2019 Colorado Bend 60k

The Background

I raced Capt’N Karl’s Muleshoe Bend and it went well.  I had not planned to race again until Habanero, but an opportunity came up where I was free for Colorado Bend.  I love Capt’N Karl’s races, so I could not resist.

On the way up, I visited the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, just as I had one year ago before Colorado Bend.  Presidential libraries are some of my favorite places to be.

After both my GPS and my MP3 player died at Muleshoe, I decided enough was enough and bought a Coros GPS watch with a 35-hour battery life.  I wasn’t sure if my MP3 player issue was that it wasn’t charged enough, so I just charged it a long time to see how it would do.

At Muleshoe, I was running as fast as some were power hiking, so I worked on this, hiking 15 or 16-minute miles.

I drove up with the Beatles – Live at the BBC.

The Race

I saw a runner I knew, Jimmy, at the start of the race and we said hello.

I started at a brisk pace, which for me on the rocky terrain was 12-minute miles.

On the back half of the first 18-mile loop, I hit a low and slowed.  My MP3 player died again, which I had only played for 2 or 3 hours.  I really don’t get it.  It plays for multiple runs during the week, then dies at the races.  The loss of music didn’t help.

I rallied on the second loop.  I still wasn’t moving fast, but I power hiked the rocky bits and ran the smoother bits.

Along the way, I saw another fellow runner I know, Jon, working an aid station and said hello.  I chugged ginger ale and Coke on ice at the aid stations.

At some point around marathon distance, I realized that I could possibly finish in under ten hours.   Last year, when my back was hurting, I finished in 10:02, so beating that time was motivation to move it.  Plus, when I hit a smooth bit, running relatively briskly felt good to get some mileage done.

I was in a good frame of mind, knowing the miles would pass, one at a time.

I passed a few people, back and forth.  Hoping to beat ten hours, I went straight through the last aid,

In the last three miles, I passed a runner and tried to put some distance between us in the smooth sections.  Then I saw her headlamp right behind me as I rounded a turn.  I ran hard.

With a half mile left, the trail breaks out of rocky single track into smooth double track, headed to the finish.  When I popped put onto this, I knew the other runner was close behind.  I ran hard, when I looked back, I saw her headlamp maybe a minute back.  I finished about a minute ahead of her.   I’m proud I fought as hard as I could.

Reflections

This race had a lot of interesting numbers:

I finished 20^th out of 47 finishers (top 42%).

This is my 40^th finish, marathon distance or longer, at age 40. 

This is my 10^th Capt’N Karl’s 60k finish.

I finished in 9:49:22.  Three weeks ago, I finished Muleshoe in 9:49:35 – 13 seconds difference! But Colorado Bend is a much tougher course, so this was an improvement.

I also beat last year’s Colorado Bend of 10:02.  That year I had hurt back which really slowed me, but I will take a thirteen-minute improvement as a win anyway. In running, we take our victories when they come.

This was again a 16-minute pace for 37 miles, which if I kept it up would be around 27 hours for 100 miles.  This gives me confidence I can finish the Arkansas Traveler 100 in October.

This was a really good race.  I kept picturing that headlamp behind me on the trail and battling it.  It made me feel good.

After the race, I got some wings to celebrate.

Next up is Habanero 100k in two weeks. That is going to be epic!