Saturday September 25 2021
I had originally been scheduled to run the half marathon Balloon Chase during the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon festival, but that was cancelled as part of the popular response to COVID. It was rearranged for this year but on the weekend before the Chicago marathon, it didn’t seem the best timing.
That said, with one more long run scheduled in my training for Chicago, it seemed like a good idea for me to increase my sign up from the half to the full for this weekend’s Sandia Crest Marathon point to point event. Two weeks before the Chicago marathon…
The race is predominantly downhill and I wanted to run 20-22 miles anyway, so what’s another 5 miles between friends…?
With school FH, we had a big win against Covenant Day Thursday night, and with Friday afternoon practice cancelled in advance, I was flying out Friday morning, back Saturday afternoon!
It was always a short trip for me, with work back in Charlotte on Sunday, but my travel plans were disrupted even further by the cancellation/rescheduling of my 1150 Charlotte – Fort Worth leg, meaning I would likely get into Albuquerque around midnight. Not ideal with a 6am marathon start the next day. ‘Working from home’ on Friday morning, I hot-footed it to the airport in a Lyft as soon as I could pack, and spoke to a nice lady at the AA customer service desk, to try to figure out a work-around. She put me on standby for an 1104 flight out to Phoenix, leaving in 30 mins. I got to the gate in time with TSA Pre Check, and got a seat due to my Sapphire OneWorld status. I connected in PHX and got a seat from standby for the 1426 flight to ABQ.
On my flight, realising tomorrow morning’s race started at a little over 10000 feet, I read a guide to running at altitude which stated the following –
Oh dear…
Anyway, I picked up the rental (first time I’d driven a sporty Chrysler…)
And I drove to packet pickup, which wasn’t in the sports store as promised, so I had to then head to the start/finish area for that…then I headed to my Holiday Inn, which was very nice. I grabbed a take our dinner to eat at the hotel, then prepped for the race and got an early night.
My 4am wake up rolled around after a nigh-on non existent amount of sleep, and I got ready for the race.
Around 0445, I drove to the VIP bus pickup (at the start/finish), left my race bag in the car, and just brought my event drop bag with me (numbered with my #140 bib number), containing breakfast, clothing, drinks etc.
The race is a point to point course, predominantly downhill.
The drive up the mountain took about 45 minutes, during which time I ate and hydrated. It was cold at the top of the mountain (10000 feet elevation) but the O2 actually felt normal for breathing – very different to my CO race, which, although at a lower altitude (around 9000 feet) required quite obviously increased effort to do anything, including breathing, with so little oxygen available.
Anyway, at check in, as pictured before, we had been given gloves and a silver foil rescue blanket. I used that for a little while, as I wasn’t wearing a t-shirt, and did absolutely no warm up or stretching at all. This was my first real marathon, so I thought I didn’t really want to any more running than I already had to do. I’d probably just warm up as I went along, surely…
A lot of runners had their gloves on and multiple layers of clothing, and plenty had hydration packs, too. Maybe they don’t trust the aid stations! There was also one bare foot runner. Who, I’m pretty sure finished ahead of me. What a mentalist.
Anyway, away we went. I went out a little hot (6.50 pace) but with no race plan whatsoever, my overall pace ended up being 7.11, so it wasn’t too crazy a start really. The course had some good downhill, but with lots of twists and turns, the severe camber gave me a bad blister on the side of my right heel. So much so, that I sought the flatter concrete drainage channel to the side of the tarmac road, and that felt great comparatively! Even the uphill parts of the course started to appeal because of the different pressure they put on my right foot. The aid stations were many, and great. I took on water plus an energy drink at every one, and five of my Maurten gels. Standard at mile 4, 8 and 13.5, caffeinated at 18 and 22.5.
I really focused on staying hydrated, which seemed to work, but I did have relieve myself three different times during the race!
Anyway, I basically felt fine during and after the race. My time was 3.08.X, and I placed 9th overall. I didn’t hit a wall, so I think the hydration went well and honestly, it certainly seems like I could have pushed harder, if I knew what I was doing.
I really didn’t stretch my lungs or push my heart rate at any time during the race, not like on effort-filled half marathons, and certainly not like the determination required to run a good 5K or 10K, but a marathon is just a long way, and a long time, to do anything quite frankly. So my legs felt a little heavy at the end, but I still managed a half decent sprint finish.
After the race, I took a couple of quick pics, grabbed a water, spoke to no one, and headed back to the hotel. I showered and packed up and made my way to the airport, managing to go standby again and get home by 2100.
We had spent time in Albuquerque before, and with a busy Sunday ahead, coaching and training, I was pretty excited to get home for a bit more rest.
I think that’s my biggest take away from this particular trip. Stand By air travel (particularly with airline status so your name prioritises to the top of the stand by passenger list). It’s opened a whole new world of travel possibilities to me!
Chicago is in two weeks. Probably a much busier course, in every way, which I’m not sure suits my personality. Anyway, onwards.
Racing Americana 