I have missed Moab. Events have conspired to keep us from spending much quality time there the last couple of years, and I really miss the trails and the scenery.
But I have to admit, I was only running this race because Jim wanted something on the schedule to be motivated to train for. We had always looked at this course and passed on it because of the first big hill climbing up to the plateau. But as we stood there before the race looking up at the hill, it suddenly looked....small...compared to others we had conquered recently. NBD.
I know I've been going on about the weather recently, but race day in Moab was another amazing weather day. Cool but not cold, cloudy with bits of sun, dry and calm. Hard to ask for better than that. What we didn't account for was the hordes of people at the race. The combined count for the 50 mile, 50k and 30k was about 1500 people...that's probably the biggest trail race I've been to in the States. I'm glad there's a company out there organizing these races and making a successful business out of it! Mad Moose events have quite a few races around the area and we have participated in quite a few of them now.
I was a little sad that I had only signed up for the 30k but then again, it was nice to finish in the late morning and not be running anymore, lol. The course is beautiful, climbing up from Hwy 191 north of Moab to the Gemini Bridges overlook. The scenery up there is just amazing. The course itself is decently fast as a trail run, if you can keep your balance and momentum on the undulating red slickrock that surrounds Moab. It's fun and yet torture all at once.
I felt decent but not amazing, some deep aching in my pelvis and later knee which I've been battling this season. More foam rolling and squats in my future, plus some chiropractice adjustments, I'm sure! I had to dig deep to finish ahead of my quite arbitrary yet absolutely important goal of 3 hours. I came in at 2:58 and change and was quite happy. A 13 year old kid was right behind me and we had been battling it out for about half the race. I had about 17 miles on my watch, race website says 17.7.
Jim, who until this year I could set my clock by to be about 20% slower than my time on any given race, has suddenly been doing everything right in his training. I barely had time to grab a bowl of quesadilla soup, and he was already heading to the finish in 3:12! Now that's amazing.
Photos are just a few from the Mad Moose FB page as I didn't carry a camera. Too heavy!
Here are the results. I was #100 out of 431 finishers.
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