Prior to this race I knew from the names of the people on the start list that I would personally be thrilled with my performance if I cracked into the top 10.

And though I didn’t pull that off, I am definitely pleased with my race.  I paced the effort very evenly and felt really strong at the end.  I passed between 7-10 people in the last 10 miles and wasn’t passed by anyone permanently the last half the race.  And I finished 13th overall, which, against this competition, is great progress for me from where I was last year.   Sure I’d like to be able to compete with the top guys.  But all in good time.  I’m moving in the direction I like and getting more and more fit.

Overall for this race, my training prior to, and my pacing and fueling during, all went off perfectly according to plan and I feel great about the result.  I was also happy to see a 4:59 on the clock at the finish line rather than a 5:xx, because that became my goal late in the race.

Here are the official results from the race website:

And here are some details of the race as I experienced it:

• My Pacing Plan:  Keep my effort level around a 150 Heart rate for the first 25 miles of the race and then see how hard I can push the last 9 miles.
• My Fueling plan: 7 flasks of EFS liquid shot half strength with water.  Carried all 35 oz. in my Nathan Hydration pack along with 40 oz. of water in the reservoir.  Planned to fill up with water just one time at one of the aids when I ran out and make that my only stop for the day.
• Carpooled with Cody from the Hotel, and then warmed up with Woody Anderson and Todd Gangelhoff pre-race in Woody’s car.
• Chatted with Ryan Burch at the start and made sure he was clear on how bad I was going to kick his butt (see race results…um, I mean, don’t do that)
• Race Started in windy, slightly rainy conditions.  I wore a T-shirt, Long Sleeve shirt, Wind/Rain jacket, gloves, beanie, hat, shorts, New Balance MT101′s with Drymax Ultimate protection socks.  I thought I would remove the wind breaker in my drop back, but I left it on the entire race and was comfortable.
• I consciously told myself not to go out with the leaders, a pack of over 20 that took off fast.
• I started the race with Cody Draper.  I chatted with him and Bryce Warren up the first hill.
• Ran with Todd G. for a few minutes and then pulled away from him and the others on the first descent, keeping my HR steady at where I wanted it.
• Caught up to Steve Young a mile or two later who had gone faster than me up the hill but was just a few hundred yards ahead.
• Ran with Steve and a group that formed for a couple miles.  Had a good time, chatting, meeting new folks:  Scott Shine from Montrose, Jason Patton from Albuquerque.
• Steve cruised ahead with Donnie H. up the next climb and I let him go…focused on staying in my HR zone that I planned.
• Anita Ortiz passed me shortly after.  I was pretty surprised by how hard she was breathing at mile 8 and it made me question my race strategy because I know how solid of a racer she is.
• Bethany Lewis cruised by me right behind Anita.  I let them all go ahead up the hill, just going my own steady, but pretty easy pace, just conserving energy but staying steady.  HR was in the mid 150′s for this section
• Started the down hill and let the speed open up, trying to maintain the 150 HR and not let it drop too much on the down hill, but also not pushing it harder.
• Continually dripping calories from my flasks and drinking water slowly.
• EFS liquid shot half diluted in water is MONEY!  I used to drink it full strength, but it goes down twice as easy and smooth half diluted.
• I was feeling great through mile 13.  Passed Bethany back on a down hill.  She came back on an uphill.
• Bethany and I ran for a mile or two after that, chatting, but going steady.
• Wind picked up.  I slowed briefly to change out my empty flasks with some new ones from my pack and Bethany got ahead by a hundred or so feet.
• Then the wind really picked up and we both stayed a couple hundred feet apart, battling the wind solo.
• I should have surged to her so we could work together through the wind.  But I was too hung up on keeping my Heart Rate steady.  So I stayed right at the pace.
• I was running 8:20 or so pace, at an effort that would normally be 6:30′s or so.  The wind on this section was intense.
• Still enjoyed myself though.  Bethany stopped at the 17 mile Aid.  I ran straight through and was now a few hundred yards ahead.
• Caught Donnie Haubert on the down hill from there.  Then he pulled ahead as we got to the next major climb up to Aid station 4.
• Bethany went with him up the hill.  I stayed in my zone.  Did my own pace and they gapped me.  But I still was only a few hundred yards behind by the top a couple miles later.
• Then began the hardest part of the course in my opinion.
• I stopped to tie my shoes so my feet would not be tempted to jam my shoes on the coming steep slick rock descents.  I’m really glad I did.  Afterward Cody found he had 2 black big toe nails because his feet were jamming his toe boxes.
• I went down a big hill, and couldn’t see any markers all of sudden.
• Stopped to look around.  Waited for a guy I had passed at an aid station to come down, he pointed me in the right way.
• This continued for the next 3-4 miles.  Veering off course.  Constantly looking for flags.
• The course was well marked, but it took vigilance to keep on track and I was zig zagging around quite a bit.
• I lost my rhythm here and my HR dropped to the 140′s.  People started gaining on me.
• Zach Hermsen and Jeff Bertot passed me.
• Cody caught up to me.  That was pretty cool actually!  I was stoked to have some company actually.
• At that point I didn’t care any more what my heart rate was.  We were at about mile 24 or so, and I was just going to stick with Cody no matter what.
• He was verbally hurting though.  And I was feeling just fine.
• He said his legs were trashed and I easily pulled ahead on all the down hills.
• But there was so much up and down that we stayed together, and it was really helpful to have someone to help with the navigation through this section.
• Plus it was just way more fun having a friend to run with right at that moment when mentally I was kind of tired and not feeling in a very smooth groove because of the tough terrain.
• Mile 26 or 27 it started descending a lot.  I looked back and Cody was gone almost instantly.
• I looked ahead and people were starting to come back to me.
• This greatly motivated me and made me feel even better.
• My feet were getting tired from the rocks the previous few miles.
• But now they were fine, and the adrenaline of catching people and being closer to the end started kicking in.
• I soon passed Bethany who was running strong all day, but now seemed to be hurting just a bit.
• Then I passed Zach and then Donnie.
• This section was marked by mostly down hill on slick rock.
• Then a sand patch.
• Then a 25 foot super steep climb up a slick rock that some of the 33K racers were almost crawling up.
• I was stoked to feel super strong on all of it, and just blasted by people running up everything no matter how steep.
• I love that feeling in a run…to have gone almost 30 miles, and still feel strong is a really cool feeling
• I felt the same thing in the Leadville bike last year.  After nine hours of riding, I was feeling as strong as I did at the start of the race and just blowing by everyone at that point.
• I passed Jeff Bertot around mile 29 or so.  But he was going strong and looking back and seeing him pretty close still kept me pushing strong to the finish.
• The last few miles were supposed to be easy downhill!
• They weren’t.
• They were hard down hill.
• Steep rocky stuff.
• Then a sand trap that almost stops you in your tracks for a hundred feet.
• Then a rocky jeep road.  Then more steep uneven slick rock.  Then another sand trap.
• Finally a mile or two of dirt road down to the river and finish area.
• Still not sure how far I had to go, and nearly giving up hope on hitting the 5 hour mark because it was creeping up fast.
• Then I rounded a corner and Voila!  The finish line.  I pushed hard the final 1/4 mile and looked at the clock
• 4:59:54
• Cool.

