Today was the polar opposite of yesterday, excepting the pre-dawn wakeup.  I finally made it to the race that inspired me to start running 2 years ago.  What a morning.  Race for the Cure is a BIG deal in Denver, frequently registering the highest number of participants in the whole country.  Today they were estimating 65,000 people took part.  Wow!

I knew I was in for an event like no other when I pulled into the light rail station to find the main lot filled up at 06:00.  I had to detour into the overflow dirt lot.

The trains were packed

I was one of about 3 guys total on the packed, standing room only train.  Wearing my dark ski cap, dark long-sleeve shirt, and black warmup pants I felt like a thug in a sea of pink and white ladies.  A fly in a bowl of creamy pink soup.  Man, did I ever stick out.

I spent some time walking around the start area, and got my shirt ready.  Whew, I finally had some pink on!

For Mom and Merr

Being one of the .0000000001% of the 65,000 people that wanted to ‘race’, I made my way to the starting line about 30 minutes early.

Long jog to the start

It was about a 1/2 mile from the finish area, so I used it as a chance to jog and warm up a little.  I was pretty happy to see that my legs felt relatively decent after the 24 mile day yesterday.

I was about 5 rows back on the right

I didn’t know how much I had left in me, but I wanted to run hard and see what I could do.  The minutes leading up to the start were touching with the singing of the national anthem and talk about the disease we were all there to help fight.  I’ll admit I got a little choked up and my eyes were blurry by the time the 10 second countdown began.

You could probably stitch 6 of these pictures together and still not capture the entire crowd - HUGE!

I took off running hard with a lump in my throat and damp eyes.  Time to focus as I weaved through the people ahead of me to get a clear line.  My body wasn’t thrilled with the speed, but it didn’t shut me down, either.  More of a shoulder shrug – and here we go again…

My plan was to run until it hurt pretty bad, then hold that pace.  I was really wanting to slow down at the halfway point, but I kept thinking of the names on my back and on the backs of everyone around me and felt myself being pushed forward.  It was incredibly inspiring.

A cool feature of the Denver course - the freeway ramp ribbon

Soon the finish was in sight and I gave it everything I had to cross the line running strong.  I finished in 21:06 (6:47 pace).  Not the 6:30s I was hoping to run, but not bad with all the miles in my legs.

After the race I spent some time walking around the vendor expo area and getting lots of goodies for my girls.  Jessica was particularly excited about her bunny ears and wore them all day.

Cute rabbit

The Survivor’s Ceremony wrapped up the day, with a concert and balloons.  It was a special day and I’m glad I was able to take part in it.

The Survivor's Ceremony

I got creative with my Saturday morning schedule and ended up with a good day of training.  I had to drop my son off at his high school at 6am to catch the bus for a cross country meet.  I left my car parked at the school and started running towards home.  I knew there was a race going on today at Waterton Canyon near where I live and wanted to see if I could make it there in time to register.  It was pitch dark, so I had to wait for things to lighten up enough for me to see.  At about 6:30 I was on my way.

The view on my journey to the race

I ran easily and comfortably, taking about 2 hours to do the 12 miles to Waterton.  I got signed up for the race and walked around while I waited for the start.  I got some strange looks as I mingled with the group of road runners wearing my big hydration pack.  Little did they know I was only at the mid-point of my day’s training.

The race was a ‘predict’ event.  Runners are given a handicap based on previous races, and the start times are derived using some sort of formula.  At ‘zero’ hour, the slowest runners (or those coming off injuries, or just looking for a casual run) took off.  At regular intervals after that, incremtally faster runners would start – the fastest runners started last.  In theory, this creates a situation where everyone finishes more or less together.  You are constantly gradually passing people, or getting passed yourself.  It’s good training because it gives you a chance to try and hang with someone who is just a little bit faster than you are – rather than trying to survive when someone flies by you.

Runners waiting for their start times

Never having done a race like this, I didn’t have an established handicap.  They allowed me to select the pace I wanted to run and start at the appointed time.  I chose a 9 minute pace based on my desire for just a good steady training run.  It was strange taking the start with just one other guy.  He pulled ahead fairly quickly, and I settled into a comfortable pace.  Keeping my heart rate in the 140s.

