A Hard Way to Get State #9

Before telling the detail story of the 28th annual Big Brother's Big Sisters Half Marathon in Flagstaff, Arizona on Saturday, let's get the obligatory statistics out of the way:

118th career event! 38th in 2005!
17th career half marathon! 6th in 2005!
15th state to run an event in!
9th state to run a half marathon in! (TX, LA, AR, IN, IL, OH, IA, NE, AZ)
Slowest half marathon (2:50:59.84) since debut half in 11/01/03!
Second trail event at elevation!
Elevation climb of 700 feet, beginning at 6,900 feet!

What made this race so hard? If you read the description on active.com of the event, this is what it said:

The race begins at Wheeler Park just west of downtown Flagstaff. This beautiful course follows the Urban Trail, climbs a steep hill onto (Lowell) Observatory Mesa (where Pluto was discovered) and follows Forest Service dirt roads on the mesa top. Spectacular views of the San Francisco Peaks are seen throughout the race. Be prepared to catch your breath during both races as elevations range between 6,900 feet at the start to 7,600 feet at the turn around!

Again, what made it hard? Elevation. Steep hill. (Well, more like a couple of steep stretches in mile 2 and a continual climb through the first 8 miles.) And the roads were hard and unforgiving on the legs. It was completely NOT like the mountain bike trail that I encountered two weeks ago during the Sandia Peak Challenge on Sandia Mountain in Albuquerque.

Plus, with the circumstances of my work day on Friday, I had not eaten lunch and had some pepperoni pizza at about 8 p.m. before going to sleep. (Note: If you are going to eat pizza for the carbs, go cheese only. I had heartburn from the pepperoni all through the race.) Also, I had not gotten anything into my stomach at about two (2) hours before the start of the race. I looked once I made the race site without having to drive my car elsewhere but there was nothing open in downtown Flagstaff.

Twice after mile 8 and before mile 10, I felt my entire body begin to shut down. I've gotten lightheaded before, but this was completely different and a little bit scary. I think it was just a combination of the elements.

But the bottom line is that my legs were toast after the climbing. I had nothing there to take advantage of any downhill elements at all. Here are a look at my mile splits (you'll see they are all over the map):

Mile 1 - 11:45.22
Mile 2 - 14:43.07 (26:28.39)
Mile 3 - 12:53.52 (39:22.31)
Mile 4 - 11:38.29 (51:00.60)
Mile 5 - 14:10.03 (1:05:10.63)
Mile 6 - 12:38.12 (1:17:48.75)
Mile 7 - 12:31.89 (1:30:20.64)
Mile 8 - 13:19.77 (1:43:40.41)
Mile 9 - 14:18.15 (1:57:58.66)
Mile 10 - 12:52.38 (2:10:51.04)
Mile 11 - 13:59.35 (2:24:50.39)
Mile 12 - 12:27.87 (2:37:18.26)
Last 1.1 - 13:41.56 (2:50:59.84)

There were a group of six of us - five (5) women and myself - who stayed fairly close until mile 8 and then four of the five moved ahead. Two much faster than the other two while the fifth women caught me in mile 11 and I finished no more than a minute behind her.

Last year the race had 176 finishers. 166 of those finished in a faster time than I did. (I've not seen official results as of yet. We'll see how I fared!)

In closing, here's a comical timeline in my journey to Flagstaff on Saturday morning:

1:11 a.m. - Pull out of the hotel parking lot. 6:19 until race time in Flagstaff. Some 11 miles into the trip, the first mile marker indicates Flagstaff is 315 miles away.
2:53 a.m. - Cross over the Continental Divide at 7,275 feet elevation.
2:55 a.m. - One of those yellow sign warns the elk, not deer, are looming for the next 5 miles. (There were more of these signs the rest of the way.)
3:04 a.m. - 199 miles to Flagstaff.
3:12 a.m. - The billboard says that the Shush-Yaz Trading Company is the "place to go in Gallup". Yeah right. (Actually exit 20 in Gallup is a zoo as far as traffic is concerned. Stopped and had breakfast at Cracker Barrel on the drive back.)
3:33 a.m. - Exit 359 appears, indicating that you are in Arizona, but no official big sign greeting you into the state.
3:34 a.m. - There it is: The Grand Canyon State welcomes you. (Why do I always think that the Arizona state flag looks like an old Japanese flag? Maybe something about the appearance of a rising sun?)
3:35 a.m. - 162 miles to Flagstaff. 37 miles in 31 minutes. Yes, runners like us calculate things like this.
3:38 a.m. - The trip indicator says 203.6 miles on the tank. The thought occurs, "Can I get 400 miles on this tank?" Then you realize that it IS the middle of the night.
3:53 a.m. - There's an exit for Ganado. Hmmm ... let's hope that I didn't make a wrong turn and am going near the same town close to Victoria, Texas.
3:56 a.m. - I realize I shouldn't be listening to heartbreaking country songs.
4:15 a.m. - Grand Canyon National Park: 190 miles.
4:19 a.m. - Exit 300 is for Goodwater, Arizona. I wonder if Bart Yasso of Runner's World has run an ultra there or do they even have one? (The sign on the drive back says, "No services." Guess that means there is really no water there at all, huh?)
4:33 a.m. - Stop for gas. Ouch! $2.58 per gallon. 274.1 miles in 7.98 gallons: not bad gas mileage for a Hyundai Accent. At least the car made it this far.
4:39 a.m. - Back on the road with a liter of Mountain Dew. Not the best pre-race beverage, but the caffeine helps to keep me awake.
4:55 a.m. - See the sign that says "Winslow 10" and the Eagles song immediately comes to mind, "Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see ..." (There is a billboard on the way back as to a place where you can do that in town.)
5:18 a.m. - Meteor Crater National Landmark is to the right. Later. (The car kept moving by it on the way home.)
5:21 a.m. - The Flagstaff country station says that is is now 4:19 a.m. Oops, thought that part of Arizona was on Mountain time. Guess I have an extra hour to kill. Although sleep earlier would have been better.
5:47 a.m. - I finally pull of Interstate 40.
6:01 a.m. - After missing quick right and left hand turns and finding the original Route 66, I finally find the park where the race will start. But, alas, it is 5:01 a.m.
6:06 a.m. - While looking for someplace with a restroom, I see the steep hill indicated on the course description and laugh! (Actually, they were the San Francisco Peaks.)

I find a place to go to the restroom at the Flagstaff Visitors Center, which also serves as the local train depot. While inside taking care of business, it was interesting to have the rails outside behind me rattle the porcelain that I was sitting on.

I make it to the parking lot near the Park and the public library and try to sleep but worry since, for some recent reason, the alarm clock on my cell phone isn't going off. Go figure. Maybe Sarah Graybeal sneaked me hers!

7:35 a.m. - I pick up my race packet. The volunteer lets me know that I can tear off the bottom of my tag for the drawing for prizes. But I never play the lottery. Should I? Probably will. I just hope that they record the bib number at the finish line. I think I looked at the results from last year and approximately 170 people finished this event last uear. Generic bib numbers though: I have #801.

The best part of all though? A very nice long sleeve race T-shirt. (I know, as if I need another one!)