Snow Canyon Half Marathon

[Dwight Schr-ute]

So I'm registered to do the Snow Canyon Half this weekend. This will be my first official race as a runner. Any other CUF'ers registered for this? I didn't think that I was going to be nervous about this, but as it gets closer, I can feel myself get a little anxious. I guess since I'm new to the sport, I'm still trying to figure out my body and how it responds under different conditions.

I just looked on weather.com and for Snow Canyon State Park it has a low of 33 degrees with a high of 55. Coming from Vegas, this will definitely be colder than what I've been used to. I ran yesterday morning in probably the high 40's and my knees felt on stiff side. Any cold weather running tips? I've got some knee warmers for cycling but I imagine those would look pretty ridiculous with a pair of running shorts. I've got a bunch of cool weather gear related to cycling but I'm not sure how well some of this stuff carries over to running. Would I want to run in a pair of cycling tights?

Then there's the whole liquids issue. There will be aid stations at miles 4, 7.6, 9, 10.7, 12. I'm still trying to train my body from drinking every 5 minutes or so during riding to much less frequently during running. Fortunately, the cooler temperatures will help in this regard and I won't need to worry about as much as I originally expected to, but is there any need to carry my own water for this?

In an earlier post, someone encouraged me to hold back at the beginning and increase my speed a few miles in. This sounds like good advice and I plan on trying it out. My Garmin 405 completely died on me and I'm in the process of having them replace it, so hopefully I get the new one Thursday or Friday before I head up. The idea of trying to pace myself without it seems a bit daunting. Because I'm lazy. Any advice for a first timer would be well received. Thanks!

[BigPiney]

Good luck.

In terms of keeping warm, I like to run with chap gloves and a stocking hat if it is cold. Walmart is great for both and then you can toss them as things get warmer. You may want to think about long sleeves for this, but I would probably just go short sleeves and the gloves. I have only once run a race wearing any sort of leg warmers m((pants or tights), and this was 14 degrees and snowing at the start and it was 8 degrees at the finish.

You don't need to drink every 5 minutes. In fact, drinking during a 10k really will do you no good. I would plan on being hydrated and then hitting water or gatorade at mile 4, 7.6, and 10.7 and then bringing it home. No way you need to carry for a race that has this much support.

Most of all, have fun. This is your first race of many, just plan on finishing and you'll do fine.

[ERCougar]

I love this race. If I hadn't hurt my knee (cycling...grr...), I'd be running it. My wife will be running. Solon should be there too (right?).

The first few miles of this are ridiculously fast and will totally screw up your pacing. I'd just let it go, concentrate on braking as little as possible with each step and keep your heart rate sort of reasonable. After that, you can follow your paces. There is also an out and back dirt loop in the middle (there used to be, anyway) that will slow you down a bit; once you hit the end of this, it's all pretty flat, IIRC.

Really, my advice on this race is to screw your time goal, and just have fun and enjoy the scenery! They only let a few races go through this park.

EDIT: Oh, and ditto on BP's advice. I can count on one hand how many times I've run in tights. Your legs just don't get cold like in cycling. I'd also follow his water advice. For this distance, I carry a couple of gels/chews and do each one about 1/4 mile before I plan on drinking (about when I can see the aid station in the distance).

[SteelBlue]

I was just in Snow Canyon a few weeks ago for the first time ever. Is the race along that main road that goes through the park? If so, I hope you get to run down it instead of up. Also, that road felt nowhere near 13 miles long but I wasn't really paying attention due to all of the amazing sights.

[ERCougar]

I was just in Snow Canyon a few weeks ago for the first time ever. Is the race along that main road that goes through the park? If so, I hope you get to run down it instead of up. Also, that road felt nowhere near 13 miles long but I wasn't really paying attention due to all of the amazing sights.

Yeah, it goes down the canyon, and they throw in a side out and back loop to add distance.
And, yes, it's gorgeous.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

I’m not sure if anyone is all that interested, but given the suggestions and positive feedback leading up to my first half marathon, I thought I’d do a little follow up on how it all worked out. I was dumb enough to type this out first on CUF and after a weird computer hiccup, lost more than I want to admit, so we’ll try and recapture the magic a second time.

Those following know that my biggest concern leading up to the race were the projected cold temperatures and the ability to stay warm. I found myself getting more and more anxious about this as we got closer and closer. My wife and I ended up leaving Vegas Friday afternoon just as the rain and cold front arrived. This did not improve my anxiety.

