left the pavement I had to be more cautious about watching for anything I could bump my toe into, but I don't think it slowed me too much. There was one area where some leaves were on the trail blocking the view of what was underneath and I came very close to turning my ankle on a small hidden rock. As I got out near the turnaround I could feel my energy slipping just a little so I got out the one gel I brought and had it after the turn before an aid station so I could wash it down with water. That seemed to help some. Just after that my friend Andy cruised by and I found that interesting because Andy is usually way out in front of me by that point in the race. I knew Andy normally runs a decent time so I picked it up some to try to keep him in sight. That worked for a couple miles until just after the next aid station and then he seemed to find another gear. No biggie - I just continued to press ahead thinking maybe he would fade and I could catch up. This had me passing numerous people in the last few miles and I was starting to pass people that had gone by me early in the race. I was also starting to hurt a bit and my muscles were tightening up some, but I dug deep and kept on going. The hurt was the normal pain experienced late in a race, not my toe. I was closing in on a guy who looked to be in my age group and tried to narrow the gap some by the time we hit the big hill just before the finish hoping he would have trouble there. He didn't and even though I closed in considerably I couldn't get by him. As I rounded the last turn I could see the finish clock and knew if I could sprint the last hundred yards I could go under 1:40. I made it in 1:39:58, a new stand alone half marathon PR by almost 5 minutes. I was pretty amazed as I had purposely never looked at my watch the entire race and just went on feel.

Now the weird thing. How tough is my age group? Last year I ran this race almost 7 minutes slower and finished 9th in age group. This year, even though I was much faster I finished 10th. However, even if I had been in top form without the toe problem I would not have been able to go fast enough to get an award this year as the top 3 all went under 1:29. I was happy with my race, my toe felt OK and I proved I didn't lose too much by taking a few weeks off. I think the whole toe thing may have cost me 10-15 seconds per mile at most.


Not break my toe 3 weeks before the race.

Water and a few half donuts, wait for Vicki to finish


Unable to train for a couple weeks due to broken toe.


This is a real nice low budget race. It only cost $25 and that included a nice sweatshirt with no advertiser info. Much of the course is on a trail so there isn't much spectator support, which is fine with me. Weather can be a factor with a December race. Two years ago it snowed and the trail was difficult to run on.