Race #2- Valley of the Sun 1/2 Marathon

The thing about racing in Arizona is that it can get hot fast. The state just went through record rains for six weeks and without fanfare its high 80's and hot. This is probably the hottest day of the year so far, which is nice since the race starts early.

In a pleasant first, I actually live close enough to walk to the staging / finishing area. Its less than a mile from my front door. I have walked farther to hotels after races so this will be nice. I actually ride my mountain bike for two reasons. First, traffic can always be a pain so why fight traffic for one mile and then fight traffic out when done? Second, I don't want to miss church and it will take me half the amount of time to get home on my bike than driving or walking.

Getting to the staging area is cinch, after locking up the bike I hit the port-a-loo and grab the bus to the starting area. The start line is a quarter mile from the Usery Mountain Park gate. As the bus driver pulls into the park I notice that everyone is walking into the park and not out. After five minutes of driving in pitch dark it becomes starkly apparent that we have gone to far, on the radio we here that someone was to guide buses for turn around but no one was there.

So eventually we turn around and disembark and except for some running lights from the occassional bus or vehicle thousands of people are standing in the middle of the desert, in the dark at 0530. The only inclination of where to be is the port-a-loos on the side of the road. I mean it is dark and there is no marked start point, no bag drop off area, no lights, nothing. At least it wasn't cold. Eventually a bag area was set up but I never drop off. (I would rather buy some cheap sweats at Goodwill and redonate them on the course.)

It became pretty obvious by 0545 that the race will not start at 0615 like planned. Crew are trying their best to clear the road to let buses come and go but the port-a-loos are right on the side of the road and people are standing in line, which is on the road. Finally by 0640, a good 25 minutes post start a 10 second warning goes out and bam it begins; marathoners, halfers like me and everyone else are gaggled together so its a mess of walkers up front, joggers all around and racers trying to pick spots on a decent downhill slope.

Even with the downhill its a 8:44 mile because you really couldn't warm up right, can't stretch on the road cause of vehicles and can't stretch on the side of the road because of the cactus.

I think the mile markage for mile 2 was off, becuase with a slight downhill I run a 9:48 and it seems long. The mile marker and the clock are in different spots.

Miles 3-4 are as flat a you will ever see in a race and I average 9:00. I am not really trying to be competitive at VOS just getting miles in, but I am passing people pretty well. The VOS is a great half or full marathon for anyone conscious of time. I have been in long races where the pace seems so flipping fast you get sucked along and bonk later. In VOS I would say the average pace for the first four miles was 10 minutes or slightly more!

I should note that once the race got off, the course was really well staffed by officers directing traffic and I took the time to thank every one of them when I passed. The water points had some staffing and some fill your own, which is odd considering the amount of publicity VOS gets, but otherwise well down. A water station and a big, blue port-a-loo were at every mile which made it easy to track splits. The scenery of the course was awesome.

Between miles 4, 5, 6 is a decent hill. I ran a 9:04, 9:42 and 8:32. I felt really strong and without much effort was passing people on the climb. Overall before I hit mile 11, I would put my effort level at 65%, barely sweating, not thirsty, talking really well. Like I said I was just out to enjoy the day.

What goes up must come down. After mile 6 was good drop off for three miles and I stayed in the mid-8's. Not sprinting downhill just taking advantage of momentum. Mile 10 put me back right at 9:02 on the flat.

I got kinda confused at this point, because I forgot if I had two or three miles left. Was I running my 10th or 11th mile? So I picked it up, hoping to error on the good side. Well ultimately I was wrong but I clocked a 8:15.

It is always nice to be recognized on a course and during that mile I was hollered at by a running mentor and good friend Lance Muzslay who was running against the course. His store, Scottsdale Running Company, helped set up the course and did an awesome job. Best running store in Arizona flat out. He is training to race in the Pro catagory for the inagural Arizona Ironman in thirty days, so he passed on the race today.

Well that mileage mistake cost me a high-9 for the next mile. At mile 9, the courses for the half and full split up and then at mile 11 on the half came back together and I hit the split key on the mile 24 marker not the mile 11.

By now the legs were starting to get a little tight. I was rewarded with a final mile of 9:53. Yeah I got passed in the last quarter mile by two girls who were really happy to be done but I had passed plenty and felt well rewarded.

I felt vindicated somewhat by passing two old guys. Why do I say that? Well I ran the Lincoln Nebraska marathon in 1993 and got passed by a guy at least 60 years old in the last 385 yards. He called me "Sonny". He had no teeth. I was crushed and yes carried that with me to this very day. A similiar thing occured at the 2004 inagural Phoenix Rock n Roll marathon...though without the "Sonny" and I am pretty sure he had most of his teeth.

My final time was 1:58:35 by my Timex. Considering I had at least one more gear in my legs I could have uesd I was really happy. I really had no expectations for time except I didn't want to finish averaging more than ten minute miles (later than 2:10:00).

The finish line was pretty cool, well anytime you finish a race the finish line is pretty cool, except the event staff put the table for finishing medals inside the chute area between the Chip mats. After a few minutes and some directions I was able to leap over some equipment and get one. That equipment was the final Chip mat computer so I hope I didn't screw that up. Oh you know those thing you hear people say, "Never comment on how ugly a kid is to their parent" and "Never travel back over a ChampionChip mat". I guess technically I have done both now.

Even though the race started late, I was able to get home, shower and make it too church on time. Talk about timing.