Mt. Carbon Half Marathon

April 23, 2011
Having a goal to run at the Pikes Peak Ascent, I needed a qualifying time.  After a short search, I found Mt. Carbon Half Marathon.  This was a very exciting find as it is close to where I grew up and even during high school XC I ran at Bear Creek Lake Park. My goal was under 1 hr 40 min, which would get me into the first wave.  So thursday before the race, I started to get sick (common cold).  Colds are annoying because you feel like you can keep functioning normally but if you do (at least for me you get worse fast).  So after I finished my school day (Real Analysis and office hours), I slept.  Friday we drove down and stayed with my parents, I was feeling ok but not great.  I made a large error I believe and had some pizza for dinner, maybe too much grease and cheese, or maybe my pre race banana and two nutra grain bars did me in.

The Race
It was a bit chilly saturday morning and we had some light snow throughout, so I stayed in my car as much as possible.  But by race time the temperature was on the comfortable side of cold, for runners that is.  Anyway we had a funny start, with a last minute course change we darted down a path only to make a u-turn and come back the same way.  After that we settled into a pecking order and started on the single track.  From the get go 1st and 2nd were pretty clear, and they moved away pretty quick.  Feeling pretty ok for being sick, I just wanted to settle in and not dig an early whole.  1:40 comes from a 7:37 mile pace, so I figured if I was at 7 min per mile I would be fine.  At each mile marker I multiplied by seven and checked my watch.  For the first 9 miles I was 2 to 3 minutes under where I needed to be i.e.  at mile 7 at 53:05.  I was feeling pretty good and as 2nd place seemed to be only a minute ahead I thought maybe I could catch him.

All those good feelings disappeared after a long downhill.  My insides went bezerk, and for the next 2 miles I fended off puking.  It was awful.  I went into survival mode, got passed twice.  At mile 10 my watch said 1:06 and I thought to myself you only need a 34 min 5k.  And I thought that might happen. I was able to stay upright, and in the last 400m another guy passed me, but I finished in 1:31:26.  I quickly found a comfortable looking patch of dirt and laid down.  Thankfully my wife came to give me support.  But man,the things we runners do, to not waste an entry fee and qualify for a race.

On the brighter side this course was awesome and fairly challenging.  Definitely going to race here again.