Grand Teton Half Marathon

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

state #39

Vacation Races Grand Teton Half Marathon

There is no easy way to get to pretty much anywhere in Wyoming.  Jackson Hole is not the most difficult part of Wyoming to get to, but it is not simple and it is definitely not inexpensive.  The flights were fairly steep.  Probably the most that I have spent on airfare so far.  Maybe they just don't want people to visit there.  They might find out that they like it there and want to stay.  I will say that the mountains were beautiful.  ~ of course, there were periods of time during this race where I could not see, so maybe those parts were not so pretty.  The pictures, however, as you can see are very nice.

I don't know who this guy is/was, but I am betting he was faster than me. lol

I did not allow Valerie to go with me, because I am certain that she would not want to leave.  She can be stubborn sometimes and I dislike having to drag her through the airport to go back to the sauna or sudatorium that we call Florida.

I left out on Friday afternoon directly after a full day of work.  We flew to Denver and I had to rush through the Denver airport to get to my flight on time.  Most of the plane was in the same position as we were running late out of Tampa and we apparently had to take a longer route due to all of the tornadoes and inclement weather around the country that had to be in our original path.

Knowing that I would not be able to make it early enough to get to the packet pick-up, I paid an extra $20 to have them mail me my bib and shirt.  So, I was already checked in for the race and had no need to go to an expo or whatever packet pick-up they had set-up for this race.  I got in just before dark and rented a car.  Dark, btw was not until about 9:00 - 9:30pm.  Budget Rentacar did not have a desk or kiosk at the airport, so I had to take a shuttle to the rental car building... which passed right through downtown Jackson Hole and one street off where my hotel was.  It was a very easy drive from the rental car place, and I found my hotel easily, checked in and went straight to sleep.  The race started at 6:30am, but we had to be at the shuttle at a crazy 4:45am.  According to the information supplied by the race director there were three potential shuttle pick-up venues.  I chose one that was right in downtown Jackson Hole.  That way I could simply walk from my hotel.  All that would have been great except that the shuttle arrived at the starting location just after 5:00am.   Did I mention that the race did not start until 6:30am?  Did I also mention that it was about 36ºF outside?  So, we had to stand around in the cold for well over an hour.... waiting.  Some of you may be aware that waiting is not one of my favorite past-times.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  It was cloudy... maybe foggy a better descriptor, but I think it was actually a cloud that was covering us in moisture and preventing the soon to be rising sun from warming us.  I drank hot water to warm my hands and innards.

I suspected that the elevation would be a bit of a factor for me as the race started at 6100ft and rose to 6400ft by mile 11, so I decided to start slowly and hope that I was feeling well and potentially pick up the pace as I was able.  I started at an 8:30 pace but ended with 8:15 for mile 1.  Mile 2 was 8:18.  I was feeling more fatigued than I normally would for an 8:15 pace, but thought I could manage to maintain that. Somewhere in the middle of mile 3 I got a little dizzy and a headache.  Ending mile 3 in 8:49.  From there, it did not get any better.  I am just not yet prepared to run at altitude.  It is as simple as that.   I thought there was some potential that I could train harder and be in better shape and maybe run slower than I would have by a little bit, but still run fairly well.  That did not happen.  For me it was a bit of a disappointment.  I finished 1:57.  I only wish that I could report here that I took time to view the beautiful scenery and stopped to take pictures, etc...    Below are a few pictures that I pilfered from instagram and facebook that were taken by others.

  This last picture is not me standing at the photos spot at the finish area.  I am aware it is someone else.  I have no idea who it is, just that it is not me.  I put it here so you could see what it looked like.  If you really want to, you could imagine me in the photo, or photoshop, or print it out and draw me in there.  Whatever helps you.

After the race, I had the entire day to drive around and see the area.  It was pretty low key.  I had no agenda, but just drove and looked and stopped when I felt like it.  I drove over to Jackson Hole ski resort and drove around the race course to see all of the things that I missed while I was running.  I toured through Jackson and ate when I felt like it, shopped for the kids and browsed many of the shops.  I was not in any hurry.  I did not have to be anywhere or do anything in particular.  After I got some dinner, I went back to the room and watched a movie.  I know, I am boring, but I thought a little rest would be good before I went over to Seattle to work for the week.  Just what I needed.  It would have only been better if my family was with me.

Next race is Jun 22 in Portland, Maine.  I have only 12 more races (11 states and Washington, DC) and 12 more months to go.  Here is a graphic of where I stand in my 50 in 50 in 50 quest.

HAWAI'I

State #38 Hawai'i

Hibiscus Half Marathon

Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

In my previous blogs I have talked a lot about goals.  If you have read any of these posts you will likely understand that I am rather goal oriented in my life and as it pertains to running.  It is not at all uncommon that my goals change over time.  In most instances, I achieve my goals and continue to "raise the bar", effectively increasing the goal to be able to achieve more and more as I progress.  There are a few instances, however where the goal changes altogether into a new direction.  

