Race Recap: REVEL Mt. Charleston
Marathon 13, State 11
I had a big goal for this race, I was set on earning my BQ here. It did not go as planned…I came into this race ready to shoot for the moon and push as hard as I could to get my Boston time. I knew the downhill was going to be challenging but I thought it was going to help more than it was going to hurt, and in the end it ended up being my downfall.
I finished in 3:46, not a PR, not my goal, but as you’re going to read it was a huge success for the day.
Training
I live in Wisconsin which means winter training for spring races. I love running in the winter, I do not love training in the winter. You never know when you wake up if there will be snow or ice, or 40 mile an hour winds, or if it will be a nice winter day. Everyday is like weather roulette.
As I’m thinking back on my training I am having a really hard time picking out anything noteworthy from the months I put into working towards this race. What I remember most from the first 3 months is that I was struggling in workouts. Again, I do not like actually training in winter, the weather really affects me, and my runs were greatly impacted by the season. I felt ok throughout training but I wasn’t having any big breakthroughs. It kind of felt like I was just going through the motions.
My best long run was probably the one that I had to do indoors on a track because we just had a huge snowstorm and it was freezing outside. I ended up doing 19 miles on the track (and yes crazy repetitive but Crime Junkie got me through) and it was a really solid, consistent workout.
I think the most important things for me to share about training are actually the things that I learned:
Winter training requires adjustments, don’t be stubborn — Oh boy stubborn is my middle name but guess what running and the weather doesn’t care. Instead of doing quality workouts on the treadmill or on the indoor track I forced myself to go outside in not ideal conditions and ended up super frustrated after a lot of runs. With serious goals adjustments need to be made. Being ok with doing treadmill workouts and track workouts needs to be a part of the plan. The goal comes first and if the conditions aren’t serving a productive workout take it inside and get done what you need to do. Next spring marathon training block I’ll be sure to be more intentional about where I do my workouts and won’t be so stubborn.
Downhills are no joke — Going into this race I was leaning on what the REVEL website was saying about the downhill being, “a smooth downhill slope”. I was thinking yeah it was going to be a challenge but in the end it would be more helpful than anything. I thought my usual downhill sections of my runs with a bit of added strength would be enough to prepare, I cannot even begin to say how wrong I was. Downhill races CANNOT be trained for like any other marathon. You need to prepare your quads for the beating that they are going to take.
Race Weekend
The Expo
The expo was awesome! I was really feeling the energy and finally getting some confidence in me for the race. They had so many awesome freebies, beautiful artwork dedicated to the race and just a really great experience. It was inspiring to see how many people wrote their goals down as BQ-ing, I knew I was in good company.
From the expo we did some exploring in Downtown Las Vegas (my thing before a race is always a good bit of walking in the afternoon but nothing that makes my legs actually tired). Ok I need to interject some crazy love to Vegas, this crazy weird bizarre so not-like-me town was so fun! Downtown is not the strip its a little bit (north?) of that and ok I’ve never been to Vegas before so just my eyes were taking in every inch. I felt like I was in a video game or some crazy alternate reality. Just what a place!
Ok so after exploring a bit we went to the Airbnb and do the usual pre=race routine: basic pasta for dinner, lay out race outfit, and early to bed.
Race Day
I was feeling pretty good this whole weekend, it was like the tough winter training was a distant memory and I was ready to get after it.
Race morning, 2:30AM wake up, and I surprisingly got out of bed without issue. There is all this adrenaline that surrounds race day that I think waking up that early just doesn’t phase me. So early wake up and drive to the buses. I took some ginger before the bus ride because the last thing I needed was to get sick before the race even started. The ride is about 40 minutes up the mountain and it is just getting colder and colder. We get to the race start maybe like 4:30 AM-ish, maybe a little after and it is freezing. They have heaters set up but that is definitely not enough for the amount of people trying to huddle around them. I managed to meet some really nice people and we chatted to pass the time. Part of me loves showing up at races alone because I get to meet new people and it just is such a cool thing to experience how connected the race community is.
The 30 minutes before race time is a scramble trying to use the bathroom once more, stay warm, and drop your bag on the truck. Since it was so cold everyone was waiting until the absolute last minute to get it all done.
The start of the race was there before I could even think about it. I just know that all of a sudden I was running. I almost missed the actual starting timing mat.
