6th Annual Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

This is going to be a long one, so settle in....

In planning to run MCM, I knew that I'd like to try to fit in a half marathon with my training schedule to keep a long plan interesting, and just to run another half marathon! Summer in Arizona doesn't afford for distance races, I suppose the high likelihood of death isn't something that most race directors want to take on, so I had to search pretty hard for something just right. Luckily, the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon fit in well and it turned out to be my favorite race to date - it was an absolute joy to run, and destroying my much desired goal time only adds to the experience. Onto the full report.

I'm not going to lie - I had some major fears going into this race. Every distance race I've done to this point, 10k or further, has had an over-abundance of information to be found prior to the race. Not quite the case here. Even with through scouring of the web for race reports, or reviews, or anything, I learned that the course treated slow runners / walkers well, was downhill, and that there may be a technical shirt and medal at the end.

Thursday the fiance and I dropped off the puppy at puppy camp (we have a fantastic cage-free, reasonably priced she goes to - spoiled) and headed off on the 7.5 hour drive into Utah. It was the first time that either the fiance or I had been to this part of the country, and we went through more National Parks in a weekend than I thought possible.

Driving through the desert for a few hours, just off the North end of the Grand Canyon: Onto the white cliffs of the Grand Staircase:

And Glen Canyon Dam, which I didn't know we'd see, but probably should have: Engineering nerd: After 7 hours or so we hit the small towns in Utah, think populations under 1,000.

The fiance wanted a photo of Orderville to hang up at work:This is where I also saw a Turkey on the side of the road!

We checked into our little (and I mean little) camp site, started up a fire and had some great chicken andouille sausages for dinner. There was a family next to us that provided entertainment all weekend - a father with 3 sons. The father was clearly not an expert camper, and the children, while generally well behaved were a bit too much for him in the wild on his own. They were very excited to be on vacation, and the endless "Hey, Dad, can we do (whatever random crazy thing)" every 2 minutes was a great time.

Friday we set out to explore the area and actually see Bryce Canyon!

Entrance to the park:A portion of the park was closed due to a large forest fire (over 1500 acres) but we still got to see a bunch of the park: My photos can't do the canyon (technically an amphitheater) justice. Both the fiance and I determined that this is a better sight / trip than the Grand Canyon.

We walked about 4 or 5 miles around the various overlooks. I didn't want to tax my legs too much, but I also didn't want to let these sights go without taking them in:A lot of the walking was pretty steep, but I was very comfortable in my teva flipflops, even if they weren't recommended:

We spent a portion of the afternoon relaxing back at the campsite, and then drove the race course down to the packet pick-up. I was pretty terrified when we passed the "8% GRADE" sign at mile 2, knowing that I'd be trying to run down this in a few hours. I was very happy with having driven the course though, as I found the few small uphills, knew where they were and could expect them, along with traversing all of the curves on the course - this may have thrown me off too! The mile markers were already set up on the course too, so it was very easy to visualize going through the race. The packet pickup itself was very well organized. I got a technical shirt with the race logo on it, bib, packet of information, and then there was the 'free stuff' table. This had pens with something on it, a local tri magazine, and the workout cards that everyone has been raving about on the internet lately! These look amazing, were free, and will get me to do some cross training!

For dinner we hit up the Ruby's Inn dinner buffet. The fiance really wanted to try this because it promised a "variety of meats." He wasn't all that impressed, but it worked out for me, because I could pick and chose what I wanted to eat. Some good wheat rolls, salad, and rocking rice crispie treats. Carbo-loading are us.

Our last stop of the day was to the Wildlife Museum. It was an off-chance stop, just to see what it was, and it was the most spectacular collection of animal mounts I've seen. (Now I am not a fan of killing animals all willy-nilly, or really at all, but this was an impressive collection.) Their claim of "Smithsonian, watch out!" is pretty accurate - if it weren't in the middle of nowhere Utah. It's a highly recommended stop on my list. Out back of the museum was a corral of exotic deer the family raises - which you can buy corn and hand feed. The $2 bag of corn looked small but went a long way. We had a great time listening to their funny funny sounds and taking in the 26 brand new babies.I had a good night's sleep in the tent and was up and ready to go at 4:45, which may have been a little early, oh well. We hung out for a little bit at Ruby's Inn, where it was warm and had open bathrooms (yay!). I walked the half mile or so to the start from the Inn, and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably! It wasn't that cold, but I think my body just didn't know what to do. It was still very dark - I forgot what daylight savings time was like - but the amenities at the start line were everything I could ask for. There was water and gatorade, tons of portopotties, music going, and an announcer keeping the crowd entertained. Unfortunately the wind had shifted overnight so that the smoke from the nearby forest fire was wafting right onto the course. The announcer said that they had tried to hook up their jumbo sized fans, but it just didn't work out.