As you may recall, I have goals and mini goals, and then new goals.  Concerning the 50in50in50 goal, I am on track and projected to complete this goal by June 2020.  Hawaii was state #38 and it is now complete.  One of my mini goals for this "project" was to run 1:30 for a half marathon which is a 6:52 per mile pace.  So far, I have only been able to muster a pace of 7:21 per mile which translates to 1:36.  I, by no means think that this is bad, but it is not quite enough to achieve the goal of 1:30.  At this point I still have twelve more races (13 if you include Washington DC.) to be able to achieve this goal, but it appears as if I am not progressing as rapidly as I had hoped.  It is possible that I am not going to be able to achieve this goal in the time frame that I have allotted.  I certainly have not given up, but I am facing the reality that it may not happen.  This is a tough pill to swallow, and I will continue to work toward this goal, but it seems that I will have a significant amount of work to accomplish this goal.  Maybe, just maybe it is possible that this goal may need to change.  As I type this, it just "sounds" like a copout.  I guess we will have to see.

One of the goals that have snuck in to this endeavor is to spend some time enjoying the different parts of the country as I travel around, especially when I bring my family along with me.  There was no way that my wife and kids were going to allow me, without a fight, to go to Hawaii without them... and I very much enjoy having them along.  So, off we went to Hawaii.  Valerie, the kids, my mom and Grampi.  We decided to spend a week on Maui prior to the race in Honolulu.  Aside from the snafu's of traveling American Airways to Hawaii and being trapped in Tempe, Arizona far longer than anyone would hope, we really had a great trip.  There was a fair amount of relaxation as well as a bit of adventure.  For an entire week, we were on vacation.  There was no race, there was no work, there were no pressures of our everyday lives.  My mom secured a beautiful house for us all right on the beach.  We could not have asked for or imagined a more beautiful venue to spend our time.

The sunsets were nothing shy of incredible.

We went on a waterfall rappel trip where we rappelled down three separate waterfalls and hiked through the forrest.... somewhere 1/3 the way up the road to Hana.

We took another tour, a sunrise tour up to Haleakala.  We arose early, and when I say early, what I mean is 2:30am.  We took the tour bus up to Haleakala and watched the sunrise.  It was spectacular.   

From there we road some mountain bikes back roughly 26 miles down the winding roads from the mountain top to Paia.    It being an extremely small world as it relates to the people, we happened to see our former next door neighbors on Maui - Steve and Ellen Short.

  We explored the beach and saw all sorts of critters. 

We had a private tour in some nice snorkeling spots, with some cliff jumping.

One of the reasons for this trip, aside from vacation and my race, was Keeley's graduation.  Keeley was given the option of participating in one of the homeschool group's graduations, pr having her own, "private" graduation.  As you might imagine, she chose to have her graduation ceremony in Hawaii.  We had a nice little ceremony at sunset on the beach.

In all, we had a very nice time.  I do not believe that any of us were terribly happy to leave.

Of course there was a race on O'ahu, so we packed up and headed over to Oahu and spent the day ond evening on Waikiki Beach and at the Marriott.  The next morning we got up and walked over to the start of the race.    The race was not my best.  Although I did train every day while we were in Maui, I was not able to keep the pace that I had intended.  The temperature was about 75ºF at the start and began to rise from there.  The sun comes up early this time of year, although if I am being hones, I am not certain the heat and/or humidity had much to do with my lack of performance.  Maybe I was still on vacation.    I was able to finish, with a time of 1:49:49.  Not exactly what I had hoped for, but  in retrospect, I had a really nice time in our 50th state for a week and am happy to have had an opportunity to spend some good quality time with the family.

As I type this, I am in Jackson, Wyoming after my next race (state #39) that was yesterday.  The Grand Teton Half Marathon.  I am on my way to Seattle for the week, and I will update you on this race later in the week.  Spoiler alert... ELEVATION!!!! UGH!!!!.

Cheshire, Connecticutt

Cheshire Half Marathon

Cheshire, Connecticut

State #37

This was a bit of a no frills race.  Don't get me wrong, the race was a well-run race and had many of the amenities of other races, but my treatment of the race made it no frills.  Allow me to explain:

The race was Sunday, April 28, 2019.  I flew out on Saturday morning.... alone.  I did not have to take off from work.  I did not have to rush to the airport.  I did not have to coordinate anyone's schedules or fend for anyone but myself.  Valerie drove me to the airport, dropped me off and picked me up when I returned Sunday evening.  I flew Southwest non-stop.  I was in the B boarding group.  Boarded the plane, picked a seat, watched a movie and after a few hours arrived at my destination.  We flew into Hartford and I rented a car, and economy car.  It cost me $23 per day.   I had only a small carry-on, so I simply walked over the rental car shuttle area and waited. It was fairly cold when I got there.  I was wearing shorts, flip-flops and a short-sleeved shirt.  I had to put on a jacket to wait for the shuttle.  I picked a car, drove 40 min or so to the hotel, checked in, slept, awoke, raced, drove back the airport and flew home.  Simple.