My first couple of splits were fast, so I slowed it down a notch and was a little over for the next few.  I spent a few minutes running with Kerry and his pacer.  Kerry is blind and was tethered to his guide and doing quite well.  I was impressed with his steadiness on the uneven dirt/gravel surface.

Nearing the 5 mile turnaround

Once I hit the turnaround, I took advantage of the nice tailwind and gradual downhill to speed up a bit.  I targeted 155 for my heart rate and was at a good cruising speed.  I ran the final mile in 6:40 to finish off the race in 1:25.

Then I caught my breath for about 30 seconds and continued my run home.  24 miles for the day.

I met Kirk in the early morning and we carpooled up to Frisco to tackle the Salomon Equinox.  This is a fairly unique race in that you run by time instead of from a traditional start line to finish line.  I was doing the 12 hour solo race – the one completing the most laps in that time period would win.  There were 17 people in that event, in addition to teams running it as a relay.  A 6 hour team/solo race was taking place on the same course.

Most timed running events are on much smaller course making it easier to squeeze in laps as time gets tight towards the end.  This course was 6.6 miles, and there was a rule in place stating that only laps completed before time was up would count.  That made for a bit of a strategic challenge, as you didn’t want to kill yourself and come up short, but you didn’t want to leave time on the table, either.

The race started with a large group as the 6 mile, 12 mile, 6 hour, and 12 hour races all took off at the same time.  It made for a fairly crowded first lap.  After the second lap, things thinned out dramatically and I spent the next 8 hours or so in no-mans-land running basically alone.

The course was more of a challenge than I was expecting.  I thought it was going to follow the shoreline of Lake Dillon, but it ended up staying away from the shoreline and running along/over a ridgeline.  There was plenty of singletrack, some of it quite rocky and rooty.  A bit of dirt road, and a descent on wood chips left over from trees that had been ground up after dying from the bark beetle infestation.

Some nice singletrack

I ended up doing a lot of math in my head during the race trying to figure out the best pace that I could sustain and still use up all of the 12 hours.  Kirk executed a good plan pushing hard to finish his last lap with only 3 minutes to spare for an excellent 2nd place in the 6 hour solo.

I got to know the course very well as the day wore on, and had a few intermediate points that I used for splits to keep my overall laps on track.  This helped me stay pretty consistent for the most part.

I really struggled on the 4th lap and thought I was going to bag the rest of the day.  It was bad.  My asthma symptoms were terrible and my mouth kept watering profusely like it does right before you throw up.  Not fun.  My new shoes were making my feet miserable, I was running all alone in slow 6 mile circles.  Things were bleak.

I stopped for 10 minutes after the 4th lap, changed shoes and socks to the tried and true combination I should have used in the first place, got refuled and hydrated, then set out for my remaining laps.  I slowly started feeling better and was able to put in some ok running after that.  My last lap was an adventure with the weather turning bad in a hurry.  I had my lights with me, but was trying to finish the lap before having to turn them on.  It was getting pretty dark, but I knew the course so well by then that I still didn’t use the lights.  The temperature dropped by several degrees and a huge wind and stinging rain set in.  Lightning and thunder were all around – I was running faster than I had been for quite a while!

I finished my 8th lap, with 1:16 left on the clock – barely enough time for me to try and get another lap in.  It wasn’t meant to be as the race director shut us down on account of the lightning.  It was just as well, I was happy to be done!  I shivered uncontrollably for about 20 minutes – even after drying off and changing into warm clothes.

I ‘won’ a pair of Salomon XT Wings so that was really a nice surprise.  I ended up in 5th place – 8 laps, 52.8 miles, 5,000′ of climbing, 10:44.  It was strange to come up on Jeff (the 4th place runner) with only a quarter of a mile to go after running totally alone for most of the day.  My competetive instincts started to kick in, and I knew with the loud wind and darkness I could sprint right by and he would never hear me coming, but that wouldn’t be cool.  He earned the place with a good, solid run.  I was perfectly content to just follow him in to the finish.