My Phedippidations World Wide Half-Marathon Run

My biggest problem was where to run? I made sure that I had a cloverleaf course arranged my house. I thought of running Glenwood Canyon (along the I-70 corridor) as an alternate route. One of the loves of my life is running in Moab, Utah. The red canyon river country is too amazing for words. My mind was set. I’d run it somewhere near Moab, Utah.

I was ready for this run. I was more ready than any other. I was hydrated, nourished, rested and mentally prepared. I improved my training techniques and knew I was slowly improving.

Tom Martin, Molly and I decided on Highway 128 where it started from Highway 191 just North of the town. Highway 128 follows the mighty Colorado River as it cuts deeply into red rock canyons on both sides. Although a narrow two-lane road at times, there is no scenery for a half-marathon course that is quite like this one proved to be. River runners described the Colorado River in the days before Glen Canyon Dam as "too thick to drink and too thin to plow." On this day, the river was very green and muddy in appearance.

The route along the Colorado River.

Tom would drive the Jeep. He could move ahead of me to be able to offer support with water or sport drink, medical supplies, cell phone and other systems. We each had an FRS radio so we were in communication at all times.

It was a cool morning with temperatures hovering near 40 degrees. I waited until I thought I’d be able to run, but still started out wearing a hoodie sweatshirt.

I felt great as I stepped out of the Jeep and began my run. The time was 8:49 AM. It was exhilarating.

I had a great dinner the night before and some oatmeal that morning. From the breakfast buffet at the hotel I snagged 2 english muffins, 4 packs of jelly and 2 yogurt cups for after the race.

Tom set a place for the first water station and I ran to meet him. It was water at stations 1 & 2 and sports drinks after that. We leap-frogged the route. If I left the highway, I radioed Tom and let him know.

I ran through 2 campgrounds at the side of the highway. People were doing the campground stroll and greeted me while they watched me run by. I used Akshaye’s suggestion and removed the left earbud as I ran by other people or met Tom. It worked well while keeping me focused on my run. I listened to the Podrunner (dj steve boyett) specifically, “138 BPM – Voices Carry” and “133 BPM – Beat Cathedral.”

Tom had some fun, too. He stopped at one point and found a rafter bus stuck in the mud at the side of the road. He thought about offering the Jeep’s winch to assist in getting him out, buy it was a full size bus and probably would have damaged the Jeep. They did have another bus coming to get them out. I got some sports drink from Tom at that place. He had some questions to answer as I ran past. He extolled the virtues of the Phedippidations World Wide Half-Marathon.

He met another desert explorer at another stop. They had a great conversation about historic archeological and rock art sites.

I kept at it. There was one good sized hills and some smaller ones. I stayed focused the entire run. This was the first half-marathon that I have run in which I did not need to walk any of it.

All too soon, Tom told he had parked just past the 13 mile marker. He was about a mile beyond where I was. The sun was starting to shine through cloudy skies. I stepped it up a bit. The end was in sight! As he saw at the bottom of the rise, he told me to step it up. I kicked as much as I felt I could and ran to the finish line!

At the finish line. Notice the FRS radio in my hand.

Relaxing with Molly in the beautiful country that I ran in.

These were my split times (Garmin Forerunner 205) –
MILE____LAP_____TIME
1.00 - 9:49 - 9:49
2.00 - 10:37 - 20:26
3.00 - 10:49 - 31:15
4.00 - 10:28 - 41:43
5.00 - 10:26 - 52:08
6.00 - 10:40 - 1:02:49
7.00 - 10:37 - 1:13:26
8.00 - 10:27 - 1:23:53
9.00 - 10:53 - 1:34:46
10.00 - 11:14 - 1:46:00
11.00 - 12:08 - 1:58:08
12.00 - 11:33 - 2:09:41
13.00 - 11:46 - 2:21:07
13.10 - 11:27 - 2:22:34

My iPod Nike+ Sport System gave a final time of 2:22:39.

I ran my first half-marathon at 2:33:22. I ran my second half-marathon at 2:28:01. I ran this one at 2:22:39. Every time I improve my time. This time I figure that I improved by 5 minutes and 22 seconds.

Problems? Not having trained with the Hoodie, I had some chafing of both nipples! How painful! I forgot to grab my bib number. It did have "Team Elijah" printed on it. I'll take anther picture later to show it off. I did wear the "Pray for Elijah" band but it was under the sweatshirt, so it doesn't show in the pictures. Disappointing!

I had a great run, a great time and saw a lot of scenery you just can’t see from the window of a car.

Just a note of caution. Highway 128 is a narrow canyon highway. If it had any more traffic on it then it did, I would advise against running it. Safety needs to be a factor in what we do!

Now for the 6 hour drive back to Denver…