Coming into this race looked a lot different than the last time in 2020. That year, I had trained with Kristi to do this as her first 50k. We trained, tapered, and ran it together. This year, it was part of the last big training cycle before Black Canyon 100k, so I came into it already exhausted after some pretty hard workouts in the days before the race. We left Friday morning, and although there was a bit of snow, I-70 was in pretty good shape. That is until we were west of Vail, then we started seeing signage about a highway closure through Glenwood Canyon. Rather than sit in our car on the highway, we headed into Edwards. We stopped for lunch, confirmed the closure (expected to be an extended closure), and hunkered down at a coffee shop. Luckily, Josh had packed our laptops, so he did some work, and I watched a couple of continuing education webinars.
We contemplated alternative weekend training plans, thinking about where we could find some dry trails. After 3 hours, the highway did eventually open, and we were on our way, crawling at 10 mph through Glenwood Canyon. After 12 grueling hours, we were finally in Moab, stiff, sore, and absolutely knackered…so, in other words, in peak racing form. The good news is that my brain was no worse for wear, although I did have my coat over my head the last few hours, so I couldn’t see anything, which also meant I stopped shrieking every time someone braked, and Josh appreciated the reprieve.
The next morning it was chilly, but the Arches Ultra course was in decent shape. There wasn’t much ice, and the snow was firm. After a couple hours, the sun was hard at work, turning the trails into a muddy mess. I was grateful when there was solid slickrock, because it was way easier than the sections of slush and peanut butter mud. The extra work of trying to stay upright in the mud started to take a toll, and I could feel the fatigue building. I kept reminding myself – this is a training race, I’m not rested, and it isn’t going to be my fastest 50k.
I had forgotten how much slickrock there is on this course, and I was really proud of myself for being able to listen to music with all the technical footing. It was great practice for my brain to multitask! I focused on the music, my nutrition plan, and not falling in the mud. Around mile 26 I started having a little nausea, and by the finish I had a migraine coming on, which is super common for me during a race and explained the mild nausea earlier. In the end, it was still my 4th fastest 50k, which is pretty awesome, all things considered.
After some migraine medication, and a shower back at the hotel, we headed to Milts for a burger, tater tots, and a shake. After all my trips to Moab, I had no idea Milt’s even existed (thank you Ellen), but that hit the spot. We ordered way too many tater tots, which gave us leftovers to devour in bed a few hours later while watching a movie.
The next morning, we drove to Fruita for a nice 3-hour recovery run. Ugh. That first 5 miles was slow and painful, and probably more walking and stopping to stretch than actual running. But eventually, I got in my groove, and by the last few miles, I could’ve gone for a few more hours. After a quick lunch, it was time to make the trek home, facing the inevitable I-70 ski traffic.
It was solid training, but overall an exhausting weekend. Training has been a bit rocky after our New Year’s Arizona trip. I got sick, spent 2 days in bed (vomiting, vertigo, fever), and all that lack of movement following a big training week led to everything seizing up. I hurt everywhere. The next two weeks were spent doing very little mileage, and a lot of physical therapy, just trying to get my body to loosen up and work for me. Arches Ultra was a big test to decide if I was going to pull the plug on Black Canyon, but overall I think my body is coming around. I had hoped to be in peak shape and redeem myself after last year’s ugly performance at Black Canyon, but that isn’t in the cards this year, and that’s fine. As long as I don’t get heatstroke (again), I know I at least have the fitness to finish 100k.
For now, Josh is staying at a friend’s house for another couple of days, trying to avoid the COVID that I hopefully did not pick up from my coworker this week. We did meet up for a 3 hour run yesterday and today, and now it is time to start tapering. If all goes well, we will both be at the starting line of Black Canyon in 2 weeks for his first 100k. I only wish I could run fast enough to watch him finish.