So I stopped to pee once.  Stopped to tie my shoes.  Stopped to look around once and get back on course.  Then I stopped at the last aid station with 5 miles to go to give myself enough water to finish on.  Otherwise it was just a steady, even paced run.

This race was really, really fun.  I loved being in Moab.  Loved the scenery.  Loved how the race started for the first 20 miles on pretty fast terrain through cool country.  Loved the slick rock section after that.  That section was definitely challenging, but really cool terrain.  Brought me back to the many times I have mountain biked in that area and just loved it.  I loved how I felt the last 1/4 of the race.  With eight miles to go and people starting to come back to me it felt really good to start kicking it into gear.  I much prefer finishing a race that way, than being the one getting caught and sucking wind.

That being said the only thing I would change for my next race will be to take more risks.  After a week of thinking, and mostly after hearing about 20 people’s unanimous opinion, I have decided I will not be wearing a Heart Rate Monitor at my next race.

I played it very conservatively the entire race, and I executed my plan as close to perfection as probably possible.  I locked into about a 150 heart rate from the get go, and my average for the race ended at 149.  My effort the first half of the race was right where I think it should have been.  From 20-26 I kind of felt like a bit of a slacker and lost some motivation on the tough slick rock terrain.   During the last hour I had plenty of energy still and was able to push hard to the finish.  I tried hard to even push my HR up into the 160′s,  but by that point I couldn’t seem to push my HR that high.  So it stayed even.  But my legs felt strong throughout, and my energy was strong throughout.

I attribute the strong energy throughout 100% to EFS liquid shots.   I executed the fueling plan to perfection, and the liquid shots, half diluted in water, were what made that not only possible, but easy.  It is just really easy to get calories and electrolytes into my system with that stuff.   I have been raving about it since I first used it last year in Leadville, and it just continues to work and work well.  And its so simple.  I hardly had to think about fueling.  It just happened, smooth and easy, and I felt constantly energized.

Conclusion

So a super successful and fun training block, peaking in a really fun race, has come and gone.  I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience of that these last 4 months.  And I plan to replicate that over the next 4 months peaking again for the Logan Peak Trail run.  I really enjoy running daily and training, and it’s great to have a fun event to work toward and a bench mark to meet.

And finally, congrats to everyone that finished this race.  And all those dudes and dudettes ripping it up at the front of the pack.  Dakota passed Tim Parr with just a few miles to go and just kept the hammer down.

And Ryan Burch, nicely done! You pretty well handed it to me in our 2nd race in the duel.  (That started when I beat him in a 5K in January.)

So its now Ryan: 1, Aaron 1.  But I think at this point, my only hope this year in getting back ahead of Ryan is to convince him to come do a 5K with me again…or better yet, a mile on the track!

