A Wintery Half In Moccasins
By Barefoot Mary
This was a very cold race. The thermometer read 10 degrees F when I crawled out of bed this morning & rose to 30 F by noon. While I drank my morning protein shake, I tried to figure out what on earth I was going to wear and ended up with smart wool socks, moccasins (Soft Star original suede RunAmocs), tights, skirt, tech shirt, tight warm shirt, jacket, and arm warmers. Wooly hat and hood for the morning. I was never, ever too hot! Fire-breathing dragon breath, swirling and steaming all over the place.
My wave's gun was to set us off at 9:45am, so my non-running husband and I spent a lot of time sitting in the car with the heat blasting after packet pickup, de-numbing our fingers and toes while listening to The Black Keys. The mountains were SO BEAUTIFUL and white, with little rims of winter fog around them. A lot of untouched snow was around the paved trails and the course followed a little frozen creek.
We were set on our way right on time, a little pack of people. This race was small, probably 200 people total. I suppose that's the most you can fit on the trails, but also the maximum amount of folks crazy enough to train through the cold Colorado winter. As the mileage climbed from 4 to 6 to 8 the views got more and more spectacular! All things considered, I did really well. There was a massive mountain in the middle of mile 6 with FIVE switchbacks! I power walked the whole thing (no way was I going to keep running up 400-500 feet with many miles yet to run!) and power walked a little bit toward the end, so my time was really very good despite my under-training, hibernation weight gain (hehehe
, panoramic ankle-dragging climbs, and freezing temps. At mile 10 I sucked down a gel provided by the course.This gel was a milestone. It was...get this...the first gel I have ever ingested! Ever! I've run 3 half marathons and this was my first gel. I couldn't ask for a better flavor. It tasted like blueberry pie! Yum! I felt my energy lift, but my body was also shutting down. My central heating was completely failing, so my lips were getting pretty numb and I had some chills. Pretty crazy and pretty creepy. Over the last few miles I had "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen manically rolling around in my head, timed to my breath.
The last mile was tiresome, but of course I launched to the finish as I always do! There's nothing like a good sprint after many long rewarding miles. Altogether it was a wonderful race - lots of friendly people who wanted to chat, and tons of great scenery! I came into it with no real expectations besides to gauge where I am right now, what I can do with the fitness I have. And I feel pretty proud of what I can do without trying too hard! I ran this half marathon in 2 hours and 37 minutes.
Now I just have to regroup, figure out what I'm going to do next, and what I can do when I really try hard instead of slacking off on my leftover Christmas training! But all in all, it was a blast!
