Moab Headwind Race Review with pics

Worst night of sleep.....ever.  Horrid bed at the vacation rental in Moab after arriving somewhat late. (We are spoiled with a Tempurpedic at home.)  Finally decided to get up 30 minutes earlier than planned after tossing and turning, and turning and tossing and having middle-of-the-night conversations with DH.  Sleepy.

Head to park.
Load shuttles.
Wind is whipping (can't wait to feel that whipping wind tearing up the canyon we are to run down).
Arrive at start line.
Port-a-potties are tipped over from the WIND. Not all of them...but at least 8.
It's cold and shady.
9:15am and we are told to stuff our Go Bags to send to the finish line.
Strip down to shorts and t-shirt.....45 minutes until race start.
Burr.  Wind is wild.
Dirt in my eyes.  Dirt in my teeth...yuck.

After the long wait, the race begins....exhausted from shivering and shielding from the wind.

My plan was to cruise to mile 8 and if I was on pace, then I'd build to the finish.....at mile 6, I wanted to quit.  The weather was ridiculous.  Cold and at least a 20+ mph headwind, OR hot, sunny and breeze-less.  Parched and exhausted.  Heart rate is spinning out of control. I am 33 years old and I was hovering in the range of 182-188....ugh....I don't like that. Did I mention I stayed on pace only for 3 miles and then the pace was just rising higher and higher.

Somehow, after much self-talk to not just climb under a rock and stay there forever, I made it to mile 9 and I saw a "friend": a girl I ran with in November at the Rimrock Marathon.  She ended up winning that marathon and I took 3rd.  I said "HEY!"  She said "I thought that was you."  We chatted a bit and I felt encouraged.  Then she said the last 2 miles of this race is along the highway and that I should put my head down and just grit my teeth through it....that it is alot like the end of the Rimrock Marathon.  I was glad to have the heads up....although it didn't really make it better.  I hit the highway stretch and each 1/10 of a mile took ages to click past.  It was truly miserable. I couldn't break a 9:00min/mile pace on the Garmin. Ugh.  No matter how hard I pushed....heart rate 187.  (My goal pace was 7:36....I have run my "easy/long runs" at 8:45 pace).  9:00min/mile during a race wasn't even a possibility in my mind.  I stare at a stoplight up ahead. I know that that light is the mile 12 marker and the turn into the neighborhood down the final stretch. I stare at it. I ignore the world and try not to quit.  I make it to the turn and head for home.  I see a road called Winesap and it resonates in my mind....what is winesap? Is it a real thing?  I'm not a drinker so I don't have a clue.  Maybe I should turn down Winesap and hide for a while.  I'm almost done.  I feel terrible.  My goal of running under a 1:40 clicks by on my Garmin.  It now says 1:42.  I can see the finish up ahead.  I finish in 1:45 something.  Really not too far off my goal in the end but my heartrate was crazy high the entire race and I really wanted to be well into the 1:38s or so.

Tired and discouraged.
Racing is more fun than training when you have a good race.
Training is more fun than racing when you have a bad race.

It's been about 10 hours and I'm over it.  I check the registration status on the marathon I plan to register for once DH is sure that his injury is under control and he can run it (we would build it into a vacation).  Onto the next big thing.

And now for a few pictures:

This is DH and I before the race start......what a place.

 This is me, DH, my little brother and his girlfriend.  (We all ran).