The packet pick-up was at the local tree nursery.  There were two people working the table.  No frills.  "What is your bib #?", "I think it is 547.",  "You Jeff?", "Yup.", "OK, you're a Large.  Here is your shirt.... Men's Large.  Have a good race.", "Thank you.  Bye." 

I had initially entered the hotel into my phone and followed the directions.  I was taken to a neighboring town and pulled up to the Welcome Inn.  I was a bit nervous as it was a little seedy looking.  Rather than checking in, I decided to go on to the packet pick up and then find the race start and figure out all of the logistics.  I did not want to spend any more time in that hotel than I had to.  I was surprised to find the packet pick-up and the race venue was 15 minutes away.  After packet pick up, I drove to the race start which was at Cheshire High School.  As I drove there I noticed another, nicer Welcome Inn.  I entered the hotel info back onto my phone and it showed properly the location as right in front of me.  phew!  Anyway, I found the race start and decided the start was close enough to my hotel to walk in the morning, so I went to find some grub.  A pre-race meal.   I drove around for a while trying to find a grocery store.  Finally found one, purchased some food for dinner and breakfast in the morning.  Driving back to the hotel, I noticed there was a grocery directly across the street.   GPS was clearly not working with me in this little town.

I binge-watched Criminal Minds for about 4 hours and went to sleep.  I slept very well.  It was cold outside, ~40º F.  Fortunately I remembered my "yoga pants" and my gloves and a jacket.  I decided not to wear the jacket, and as it turned out, I could have gotten away without the pants as well. (I would have worn shorts, for those of you that just poked out your minds eye thinking I was running without any pants.)  I walked to the start.  I should have driven.  Parking was minimal, but I think I could have found something.  Oh well, I told myself, this will be my warm-up.  I arrived at the start about 15 min prior to the start.  It was a simple start.  The National Anthem was sung by a young lady with some special need.  She was sweet.  I think most of the race support was provided by the High School students, and I think she was one of the students.  Anyway, there were no corrals, nor pace signs.  Just line up where ever you like and when he says, "GO!"... Go!  So, I went.  I was very close to the front and immediately got passed by what looked like the women's track/cross country team, but then I got passed by others.  Others who did not appear to be the type of person who would ordinarily pass me.  They looked like back of the pack runners.  One by one, around ten of them over a period of 5-8 miles.  I checked my pace, thinking I was dragging, but the first mile I ran 7:08, then 7:15, then 7:19.  So, I was keeping a fair pace, but still being passed.  The trend though was not a good one.  After mile one, I thought I should settle in to my pace.  7:15 was what I was hoping to average.  So, at mile two I was dead on.  At mile three, I wasn't bothered by 7:19... It was close enough.  Then came mile four at 7:24, then 7:33, then 7:35.  This is not good, I need to pick it up, but then I got a cramp at mile 6.  It took me 4 miles to shake the cramp, then another cramp at mile 10.  This one I got rid of after a mile or so, but now I was down to 8:30 something.  Positive splits is not what I was going for, and the people that were passing me?   They were increasing.  This was a fairly fast crowd for a small town and I was slowing steadily and they were not.

In all, I finished 1:44:13.  An average mile pace of 7:54.  Not really what I was hoping for.  I did not feel great.  I struggled most of the race after mile 2.  I am not sure why, but it was just not my day.  I think if I had to blame it on anything, I would say my nutrition was not stellar.  Oh... and there were some hefty hills.  They called this a flat course, but I certainly did not see it that way.

The race ended with a 3/4 lap around the High School track, which was kinda nice.  Plenty of fan support.  So, I picked up my finishers medal, grabbed a turkey sandwich, a banana, and some chocolate milk.  Then walked back to the hotel.  Shower, rest, pack and off to the airport.

At the airport, I had about 4 hours before my flight, so I walked.  Sitting at the airport after a race makes me stiff and sore, so I tend to "mall walk" the airport.  Boarded the flight again in the B boarding group, watched a movie and Valerie picked me up at the airport.  

No frills.

Next race is in Hawaii.  I have it in my mind that I want a PR in Hawaii.  Why?  No reason, just think it would be nice. I need to progress and I haven't had a PR in a while.  So, I think I am due.  I guess I'll just keep running.  Hawaii should be fun.