Didn’t get much chance to talk to my neighbor Steve Young after, but I had a hunch he was going to kick some butt and he did indeed…solid race Steve!  We were running earlier in the week and we threw in about 7 strides of 45 seconds in which it was pretty obvious that I had been doing speed work and Steve hadn’t.  But I commented to him that it was pretty likely that the fact that I can out sprint him on 45 second intervals wasn’t going to be much of a factor in a 34 mile race.  And that was indeed the case.  Nice job Steve!  I can say though, that the anaerobic strength from doing speed work came in pretty handy powering up the short 50 degree slick rock inclines at the end of that race.  I felt really strong on those and passed a few people at that point.

Also Congrats to Todd Gangelhoff, Cody Draper, and Woody Anderson, and Bryce Warren on solid races.

Here are a few pics my wife took at the finish area.

The kids enjoying the slick rock off in the distance as I finished

Cody finishing strong

The finish line…59 minutes after Dakota got there.

Fun race, thanks Cody for catching me at mile 22 or so, made those few miles a lot more fun

Todd G. with his wife, chowing the bread bowl and soup.  Good running with you Todd.

Abe 6 and Breanne 4 – such fun ages.

Ali – Hard to resist that cuteness

Donnie Haubert and Dylan Bowman.  I appreciated trying to hang on to Donnie who was really solid the entire middle of the race.  Dylan just ripped it up near the lead as usual so I never saw him beyond the first 30 seconds.

Where are the kids?

I have such great memories of exploring slick rock at that age, the kids couldn’t get enough, great finish line entertainment

Congrats on yet another incredible performance Dakota

Nick C really knows how to throw down a cool get together.  Thanks a ton Nick for planning/hosting that run today.  I had a really great time cruising the trails out your doorstep.  Such awesome and plentiful miles of singletrack…stunning views, really cool day!  And what kind of magic trick did you pull to prepare such amazing Dec. 18th trail running weather?  And thank your sweet wife from me for allowing her home to be ransacked by a horde of stinky runners.  Really great running and hanging with you and everyone else today.

Here’s the re-cap from today’s Chubby cheeks 50K:  A perfect day of running amazing trails with a bunch of cool people.

I didn’t end up doing the whole 50K because I was a bad navigator.  I picked up Tim and intended to get us up there for the 8:00 am start, but we missed a turn and didn’t get to Nick’s house until 8:20 so we ended up starting with the 9:00 am group.  We opted for the ‘marathon’ route instead so as not to arrive back when everyone was heading home…I was fine with that actually, because 25 miles would be sufficiently fun.

The 9 am start group was Tim and I, along with Dakota, Scott J, and Justin.  Also, some other locals from FoCo, Nick, John, Kyle, and one more dude I can’t remember.

It was fun running up to Horsetooth Rock with all those guys.  Dakota was taking it easy, but of course, after a few miles and about 1200 feet of vertical, his and Justin’s easy pace was becoming a little too hot for me, so Tim and I backed off and let Dakota, Scott, and Justin get ahead to the first summit.   I was happy to ease off into a slightly more sustainable pace for me for the rest of the day.

And since I’m now wanting to end this post already and hang out with my wife, here are some highlights of the day:

• Meeting cool new people and hanging out with them and other cool people I already knew.
• Running amazing single track and feeling really strong for close to 5 hours of running
• Having good company to run with and enjoy the day with for a majority of the time
• Outrunning Tim on a couple of the climbs – (I have to really soak in the glory of that since it will probably never happen again because he is barely starting to run again after a month off and probably wasn’t even trying.  But hey, that dude hangs out on web pages of his sponsor with the likes of Dwayne Wade…so you have to feel totally cool if you’re ever running faster than him up a hill…even if he does end up beating you by 3 minutes at the end of the day!)
• That Maple Bar afterwards…still enjoying that one now just thinking about it.  Donuts taste better post 5 hour runs for some strange reason.
• Feeling really good and solid after the run…no aches or pains, a nice cap to another great week of running.
• My incredibly cute kids and wife smothering me with hugs and kisses when I came in the door after a day out and about…so grateful for them more than anything in my life.
• Winning a pearl izumi hat for having the largest rear end….or at least being only 1 of 2 eager beaver enough for a free hat to enter the contest…whatever works!  Thanks to the judges for judging my butt the largest.
• The drive to and fro with Tim, great conversation and company…thanks for going Tim.

Stats for the day:

• 24.5 Miles – (Four of us accidentally cut the marathon course by a couple miles, then I inadvertently added .5 on toward the end)
• 4:47:22 – 11:51 avg – including tons of time stopped chatting on peaks, waiting on peaks, other random stops at junctions chatting etc.  It was a pretty low key run, just enjoying the day.
• 5865′ Vertical (according to sport tracks)
• avg HR 143
• 58 miles for the week with 9100′ vertical.

The 9 am wave courtesy of Nick Clark.  From left to right, Me, Dakota, John, Justin M, Scott J, highschooler, Tim long, Kyle.  Can’t remember who the two at far left were.