About 15 minutes after JT’s finish at HR, we were in the Silverton Brewery. He declared he would make the trek from the Springs up to the People’s Republic to race the mile and the steeple. On the track. 5 days after doing the toughest 100 miler in the US.
In my one feeble attempt at such a distance – one in which there was maybe 12 feet of vertical gain over the entire run – I was barely walking 5 days after the stunt. Mile? Maybe I could run one, but I’d be lucky to break 12 minutes downhill. Steeple? I’d rather belly crawl on razor wire.
But the mayor of Old Colorado City was up for it. Heck, I was not even sure I wanted to do it and I only had 42 miles in my legs from pacing Tim L. Now I just had to make sure that I did not get my arse beat by him, as the stream of taunts would never be ending after that. I ain’t gonna lie – I was not sure getting to the line before him was a gimmie.
Showing up to watch the fun was Mike H (who also ran the mile) Patrick G, Kendrick, Rob, Jeff V. TZ and JZ also swung by to have a laugh at me in the later event (the steeplechase).
I got to the mile pretty close to the start – a bit too close. I managed only a one mile warm up, and one stride. My legs felt like bricks. While the pacing duties in the San Juans did level me to the ground like they may have a decade ago, I certainly was not feeling spry or full of pop. While I had put down a 4:51 in the 1500 a couple of weeks ago, I was seriously wondering if a sub 5:30 was in the cards. Whatever, we lined up and went. Video courtesy of Patrick G and pics from Rob.
I sort of forget how MUT dudes have no idea as to what is occurring on a track. Things like where the start of the mile is (it is 9 meters behind the regular start finish on a 400 meter oval), or that you don’t say 1:20 for a split but “80.” The opposite holds true as well when track guys go to MUT races and they try to use trekking poles and look like they are throwing a javelin at themselves.
Anyway, I got out in 78 (I actually clicked the first split about 5 meters pass the 409 spot at 80, so I am guessing 77, 78) and it felt way too fast. Mike had got out into third and I thought those guys were flying. I looked back at about 600 yards and made uncomfortable note that Brownie was not disappearing that quick – and so cruising was not an option. I hit the half in 2:36, which I found surprising because it felt like I had slowed significantly. The third lap is always hell, so I tried to focus a bit because I was not sure how close JT was and I did not want to have to face the roar of the crowd in a last lap kick off (3:55 so a 79). I heard a guy right behind me the whole way – and managed to muster in a relatively stronger last 100 and not get caught. Mike H ran 5:01, I did a 5:12, and JT came in at like 33 minutes or something (nah, 5:21, which is nuts considering his weekend).
I think the guy behind me kicked me down two weeks ago so I felt good about that. I am still a good distance from a sub 5, but I feel with some focused training (versus exercise), I could get there.
After an hour of coughing our brains out (typical post the mile), we lined up for the steeple. I had no goal here other than to not get beat by the guy who just did a 100. After a lap of stepping up on the hurdles, and jumping off them, I elected to “hand vaulted” over all of them (which was actually probably quicker for me). Knowing there were folks up at the water pit, I tried to have a good time with it. On the first lap, Brownie gave me a tap at the water pit that would not have impacted any normal person, but my lack of coordination did not fail me – and I bit it in the water. (By the way, according to prior agreement, I did this race in Hokas).
Not very pretty, my first steeple in 20+ years, but worth some good laughs.
I think Brownie actually tried to cannonball into the pit on one of his laps. I ended up catching some guys who went out way faster than me. I caught one kid with a lap to go and was putting some distance on him, but I gave a good amount of that up when I did a self elected full submerge on the last water pit. After the last hurdle I could hear the click of his spikes picking up. I tried to outkick him, but I was laughing at the prospect of a 42 year old in Hokas in his second event of the night outkicking a kid half of his age. As would be expected he nipped me for third at the line (I should have made him go wider to lane 3 or 4 rather than just 2). 13 minutes something I guess. I have no vertical in me whatsoever and it showed.
Guess where the hurdles were …
More video to be posted later.
All pix from Rob from the event. Good time. Warmed down with JZ for a bit and then joined Rob for an après track party at his pool.
