"On your left" - Dirty Half Recap

If you are looking for a fitness reality check, run the Dirty Half marathon. There was no fooling mother fitness this year for me. Once again the race itself was pulled off flawlessly. The weather was perfect. This year also incorporated USATF prize money for the National Trail 1/2 Marathon Championship. The only thing missing this year, was my legs.

The race began per norm with the shotgun firing. How old is that kid getting anyway? The usual suspects were gathered up front, with a few new faces from west of the mountains. My strategy was to run controlled for the first mile, push, but not too hard ascending the canyon, recover on the cinder road, then blaze the final 7 miles to the finish. Unfortunately the only part of my strategy that worked was the first controlled mile. As we started ascending the canyon, there was a very fast group out front with Max, Mario and a couple of Eugene guys, twins I think. There were a few scattered bodies following them, then a group of two ahead of me. I was closely followed by Chris Manfredi and some others. About half way up the canyon I made a small surge to catch up with Damon Kluck and ran with him through mile three. At the aid station, Damon stepped aside and let me lead. We ran the next two miles a bit slower than we should have, but I was hoping to save something for the downhill. As we entered out onto the cinder road, several of us were strung along. Up ahead was Mike Olsen, who looked terrible. I gave him a quick atta boy on the way by, figuring he would be looking for the next available bike or car ride back. I saw Andy and Katie who informed me Paul Parsons was 1:10 ahead of me for the master's title.

At that point I actually felt like I could start to push it a bit. My next mile, which might have been short, was a 5:48. I felt the pace was good and figured I could keep it up for the remainder. After Damon and I hit the next mile at a 6:20 pace with the same effort, I knew something was wrong. Damon kindly offered to pull for awhile, which seemed like a good idea. Within 45 seconds however, I was dropped. That's when the onslaught of "on your lefts" began. To my surprise, one of the "on your lefts" was no other than a resurrected Mike Olsen.

Now I'm definitely not a chauvinist, but I do have a thing about getting chicked. I just don't like it. I generally can find some extra energy to avoid it, but today had nothing. Around mile 8, two women went cruising by me, pouring salt in my ever gaping wounds. Funny thing is, I didn't have any desire to go with them. Threw in the towel, just like that. I guess that's how it goes when you are 40.

I jaunted along for another couple miles before being passed again on the mile 10 uphill. Not certain who it was but just before he passed me I heard a loud thud behind me. That awful sound of dead weight striking the earth. I stopped briefly, hoping for a split second he would need medical, which would give me an opportunity to gracefully bail from the race. Instead, I watched him rise to his feet, shake the dirt off and blow by me without a problem. I looked back and didn't see any more people to let by, and figured I had my spot. I knew catching Paul was out of the question, now it was a matter of finishing the race.

The last two miles are never fun. They're even worse when someone is reeling you in like Chris Manfredi was doing to me. I caught a brief glimpse of him through the woods around mile 11.5. I didn't know who it was, but I could feel my energy being sucked out of me. I had about a 10-20 second lead on him going into the last mile, which has a gradual uphill. I finally said to myself, no more. I wasn't going to let anyone else pass me. I found a little hidden energy and surged just a bit. It was enough to hold him off. As I approached the outhouse I came upon a suffering Damon Kluck, who once again popped. I cruised past the finish line in an unofficial 1:23:17. A mere 13 minutes after the leaders and 5 minutes slower than last year. I think Time2Race was having some issues with their new timing system. I know when I saw my result posted they had me at 1:23:28, which is a bit off. Regardless, it was my slowest time since 2004 when I ran a 1:37, finishing only seconds before my wife.

So, overall this was a rather rude welcoming to my 40's. I knew I wasn't fit going in and unfortunately I couldn't fake it. I can only hope it gets better from here.

Side notes: Props to Max King for the new course record, which has yet to officially post but should be 1:10:50 something. Also props to my sister-in-law Jeannie Mikalson who has not run a competitive race for at least 7 years and 4 pregnancies. Today she ran a 1:49 and change, which is very impressive on this course. Also congrats to Ron Deems and Dave Webster for joining the sub 1:30 club. Those guys both have worked really hard and it's nice to see it pay off. Also want to congratulate Paul Parsons for winning the master's title. I believe this was his first Dirty Half and he ran it well. Finally, both Kari Strang and Jen Roberts ran gutsy races and finished in 1:44 and 1:45 respectively. Great job to both.