Mesa Falls Half Martahon

Ashton, Idaho -- Mesa Falls Half Marathon

Race recap for state #11 -- Idaho.  This race was August 26, 2017.  I decided to wait for the photos before I posted the race recap... then I was out of town.  I am certain that ALL of you have been anxiously and impatiently waiting.  Sorry for the delay.

Registration:

This race was registered through Athlinks... another membership that means nothing to me, does nothing for me, for which I will never remember my password, but really does not bother me too much.  In the end, they had a problem with the membership registration so I don't have a membership after all, but the race registration was successful.... interesting... whatever.

 Fee:

This one was also pretty cheap, in comparison.  I did get a discount, as you can see for being a member of the 50 States Half Marathon Club.

The Expo:

There was no expo.  The pre-race packet pick-up was at the local elementary school.  It was really cute.  There was one hallway with classrooms on either side, then the cafeteria and the restrooms and more classrooms.  Possibly 10 classrooms in total.  In the hallway was the registration desk.  One nice young man pulled up my name on the computer and gave me my packet.

The race packet was a potato sack with all the "stuff" in it.  A nutrigrain bar, a lube stick, some electrolyte gums, the bib, the shirt, a breakfast ticket, a dinner ticket and some coupons.  It was cute.

Shirt:

The shirt was a long-sleeved wicking, tech shirt.

Race Day:

The race was Saturday, but the Half did not start until 8:30 am.  The race organizer suggested that the course was so pretty, they did not want to ruin the scenery with darkness, so they started well after sunrise... the weather was nice, but warmer than it would have been if we had started at the typical 6:30-7:00am timeframe.  The weather was about 10F higher than what my iphone weather showed that it would be.
 
Never the less, it was cooler than the 90Fplus we were having at home.

Race Start Time:

I guess I have covered that already.... but we started right on time at 8:30 and it was still about 60F.

Course Map:

The course started up un the mountains at about 6500 ft.  The first 4.3 miles was downhill and on a trail.  The start was actually in the parking lot of a state park. We had to run once around the paring lot, then down a tunnel under the road and on the trail down the mountain.

Accommodations:

I stayed across the street from the elementary school, which was good, because this is where all the action was.  There was the packet pick-up, there was the pre-race spaghetti dinner, the pre-race breakfast, and the bus pick-up.
The "hotel" was the Rankin Motel.  Valerie saw the pictures twice and BOTH times she said, "Oh, it is cute.  It reminds me of West Virginia.'  Verbatim... both times.

BTW.  As I am in my room after the race recovering.  Still wearing my race shirt with the bib on it.  Some 20-25 year old girl enters my room and with her back to me looks around, then turns to me, notices I am sitting there and she says, "I am looking for my keys."  I said, "Well, I have MY room key." and I pointed to my key on the night stand.  She looks over at it and says, "Oh... OK."  and walks out.  I never saw her again.  I was on the phone with Valerie -- actually we were Facetiming.  it was weird, but we got a good laugh.

Transportation:

I rented a car from the airport in Idaho Falls and drove to Ashton, about 40 min. through the fields.  The transportation from the elementary school to the race start was by bus.  They rented 3 buses that carried all of us to the start.

Weather:

I guess I already covered the weather also.  Suffice it to say, it was nice.

Race Morning:

Race morning consisted of walking over to the elementary school and having breakfast in the cafeteria.  The people were very sweet.  The whole thing was just quaint and nice.

Race:

This was a smaller race and very low key.  It was the tail end of the full marathon.  The marathon started at 7:00am and the half started at the half way point at 8:30.  I saw 3 or 4 runners from the marathon start down the trail before we got started.  That makes them pretty speedy in my book to have run 13 miles in under 1:30, only to have another 13 miles to go.  ...Phew...  that makes me tired just typing it.

Water/Food Stations:

There were plenty of water and nutrition stations.  Every 2-3 miles.  They had fruit and water and Gatoraide or was it Poweraid?  and Gu packs.  There was even one "station" that was manned by a young boy about 9 years old who was filling Dixie cups with his own bottled water.  He was sweet.  He even turned his sprinkler from his farm on the road, so the runners could get a quick cool down.  I definitely stopped at his station, which was about mile 10.  ~Yeah, that's why I stopped!! ... for the kid!!

Scenery:

The scenery was nice, especially as we ran by the water.

Race Entertainment:

There really was no entertainment.  There were a few people hanging out on the side of the road who were clearly there to cheer on someone specific, but none of them were there for me... so, I just listened to my music and tried to zone out.

Finish:

The finish was pretty simple.  It looked much like the start, only 13.1 miles away from the start.  There were a few dozen people there cheering the runners on to the finish.  They had chocolate milk and fruit and water and Gatoraide and several kinds of pizza.

Bling:

The Medal was a tiny little circle of wood with the race logo stamped ~~ or burned into it.  I will say it is unique.

Misc:

This was technically a down hill race.  The race started at 6500ft and went downhill to about 5300 ft over a period of 4.3 miles on a trail.  I was cruising.  I was running 7:45-8:00 per mile.  I was feeling good and thought I was back on track.  Then we got out on the pavement  and promptly went uphill for 2.5 miles.. back up to 6500ft.  The same elevation gain over 2.5 miles as the previous elevation loss over 4.3 miles.  I was dying.  People started passing me.  I started sweating and breathing heavy and becoming heavy footed.  I apparently don't like hills, and they apparently don't like me.  Then it was downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill... which of course at that point felt like uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill.

I did OK. I finished 1:58... right at 9:00 per mile average.  Not great, but not terrible for me.  If not for the hills, I would have done much better.

The trail portion of the course was nice and scenic.  The rest of the race was through the fields and all I saw was mowed farm land, silos, pavement... and the back sides of several people passing me up a hill.

In all it was a quaint little race.  The race organizers really did do everything they could to take good care of the racers.  They truly seemed to want to make it a good race experience for everyone.  I even received a free huckleberry milkshake.