Upon arriving to St. George, we picked up our packets and shopped around a few of the booths. I ended up picking up a pair of ¾ tights as a just in case. That night before bed, I finally made up my mind on what I’d wear the next day. A short sleeve layered with a mid weight long sleeve, shorts and a pair of Sugoi knee warmers that I use for cycling, a cap that covered my head and ears, and some cheap knit gloves. I took a peak out the window just before getting into bed to see that the rain had arrived. Wet conditions would change everything and would likely ruin my race as I was not prepared to get wet. I fell asleep with the mantra of an old cycling coach repeating in my head, “There’s no shame in quitting.”

After a surprisingly solid night of sleep, I woke up and looked out the window. It was still pitch black outside and I couldn’t tell what the cloud cover was, but it wasn’t raining at the moment, and that made me relax substantially. But I can also see that it’s windy, so I make a late attire adjustment and opt to throw on a Windstopper base tanktop that I use for cycling just to keep the cold off of my chest. I ate a Cliff bar and banana, drank my liquids, got dressed and we departed for the finish.

Once at the high school, we met up with some friends and loaded on the second bus. In my wife’s experience from last year, the bathroom situation at the start was ridiculous and she didn’t want to be on one of the later buses and get stuck in another long line to pee. So there we sat on the bus. And sat. And sat. The driver eventually explained that due to the conditions at the top (27 degrees and snow), they were holding the drivers back so no one would have to stand around and freeze at the start. Most of my body had no reservations of sitting on a nice warm bus. The only part that did was my rapidly filling bladder. Just as we were about to push off, we had an influx of an additional 15 runners cramming into our already full bus. While everyone tried to cram their adult bodies into elementary spaces, many of the buses that had been idling behind us, were now departing in front of us. After finally getting everyone settled, we closed the door and started forward. Once arriving at the top, we drove past the start line and turned into a small community in an effort to get turned around. And turned around we managed to get. Not sure how someone manages to get “lost” in a 5 block community, but our driver managed to find the only dead end in town. After poorly executing several jokes and a 23 point turn, we made our way back to the “main street” in time to watch all but the last bus turn in front of us. At one point I looked at my watch and it read 8:19. 11 minutes before the start of the race, and we were still sitting on the bus waiting for the doors to open. I surge to the isle and jostling for position felt like a Southwest flight pulling up to the gate only to discover that baggage claim was 13.1 miles away.

We finally off load and head to the port-o’s which are a solid 25 runners deep. God bless juniper forests as I join most of the men and a few brave/desperate women in writing cyan messages in the snow topped bushes. And God bless chip times because half way through my process, my steady stream becomes momentarily unsteady as I hear “Go!” in the distance. Not being a fan of public nudity or a cold tush, I join my wife in line who is still a good 6 or 7 people back. With still one more person in front of her, the speaker announces that the start line will be disassembled in 5 minutes and if you wanted to be recognized as a participant, you’d better hurry. She gets in and I decide to unload another quart. In the process, I decide that the knee warmers are a ridiculous idea as they’d likely never stay put during the run. We jogged out to the highway, struggled on the ground for 30 seconds trying to pull those damn knee warmers over my shoes, which are apparently larger than cycling shoes, stuffed all of our warm clothes into a garbage bag (the race bags were MUCH too small for a November race!) and with seconds to spare, I began my first race. We were literally some of the last few runners to start.

My wife and I ran side by side for the first four miles, this is something that with two small kids, we’ve had little opportunity to do. My first race, side by side with my wife who has been so encouraging and supportive of getting me into a pair of running shoes. The skies were starting to split from gray to crisp azure as the red rock reached out in front of us dusted by fresh snow. I don’t know if I’d call it euphoria, but it was a beautiful moment and I tried to drink as much of it as I could.

Before we had even crossed the 1 mile marker, I finally had the realization that all of my worry about the temperatures were unnecessary and that I was perfectly comfortable. I appreciated all of the advice and comments left by many of you and took it all to heart. For the first four miles, I made a conscious effort to hold back my effort and avoid riding the adrenaline rush. I found myself taking diagnostics every few minutes. Knees: Good. Legs: Good. Breathing: Controlled and easy. Heart rate: average. Temperature: Pleasant. Really? I even said to my wife at one point, if we can do this comfortably with temps in the 20s, how in the hell did we manage to run Ragnar with temps in the 90s two weeks ago?

