I ran my first half marathon on Saturday! And yikes, what an introduction to the world of racing it was...
I headed up the mountain to Flagstaff on Friday night and met up with my fabulous cousin Cassie. We braved the rain and went to pick up my race packet at the park where the race would start the next morning. Neil, the race director, was going from person to person handing out the course map and describing the recommended race strategy: walk most of the first two miles. What?? Apparently, the first two miles of the course were going to be incredibly steep and, according to the veteran runners, it was a better use of energy to walk those sections and make up the time in the last half of the course as it headed back downhill. Yeah, this wasn't your typical road race - we're talking full-on trail running here. Hoo boy.
Saturday morning dawned cool and partly cloudy - perfect running weather and like nothing I've ever experienced running here in Phoenix. Cassie and I arrived at the park around 7:00 - she rolled out of bed early to come cheer me on (and take some pictures). I was a little nervous and spent most of the 30 minutes before the race bouncing on the balls of my feet and trying to remember to loosen up a little. 
I had on my usual hat and sunglasses (neither of which I ended up needing), a water bottle with a couple gus in the pocket, a small camera*, and my big yellow number 53. The starting gun shot rang out at 7:30 on the dot and we were off!
Neil wasn't lying. The first two miles were just brutal. As we left the park, the course wound through about a half mile of city streets before we hit the trail head and the uphill climb onto Observatory Mesa. Mile 1 was a constant, not-terribly-steep incline - just enough to make your hamstrings burn. 
Going into mile 2, we hit the tough stuff - about a half mile of incredibly steep, alpine-mountain-climbing-like section of trail. And I thought mile 1 made my hamstrings burn! After coming off of this steep section, we hit the mud bogs. Flagstaff has been getting lots of rain in the past few weeks, turning this years' race into the wettest on record. The mud pits took up almost the entire trail at time, forcing us to pick our way around in any semi-dry strip of land we could find.
Other parts of the trail were so choked with rocks, I'm surprised I didn't come across sections littered with the bodies of runners nursing sprained ankles. The course continued steadily uphill as I came into mile 5. The aid station here was being run by one of the city banks and they were pretty clever.
As I ran through and snagged a cup of Gatorade from one of the volunteers, he said to be sure and vote. Huh? Well, about 100 yards down there were two containers and a big sign that said "Vote with your Cup!" One container had a picture of Obama on it, and one had McCain and all the runners were tossing their cups in the bin sporting their candidate of choice. I thought it was pretty creative.
Mile 7.5 brought us to the apex of the run - about 800 vertical feet above the starting line altitude of 7,000 feet. Wow. The downhill direction was a more-than-welcome relief for my poor hamstrings. This section went a little faster. Some of the mud had dried up by this point and there were whole sections of trail that were smooth. Rocks and potholes were still a concern, but the miles seemed to go by much more quickly. I even got to chat a little with a gal I'd been running close to since the starting line (in my head she was Red Headed Pink Shirt girl - whose name actually turned out to be Jodi). 
Going back down the steep section that we had climbed up back at mile 2 was much faster, but also much more nerve-wracking with the loose gravel underfoot and no guardrails on the steep dropoffs.Mile 12.5 put me back on the city streets for the final .6 mile sprint to the finish line. The big blue banner seemed to move farther away the more I ran, but I finally crossed the finish line sweaty, mud-spattered and smiling.
What an exhausting, amazing experience! The course was beautiful, but brutal. I would recommend training with trail running before going out and doing a 13.1 mile trail race. Might help a little. But overall, I was really happy with my performance, especially considering how difficult the course was. And especially considering that 8 months ago, I couldn't run for a minute without feeling like I was going to die.We're heading into the big mileage month for Team in Training. In the next six weeks, we'll be conquering 16, 18, and 20 mile training runs. Here's hoping that those runs go well. I have a feeling that running on the smooth, flat canal trail is going to feel like heaven in the morning. :)
*-I searched high and low for a really small, portable camera to take with me on the run because I knew it would be beautiful. I ended up buying an egg-sized Disney Pix Micro, Pirates of the Caribbean mini-camera. It was either that or Hannah Montana. I mean, please - no contest. I wasn't sure what kind of picture quality you'd get with a Pirates of the Caribbean camera, though. Turns out: not great. But it was better than nothing.
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