Note: For anyone who has never seen the crags, I found a few pictures of me running them here and here, and of some random people climbing down them here and here.
Wahsatch Steeplechase- I almost did this race 4 years ago and ran the uphill as training, but this was my first time racing it, and first time seeing the downhills. I stayed at Chad's house last night and got caught up with him- thanks for letting me crash there, Chad, and I hope everything works out with all happening in your life. Only slept about 4 hours, normal pre-race jitters. At the start I met Fritz and said Hi to Twinkie. The weather was absolutely perfect- 50 deg, overcast, no rain till after I was finished. After talking to Chad and after zero hill training for 3 months, my strategy was to go moderate on the ups and downs, saving my energy for the flat 6 miles at the end.
A group of 6 went out very fast, inc. Fritz. I was in the second group with Karl Jarvis and Dominick Layfield (knew them both from last year). Moderate pace out with a bit of walking on the steep uphills. The last mile uphill is a doozy, with 21% avg grade. Umm, yeah, that's pretty much a slow slog. It finally ended at mile 8 and we hit the crags- some very rocky, often technical rocks. I knocked out my two front teeth as a teenager jumping on rocks like this (toe caught as I was jumping 3 feet down- landed headfirst- knocked out cold and buggered up my teeth [and brain, if you ask Marci]), and so am always somewhat cautious on rocks like that. The crags went for a mile and I probably lost 1-2 minutes on Karl and Dominick. Never saw them again.
Then the downhill starts. You can't really call it a trail for much of the downhill, maybe a faint deer trail. Some of it was very runnable, but much was far, far too steep, and also very overgrown with bushes. And mud. And more bushes. I call it the suicide downhill. I was stepping on bush stems which were slick, occasionally falling. I probably lost another couple minutes here and got passed by 2 more guys who were much more kamikaze than I was. I barely broke 12 min mile due to the 1250 ft elevation loss and very technical footing- yep, almost walking speed. They had even strung some rope at a few points for safety, and they certainly were needed. As Fly noted, "This section is described as '2.5 miles of quad-burning, gut-wrenching, knee-breaking downhill on an overgrown, root-infested single-track trail...' I'd add that it was also wet and slick." I agree with Fly, except that I seriously question the liberal use of the word "trail".
But then at mile 11 we hit City Creek Canyon and 2 miles of glorious downhill on a road. I was about 6 min pace, with some portions being 5:30- my quads felt strange at first from the previous down, but quickly firmed up. I was happy with my pace and figured I would eat up a few runners. At mile 12 you jump onto a very nice, runnable, smooth singletrack for about 3 miles. It undulates a bit, with just enough uphill to remind you that your legs are, indeed, very tired. Finally passed one of the kamikaze downhill guys, which I thought put me back into 10th place. More down on road and singletrack- I spotted one more runner with only a half mile to go, so really pushed hard and passed him with a few hundred yards to go. Felt tired but still running strong at the end, which I'm very happy with.
I wanted 2:25-2:35, so my 2:34 is good. I can definitely improve at least 2-4 minutes just by being familiar with the course, plus can improve my fitness- I am definitely not near peak racing form yet. I really enjoyed this course and will be back.
Splits (will fill in later):
|
Mile
|
Split
|
Ascent
|
Descent
|
Comments
|
|
1
|
7:26
|
239
|
46
|
Easy start
|
|
2
|
10:18
|
566
|
20
|
Nice singletrack up
|
|
3
|
9:00
|
366
|
76
|
|
|
4
|
9:25
|
434
|
60
|
|
|
5
|
10:13
|
432
|
119
|
Running in 7th
|
|
6
|
11:22
|
569
|
73
|
|
|
7
|
19:50
|
1086
|
25
|
Big, big uphill- walk the whole mile
|
|
8
|
16:35
|
378
|
401
|
The crags- really slowed me down
|
|
9
|
11:43
|
20
|
1258
|
Suicide downhill. And that's an understatement
|
|
10
|
8:14
|
45
|
629
|
Still steep down
|
|
11
|
5:52
|
17
|
355
|
Finally hit runnable downhill on pavement
|
|
12
|
6:05
|
26
|
229
|
Still fast
|
|
13
|
6:41
|
68
|
195
|
Beautiful rolling singletrack
|
|
14
|
6:16
|
34
|
219
|
Still singletrack
|
|
15
|
6:50
|
53
|
265
|
And more
|
|
16
|
6:06
|
47
|
273
|
Back on the road
|
|
.34
|
1:58 (5:48 pace)
|
11
|
57
|
Push to the finish |
| 