There was no chip timing, but I still lined up towards the back, knowing it's where I wanted to be. With only 1200 runners, it wasn't all that far anyway. The announcer held up a pistol, a real pistol, and fired it for the start. In about 20/30 seconds I'd crossed the line and was off running.

Right away I felt that it'd be a comfortable race. The people around me were running at a similar pace to mine, looked steady, and I felt confident. At a half mile we passed the fire fighter base, with about a half dozen of them out standing to watch us - it was quite amazing to know that these brave people were cheering us on!

Just shy of mile 1 we turned onto the main highway (still a 2 lane road) and I hit my goal pace at mile 1 right on the nose - 11:18 exactly! Another mile just settling in, walking through water briefly, and then we headed straight downhill. I knew that I didn't want to go out too fast, but I also didn't want to hold myself back on the steep downhill grade putting more of that breaking stress on my legs than needed. So, I just went with what was comfortable, no hard breathing, no pushing my legs - and I kept seeing crazy 9:xx numbers on my Garmin. I was running faster than 5k pace, but it was easy!

• Mile 1: 11:18
• Mile 2: 11:05
• Mile 3: 10:01
• Mile 4: 10:03
• Mile 5: 10:40
  

4.5 miles was a water station and I took a Roctane. I had to wait a bit for water - I think they may not have expected people to take so much water at this station, but it fell right when most were Gu-ing, so were frantically filling water. I waited for about 30 seconds, knowing I needed to wash down the Gu I'd already scarfed! This is where the course leveled out, but running quickly still felt great.

Around mile 5.5 or so there was a car parked on the side of the road with all of it's doors open and music blaring. There was a group of 3 cheering, one of which was a guy break dancing in the middle of the highway. With only about 2 dozen spectators on the whole course, each one that made the effort to be there was a big boost and really special.

Miles 6 and 7 I settled in pretty well with a girl in orange, and just ran nice and solid. I knew I was halfway and it had barely felt like I'd been running yet. We entered the tiny town of Tropic, (population 508) where the local high school had the marquee cheering us on, and locals on the side of the road wrapped in blankets. After exiting the town, the sun started heating up, and even my Phoenix mind started thinking about it. Another Gu at mile 8 and then I gave myself a good 0.08 walk break in mile 9 since I knew I was ahead of schedule. It definitely helped me pick up the pace after - Galloway knows his stuff.

• Mile 6: 10:25
• Mile 7: 10:45
• Mile 8: 10:58
• Mile 9: 11:44
• Mile 10: 11:16

The last few miles were a little slower, but I didn't feel anything near the tiredness like RNRAZ. Most of the water stations were concentrated in the last few miles, which I appreciated, but I had to walk through each one to drink - a mental thing that I can't skip water from running in the desert. I still felt strong and good through these, and had my running pace below goal pace, but the water stations slowed my overall paces.

With a mile left I tried to speed up, but I couldn't get past the mental block of having to grab water with only half a mile to go! It was only a short break, but I felt badly for not pushing it the whole way through the last mile. I was pretty elated that I knew I was going to beat my goal, but still didn't know that I'd have beaten it by so much.

I entered the town of Cannonville, (population 148) made a right, a left, and into the finish chute.

• Mile 11: 11:42
• Mile 12: 11:53
• Mile 13: 11:11
• Mile 13.1: 0:47 [9:54 pace]
• Final Garmin time: 2:23:53

I'd thought that I might be able to break 2:30 and stay on my 2:28 goal pace, but I'd never even thought of running the race so quickly. I was happy to say the least. The end was well organized too, iced water bottles, bagels, orange slices, bananas, and a full breakfast fundraiser for families and spectators. There was an awards ceremony with some other things going on, but I didn't really get close enough to take in the whole show.
I got a quick shower at the campground and we took off on the 7.5 hour drive back. The drive was nice, and featured some giant rain, almost hail, in Flagstaff which was a unique sight for use desert dwellers.

I can't say enough about how fantastic this race was. Not only was the course beautiful and flat, but the support and planning was more than I could ask for. There were 8 on course water stations with both water and gatorade. 8 on course bathroom stations. A mister, plenty of volunteers, well marked miles, traffic control, a tech shirt, a medal, post race food, and all for only $35! They even had extra tshirts in multiple colors for $5! I'm definitely a convert to small town races too. It was so comfortable to not worry at all about the weaving and worrying to stay on pace. I could run any way I wanted to, any where I wanted to, and really could have it be my own race. The elevation wasn't a problem at all. The downhill helped! Even the smoke from the fire didn't bother me in race, but I did have a little bit of coughing a few hours later once we were down a few thousand feet in elevation.

I recommend this race / vacation to everyone! :)

2:23:52, 10:59 split