Mile 1 had one uphill right away and you could absolutely feel the elevation trying to get up that hill but just when you are feeling it, it’s over and you’re running downhill. Miles 1-5 I felt so so good. I was checking my watch trying to be around 7:50-7:55 to start and I was easily running faster than that. It didn’t feel like it though, I was comfortable. I knew in a race like this you really had to ease into it and I truly felt like I was. I also was taking in the beautiful view. We were running towards the sunrise through the mountains and it was just such a beautiful start to the race At mile 6 I could start to feel my quads and all at once so many different thoughts went through my mind, ‘this pace is so easy if I keep on it I’ll crush my goal’ then ‘should I be worried that I’m already feeling my quads’ then ‘maybe it’ll just be this dull ache the whole time’. I was cruising, averaging about an 8 min/mile pace through the first half. Then it all came crashing down. There is a lot about this race I’m still trying to figure out the right words to explain it, and one is just how quickly this shift from ‘oh my gosh I can’t believe how easily I’m crushing this’ to ‘oh sh*t I’m falling apart’ happened.
A lot of the race from this point is a blur (in the past week I have tried to go back and think about what I was seeing trying to remember and honestly I can’t). I can barely remember when we ran through the half marathon starting point, but I do remember that part and just thinking ‘oh yeah I forgot there was even a half’.
By mile 17 the amount of pain I was in was nearly unbearable. This is where things took a pretty rough turn for me, I seriously thought I was going to DNF I was just done with the pain. I was probably about 70% there to pulling myself out, I mean my internal dialogue was not good. It was a lot of ‘I’m absolutely done, this is stupid, how can I do this another 9 miles, this is miserable, how are these other people actually moving…’. It wasn’t good. It’s all so blurry that I don’t know if it was a mile or 2 of talking to myself but I had a serious pep talk with myself (I don’t know if you would call it a pep talk actually that makes it sound cheery, it wasn’t cheery at all). It was clear that my A goal of a BQ was not going to happen and so now my goal was just to cross the finish line. I have never been in that dire of a headspace in any of my marathons before. I didn’t know how I was supposed to push on for another 9 miles, but I knew I had to.
So I adjusted and took the notion of one foot in front of the other very seriously. I just keep telling myself one more mile, all we have to do is get from 18 to 19 then we can worry about what is next. I did a lot of run walking and just kept pushing myself forwards. Miles 17-24 are a big blur I just remember focusing one step then another and just get to the next mile. By mile 24 I knew I was doing it and I just had to suffer a little bit longer. I shuffled to a slow 11min/mile pace but kept moving. I just kept pushing on encouraging the others I saw struggling as I moved towards the finish line. I shuffled into the finishing shoot and my usual ability to pick it up as I crossed the finish line was not there, but I crossed that line and immediately broke down. I have cried at almost all my races from joy but this was a cry of pain. I just was hurting so much. I finished in 3:46, not a PR but also surprising that I was able to hit even that time with how much pain I was in.
You can see in the picture of me crossing the finish line how screwed up my gait was by the end.
I never would have guessed that I was holding the paces I was that long, but you can see how those last few were a serious battle.
I seriously underestimated this race. I thought that adding in my usual hills and casual strength training would be enough and boy was I wrong. I don’t even know how to describe the pain, it was like doing a wall sit for 3 and a half hours or holding a squat for that amount of time. It is a pain I have never experienced before.
Post Race
I decided walking to the car (less than a mile) was a better idea than trying to figure out how to get onto and off of the buses. I couldn’t even get up or down a curb. One painful step after the next I eventually got to the car, seriously struggled to get into the car, and got back to the Airbnb. I was in such bad shape Sam wouldn’t even leave for me for 10 minutes to get coffee while I was showering. I ended up taking a nap for a few hours, then popped some extra strength pain meds, and we are in Vegas so time to go to the Strip. Believe it or not yes we did that. You can check out some videos of me “walking” on my Instagram @running.in.places. Now I can say they’re pretty funny but at the time I was in a whole other world of pain.
The Aftermath
I’m now 5 days out from the race and this recovery has been beyond brutal. The day after the race I was crying from trying to get up and down stairs. My legs kept almost giving out when I was walking. I normally am able to get in a recovery run 2 days after a race, but I’m just now starting to be able to walk normal. I also got really sick like fever, chills, sweating and I genuinely think my body is in shock. Everyday has been little improvements, getting up and down stairs has been easier, but it feels like I’m nowhere close to recovered.
Getting as sick as I have (for context I genuinely don’t really get sick and the last time I felt this bad was probably when I had my infection from my surgery while I was in Thailand) has really shown me how intense this experience was on my body and I’m still processing it all.
What’s next?
I’m going to give my body time to recover, it clearly is begging for it. This is not something I can rush.
Planning out my race schedule for the fall and spring.
