Moab

Ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon last Saturday. Whenever I talk about Moab, I really feel as though I'm missing out if I don't share pics, but I inadvertently left the camera behind last weekend. Ran the race with my sister, her boyfriend and his father. They are all multiple year vets of the race, but it was my first. It turned out to be a hot one... good preview for Tempe in November. It reached close to 80 on Saturday as it apparently did in Denver all weekend too. The race organizers bus the 5,000 runners 11 miles up the narrow canyon along the Colorado River and we run down along the river and a couple of miles through the town of Moab. Don't think Moab is officially one of the seven wonders of the world, but it could well be... beautiful red rock formations planted in the middle of the high desert with the snow-capped LaSal Mountains just to the east. Three national parks surround the area. If you've never been there, you owe it to yourself to get there at least once in life.

I had planned to run the miles close to a 9-minute pace and I held that up fairly well. I finished in 2:00:58, which I think was a 9:17 pace. I felt really good through the first 10 miles and struggled a bit with some quad and calf cramps as well as dehydration through the last 3 miles. That being said, I recovered pretty quickly and did get out to ride 50 miles on Sunday around Grand Junction, Colorado. That helped loosen me up a bit too. BG's held up pretty well. I dialed my basal rates back to 60% of normal 1.5 hours prior to the start and set that temp basal for 3.5 hours (which would take me through the end of the race). I downed about 70g of carbs about 20-30 minutes before the start of the race when my BG came in at 114. Aid stations were spaced out about every two miles and I downed a 3/4 cup of water at each station (perhaps not enough). I tested my BG between miles 6 and 7 and it came in at 81. That's lower than I wanted, so I downed a couple of Gu packs immediately (50g total carbs). In opening one of those Gu packs, I naturally got it all over my hands which made their way into my glucose meter. For those not familiar with what that means, I basically killed the accuracy for the rest of the race of my glucose monitor until I could get all the hardened Gu washed off my monitor. What did I learn from Saturday? Well, I'm not yet trained to run a marathon, but it would have been an uphill climb to finish the second half if I had to. I think I need to drink more water. My electrolytes were pretty depleted as well. When I watched the IM Arizona last November, I noticed a lot of the runners were downing salt tablets. I'm going to look into that further... may help ward off the dehydration or even stave off the loss of electrolytes.

What's on tap this weekend? Another 700 mile round trip to Moab. Pete and John are racing a 24-hour race out there this weekend and while I won't be doing anything like that, I look forward to getting out for maybe 10 miles and pacing the two of them. Weather should be much cooler with highs in the low 60's. Another opportunity to get out on the bike in desert conditions too. Will be great to get out there with two of the people who are largely responsible for making this whole Triabetes thing possible.