6 days ago hadn’t heard of Creede.  Spirit broken after failing to finish last Saturday.  It’s not that I didn’t finish, it’s that I quit.  Let conditions of the day – heat, altitude, nausea, crowd – break me.  Additionally, opened the door/the possibility of ending my streak, 54 months marathoning.  Bright side: Dirty 30 highlighted holes in my training, tweaks I could make before Bighorn.

15 marathons past 5 months, 1000 miles complete.  Stronger than 2015, the year I went Maniac ‘Platinum’.  HUGE miss in this year’s Bighorn quest?  Failed to run BIGGER in my own backyard.  Knocked off a lotta East Coast targets but only ONE trail – and nothing over 7000ft, even in training.  Insert: Creede.  Small mining town 6 hours from my front door stoop.

Marathon field < 50, mix of dirt & Colorado asphalt.  High altitude [9000ft+] without the technical bouldering of Dirty 30.  Thanks 50 Stater-Beth for sharing your race calendar (post-run Vermont).  Wasn’t looking for a BONUS race then.  No crystal ball, didn’t know.

Direct from work, journeyed solo outta Boulder.  3 hours tonite, 3 hours predawn – too fatigued for a drive straight-shot.  Bedded in Salida, up again at 2:45am.  Race dressed, key on the dresser, door locked behind.  Rolled into Creede 5:35am, 10 minutes to spare (bib pick-up/registration).  99.  Same EXACT bib # as last Saturday.  What are the chances?  Cursed or redemption?

mining town past

School bus boarded at 6.  Cold morning shiver, mercury would soar 40+ degrees by race end.  Stopped 20 minutes outside of Silverton.  Out-n-back course.  Dawn burst o’er the surrounding peaks, bright & blinding.  Beautiful part of Colorado enveloped by canyon.

7am Mountain time.  Start Line drawn in the dirt, headwaters of the Rio Grande (same Rio Grande, Texas to Mexico).  Sported an ultra-vest (no cup event): bottle of water, bottle of electrolytes.  Slight grade first couple miles, remainder of the day flat – ultimately descending into town, 8800ft elevation.  Mountain time 😊

Popped on Highway 149 [Mile 5].  Notta fan of running highway; that said, notta lotta early morning traffic Silverton-Creede either.  Perspective.  Added an extra .75 (third-quarters mile) – ARGH – went left, later righted by a race cyclist.  But, not my first rodeo.  Would drop back on dirt mile 18, joined by Halfers bussed to marker 13.

5^th overall at the Half.  Aided by cool temps/steady pace, led the middle pack.

Good portion of the day ran with last year’s women’s winner (she’d finish 3^rd today).  Both of us fueled at 18.  Despite her encouragement, walked most the next mile.  Hot sun overhead, expended lotta energy first Half.  Nice gal.  …and I was sixth.

No water again ‘til 25.  Empty.  Guy in a truck honked encouragement – I yelled WATER.  Vehicle stopped, guy handed over his open bottle.  Random act of human kindness.  Shared half-bottle with a college gal I’d chatted up miles 21/22.

Joined Runoff’s 6k event at their turnaround (mile-half from Finish).  Appeared having been lost in a desert (I looked a hot mess – HA!), family jogging with their dog (mom/dad/3 boys) shared a Nalgene bottle.  Again, thankful for the kindness of strangers ❤

Stop, start.  Stop, start.  90 degrees, summer ablaze even on the Western Slope.  Long 20 minute mile, drug the last one out.  Dusty path littered with mine rock & sage led to Creede Ballpark.  Finished in an irrigated field of green.  June marathon complete, tag.

Laid back & over-sunned listening to a folk band.  Veggie burger & a soda, small town festival.  Good energy, happy vibe.

Not the greatest of courses – lotta highway, lack of race support/water – but the people here are good.  Pure hearts.  Just carry a full [backpack] bladder if visiting on a hot day 😊  Tick, tick, tick.  7 days, Bighorn.

