Rimrock Marathon

Yesterday was the day. November 12.  I ran 26.2 miles through Colorado National Monument.  The race was in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The first 4.5 miles of climb was serious switchbacks and very difficult, but the scenery was amazing.  My favorite moments of the race: 

1. Running through the giant tunnels cut out of rock....almost completely dark and silent except for the sound of hard breathing from the 5 or 6 runners inside and the sounds of pitter-pattering feet.  Loved watching the reflectors bounce up and down on the jackets and shoes too. 

2. Reaching the halfway mark at 13.1 miles and realizing that I felt pretty good and was going to be under the 4 hour mark if I could just hold myself together and stay within 20 seconds of my pace each mile (and the rest of the race was going to be downhill so unless disaster happened I was going to make it). 

3.  Reaching the finish line to be the 3rd girl to cross it and scoring a 3:40 on my first marathon....much faster than I imagined I'd be even in a few years from now. 

The race was a little cold. I wore gloves the entire time but I didn't sweat much so I never felt dehydrated.  I can't imagine any marathon with better scenery....truly magnificent place...I'd never been there before so I was captivated.  No rain. No snow and not much wind so I can't complain.  It was high 30s or low 40s the entire race....perfect running weather really.

Here are my splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:39:27.6	25.74	8:31.5
1	9:00.2	1.00	9:00.4
2	9:23.6	1.00	9:23.6
3	9:58.1	1.00	9:58.2
4	11:13.4	1.00	11:13.6
5	9:11.6	1.00	9:11.7
6	8:19.5	1.00	8:19.6
7	8:23.4	1.00	8:23.5
8	8:48.6	1.00	8:48.6
9	8:35.1	1.00	8:35.3
10	8:03.1	1.00	8:03.2
11	8:06.6	1.00	8:06.7
12	8:39.0	1.00	8:39.1
13	9:13.0	1.00	9:13.2
14	8:00.9	1.00	8:00.9
15	7:47.4	1.00	7:47.5
16	7:47.4	1.00	7:47.4
17	7:59.5	1.00	7:59.6
18	8:03.0	1.00	8:03.1
19	8:23.1	1.00	8:23.2
20	8:21.7	1.00	8:21.8
21	7:42.8	1.00	7:42.8
22	8:03.9	1.00	8:04.0
23	7:59.1	1.00	7:59.2
24	8:10.7	1.00	8:10.8
25	7:58.8	1.00	7:58.9
26	6:12.8	0.74	8:23.3