WOW! Whatta couple hours of sleep can make!
Arrived home late-afternoon after a trail 50K, walked the Pup, showered, forced in quick calories, 7:30pm bedtime. Phone alarm buzz, Sunday 2am & it all starts again. Poor pup — no idea why we’re up middle-of-the-night. Luckily, that doesn’t inhibit breakfast feeding. Ro’s never been one to skip a meal. LOL> Race attire, electrolytes, vest packed, a cup of instant coffee. Dog walk & on the road before 3. Hour-15 to Old Square, Fort Collins — place where it all begins, Day 2 Marathon Weekend. Finished my 50 State challenge here. Fast forward 8 years, amazingly that journey’s happening a fourth time this July. 4 times around the USA! Never ever a goal… just a lotta running & life opportunities 🙂
4:15am. Dropped a pin to locate truck post-race then boarded a fancy liner hired to bus us to the Start. Upper 30’s, clear, no wind, not crazy cold. Nabbed $4 of thrift store clothes I’d leave behind (race folks donate clothing to local shelters). 2x sweater (long long sleeves to cover my hands) & stripped long johns. Kinda an elf-on-the-shelf look. LOL>
Spirits high. Body bit banged up after yesterday’s trail. Feet biggest complaint. Was running well/didn’t want to stop, ran with a rock in my shoe last 5 miles. Result? Two blisters. Decided not to lance until after today’s run. Road marathons much more forgiving, Plan — would follow a pacer today & feed off her energy, knowledge of the course. Just another long run — five miles shorter than my #50K every day mantra.
Daybreak on the rock walls of Poudre Canyon. Elf pants shed, ready ready to run. Downhill grade for miles. Adrenaline pumping. Chose the 5hr pack. Awesome pacer/lotta energy. Goal to hang first Half, see how the body feels, walk where necessary.
13 miles. 15 miles. 17 miles. Still strong. 19 miles in — said goodbye to my pace group, not to walk but to RUN. Cool temps, nutrition/hydration on-point, why not? No race for next 5 days — plenty of time to recover. So… I ran.
NEGATIVE SPLIT marathon (2nd Half faster than 1st Half), first time in my life.
Well under 5 hours — video disclaimer…. I got super emotional. It was a GREAT race… but not my fastest in years (claim in video). Ran Chicago last Fall with Sis 20 minutes quicker. Still way beyond expectation… AND a quick ride HOME, my Colorado home ❤️
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- ELF-on-SHELF
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- Poudre Canyon
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- 5-hour TRIBE
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- NEGATIVE split
Colorado Marathon
New month, new adventure – how ‘bout an inaugural run in my own backyard?
Grassroots event connecting two Front Range communities, Fort Collins-to-Loveland. Six days after marathoning Austria’s Wachau Valley? Heck yeah, sign me up 😊
45-minute commute on the Diagonal. Last-minute registration (not on the Maniac calendar). Bib pick-up, shirt swag. 12 hours later, driving 287 North to Fort Collins. City Park Field, home of CSU baseball. Sunshiny skies & autumn CHILL. FAAANNNTASTIC!
SUPER EXCITED to be HOME. Five of SEVEN weeks logging miles outside Team USA borders. Whose life am I living? Dream BIG, stay prayed up. Don’t set a bar.
Slow outta the blocks, hanging with the 4:30 group today. Short-time between marathons, whole lotta travel, Colorado elevation – but HOME. Using that energy for 15 miles.
Garmin queued. big SMILE. Last-minute announcements. Ready to run.
City street, five miles. Bike path run-remainder to Loveland. Not a huge fan of concrete (no bounce/little give) but much appreciated vibes of the happy folks around me.
Porta-potty stop; musta zoned. Never saw my pace group again ‘til after the Half. They were BEHIND me. Huh?
BIG sun. Super thankful for the chill. No trees on the High Plains. Bike-path mix of rolling hills, long stretches of FLAT. Threw a few 9:30/min miles late in the race. Wind lucky too. This close to Wyoming & no headwind or cross-breeze? WOW day.
Pace-slowed, lapped at marker 23 – but didn’t drop far behind the pack as I rolled downtown. Finished & finished STRONG. Geez, it’s good to be back home. Marathon #165, Colorado #20. Who’d have thought? TWENTY marathons in my home state alone.
Keep dreamin’ folks. Absolutely ANYTHING is POSSIBLE ❤️
2019 Long View – Marathon
Fort Collins to Loveland, Colorado, 10/05/2019
Race Scored by: RUNLIMITED LLC
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* OVERALL MARATHON RESULTS *
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77 K R Haga M 4:38:32
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- grassroots event
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- 4:30 pace group
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- Fort Collins-to-Loveland
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- Colorado #20
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- October 10th ❄️
Long View Marathon
Vanish when you can, it’s good for the soul. ~ Dean Karnazes
Mountain hike always cures whatever’s ailing. Mental fix, physical reset.
Hour drive thru Boulder Canyon, trailhead parking in Nederland center. Backpack, snacks & my best pal Ro. Super cool [that] Ned provides a free shuttle to Hesse Trailhead (dogs allowed onboard) – no chance of parking my super-sized Ford, even if I did show early. HA!
Late day start after morning’s a.m. return from Cincy. Whole lotta folks with the same idea. Labour Day weekend, elevation/thin air, Colorado sunshine. Dig our outdoor community. Busy trail.
Easy 4 miles. Kicked back at Lost Lake; shared a sandwich with Pup. Waterfall stop on the hike return. Water still flowing high late in the season. Fingers crossed, heavy snow again this year.
One more run-free day, then back at it. Saskatchewan this weekend.
LOVE LOVE my Colorado life (kinda crushin’ on Canada too 🍁).
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- Hesse Trailhead
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- off-leash adventure
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- cures whatever’s ailing
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- Indian Peaks Wilderness
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- thin air & sunshine 🌞
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- Lost Lake
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- waterfall slip-n-slide
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- dog SMILE ❤️
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- Labor Day reset
So You Had A Crappy Race … Now What?
DAVID ROCHE SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2019
If I’m asked what the most important attribute is for an athlete, I have a simple answer: “Belief.” You put it all on a start line, and you proceed to crash and burn. Your time sucks. Maybe you have to DNF.
- Accept uncertainty.
Races aren’t tests, they’re celebrations. They are celebrations of life, existence, and yes…uncertainty itself. So give yourself permission to celebrate no matter how the day actually unfolds.
- It’s OK to grieve.
You can know all of that celebration stuff intuitively, but it still stings when a day doesn’t turn out how you had hoped. It’s healthy to let yourself feel your emotions, even the bad ones. You aren’t being dramatic when you get a little depressed after races. Give yourself time to get to acceptance. And it’s no rush either.
- Your fitness is your best day, not your worst.
There’s a temptation to use bad races to judge your fitness, thinking that the day gives you a benchmark from which you can evaluate your progress. Bad race? Bad athlete. Bad training. That’s not how the body works, though.
- Bad races can be good training days.
The physiological reason why so many breakthrough races follow poor ones is uncertain. It could be neuromuscular. Whatever it is, you can use that race stress to get stronger and faster.
- You are heroic.
…the bad races are where the magic happens, where you learn and grow and get the resolve to make a courageous leap of self belief. So if you can, try to celebrate bad races most of all. That is when you become a hero in your own story.