RUNOFF RUNOFF

Rio Grande Restoration Project

and Headwaters Alliance

CREEDE, CO

Saturday, June 9, 2018

 

MARATHON OVERALL RESULTS

 

PLACE       NAME          GEN AGE  BIB   CITY/STATE            TIME   PACE

1 JACKSON COLE           M 22    43  ALAMOSA CO           3:27:29  7:56

2 KYLE CLARK             M 35     2  MORRISON CO          3:39:16  8:23

3 GRANTLEY SHOWALTER     M 24     8  ALAMOSA CO           3:52:00  8:52

4 NOEL PRANDONI          F 22    89  SANTA FE NM          3:57:23  9:04

5 KATELYN SNYDER         F 26    16  FORT DEFIANCE AZ     4:44:59 10:53

6 SHAUNA GUTIERREZ       F 27   124  ALAMOSA CO           5:03:36 11:36

7 ASHLEY MCCARTY         F 39    67  DIBOLL TX            5:07:40 11:45

8 K R HAGA               M 51    99  LOUISVILLE CO        5:17:38 12:08

summer trippin’ to Creede

5 days ago I was in Ireland.  This Friday, travelling I-70 West ‘cross the Americas Continental Divide.

Half-day work day, destination: Fruita.  5-hour drive from Boulder, 17 miles from the Utah border.  Arrived 20 minutes before bib pick-up/Expo shut down.  I’ve cut it closer.  My PW (personal worst)?  Illinois Marathon, April 2016: 2 minutes.  Yikes!

Tomorrow’s run, Colorado’s only November marathon.  Chose Rim Rock to keep the streak alive (cost choice, Dublin was weighty on the pocketbook).  Ironically, now visiting my Mom in 2 weeks (& of course marathon-registered nearby, addictive habit ❤).  Sleeps at the Balanced Rock Inn, half-mile from Fruita’s Community Center – shuttle meet-up location AND (26 miles later) tomorrow’s marathon finish.

Pitch dark early a.m. start.  Double-shirted but stuck with shorts.  Hard to ‘best guess’ race attire in Fall.  Inside the Park, sheltered 45 minutes behind a porta-potty [windbreak] ‘til the day’s 7am Start.  2^nd marathon experience inside a National Park 🙂

Colorado National Monument.  Landscape more Utah than Colorado.  Warned/awaited a gun start, small athletic field (mostly college runners: Colorado Mesa University & CU-Boulder).  Gun jamm’d, CMU coach casually said ‘ok go’ – & we were on our way.

8 miles UP.  First 4 miles: 2500ft UP.  More hike than run.  Even the parts that LOOKED flat, a steady clip UP.

Stopped, snapped pics, took in the panorama/Park’s amazing beauty.

Cold Shivers Point – cold winds blew.  3 miles of down, mile-half of rolling, series of incredible Park overlooks.  Red Canyon, Ute Canyon, Fallen Rock, Artists Point, Monument Canyon & Grand View.  National Park eye-candy, a scenic wonder.

Unfortunately, just not feelin’ it today.  Those first 4 miles of UP sucked the life outta my legs.  Dublin Sunday, Fruita 6 days later – head demons rattled loud/mentally spent.  DNF, DNF.  I’ve got nothing to prove, I’ve finished 100.  Lick my wounds, run another day.

Except…

No vehicle available at the Half Marathon mark (Aid Station 6).  Volunteers asked I go on to mile 17 (next Aid Station).  Seriously?  Begrudgingly, restarted my jog/slog pace.  Sooner I get to [mile] 17, sooner I could warm up & go home.

Except…

Assigned Volunteer asked a bystander to watch Aid Station 7.  Guy had a truck but no idea how to get to the Finish (Rim Rock Road was closed to the Public today).  He tried to explain.  Seriously?  Wasn’t listening, wouldn’t even refill my hydration bottles.  Head demons too strong this day – next 3 miles without water, not gonna help matters.  Ugly unfriendly headspace.

Refueled at 20.  No one quits a race at mile 20.  Runner in orange, young gal in sweats.  Back-n-forth, we 3 swapped places.  Mile 23, I reached the Aid Station last.  Worst-to-first by mile 25.  Fruita City Limits.  Colorado River.

Mile to go.  UP the overpass, jogged its downside into town.  Quarter-mile to FINISH & I did, I finished.

Today my 4-year RUNniversary, 48 consecutive months marathoning.  Most unlikely of marathon finishes, angry HOURS spent planning my running retirement – literally tried to quit TWICE.  Never ever again.  Well….never ever for 2 weeks.  LOL>

Rim Rock Run 2017
Fruita, Colorado

 

Marathon Results
125  K R Haga  Louisville CO  5:43:12