At four miles, the run takes a right off of the marathon road and enters Snow Canyon State Park where the race makes most of its 1,800 feet of descent. The two of us stop at the first aid station for a quick cup of water and as we start running again, I give my wife a little smirk, tuck my head and jump my pace by 2 minutes/mile. I’ve decided not to run to music this race and I can hear pounding heels all around me and I continue to weave my way through the constant line of runners. It all sounds incredibly inefficient and I’m making adjustments to my stride trying to pin point the fastest technique. I find myself taking smaller strides and just trying to keep my feet out of the way. At one point I look at my watch and it says I was running a 5:37 pace. But as the miles go by, I’m starting to pay the price. I have a tightness developing low in my left calf, my right hamstring and at one point I started having to lift my knees higher just to warm them up. The race eventually gets detoured from the main road onto an asphalt paved “nature trail”. This trail undulates a lot more than the road and the few portions that do ascend slightly feel great to have a change of motion. But the race has also gone from 30 feet wide to maybe 8 feet and passing people becomes a little more arduous.

As the trail begins to level out around the 8 mile mark, I can hear a familiar breathing pattern coming up behind me as my wife catches up. Within a minute, she’s 50 feet in front of me and I’m somehow able to keep her there for the next 3 miles. The race comes out of the state park at about the 10 mile marker and starts weaving through the surrounding well to do neighborhoods. At about 11.5, the route swings west and the wind hits my face for the first time to the point that I put my hat back on to take out some of the chill. But I’m feeling done at this point and start to feel the lack of miles I have in my legs. I’ve really only been running for 3 months, my longest run had been 10 miles unless you want to count Ragnar where I had run 15 miles in 24 hours as well as the fact that I’d run a total of 3 miles in the two weeks between Ragnar and Snow Canyon. My breathing still feels fine and even though my heart rate is pretty high, I don’t feel that I’m struggling for breath at all. I just don’t have the push that I did in the earlier miles and watch my pace climb into the 9’s and eventually 10’s.

I make the turn into the high school and see an archway that I assume is the finish and push towards it. As I get closer, I realize that there’s no clock, no real crowd and no real finish. I have no idea what purpose that was supposed to serve, but it pissed me off. The route dumped us onto the track and we were ¾ of a lap from the finish. A few around me started to pick up their pace and I wanted to join them and the cheers, but I was going backwards.

I crossed the finish line and was got a wonderful hug from my wife who had finished 50 seconds ahead of me, 4 minutes off her PR, but satisfied. The nice thing about your first race is that you’re guaranteed to PR, which I did with an official time of 1:53:08. Going into the run, I made a goal of finishing in a 2:15:00 just so that I didn’t set myself up for disappointment, but I felt that I could do a sub two hour run, so if felt great to have that confirmed.

All in all, it was a great experience and my wife is already leaning on me to do the Painters half in January. I’d be pretty open to it, but it’s supposed to be pretty cold! She’s telling everyone that this was her last chance at beating me, but who knows. I tell her that she’s much too enjoyable to follow than trying to run ahead of her. Two days after the run, my calves are still pretty locked up and one of my nipples didn't appreciate the Windstopper base layer too much but for the most part, no worse for wear. Hopefully I'll get out tomorrow morning for an easy run.

Sorry that this is so long. I love having stuff like this for my own reference but know that if I don’t write it for someone else, I won’t take the time to write it for myself. So take it for what it’s worth.

[ERCougar]

Nice report--never apologize for a long race report.
I really wish I could have run this. My wife ran it and had a great time. It sounds like the course is much better than it used to be as well--adding on those miles before entering the park is WAY better than the out-and-back loop they used to do. Also, it seems to have grown a lot.

[BigPiney]

Great report - almost makes me want to go out and run a bit.

[bluegoose]

Very good report, Dwight. 1:53 is a very good time and one to be proud of.

When riding in the spring or fall, my philosophy is that if that if you are not cold for the first 30 minutes, then you are probably overdressed.

I think the same applies for a long run. I would probably say that if you are not cold for about 2 miles then there is a good chance that you are going to be shedding clothes very soon. I've never had a problem with getting too cold on a hard run.

Waiting before the run is a different story. 2 years ago before St George was one of my coldest moments in recent memory.

[ThatSportsFan]

Congrats on your first Half. Looks like it was a lot of fun.

[SteelBlue]

Great report. Having just been in Snow Canyon I feel like I understand a bit what you were seeing. Descending through that park will be a great memory to draw on over the years.