Rock Canyon Half Marathon

This was not on my schedule, but I wanted to do it.
My freind Jerry L. put me onto this, but I didn't see him there.

I drove down Friday night and found a quiet dirt road 10 miles from Pueblo to crawl into the back and sleep. I woke up after only three hours of sleep and then started thinking of stupid stressful stuff. It was hard to shut that out. I probably wasted two hours of sleep. Total sleep: 5hr. And I was SOOO sleepy when I went to bed!

I ate 4 pancakes at IHOP for bnreakfast.
Note to self: Stop at three, when you're about to run a fast, short race!

The park was easy to find. I didn't know anyone, but runners are runners, right? I felt at home.
It was cold before the start, but there was no wind and the sky was clear. I pulled the forecast up on my iPhone and it said the start temp would be 29 degrees, and the finish would be 45. Without any wind, and the sun on you, 45 feels almost perfect!
I ran in shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

I forgot my running shoes! Being paranoid, and a boyscout, I always keep a pair in the back of my car. They're Gore-Tex, and weren't necessary, but they were good enough for a half marathon.

This was my first race test of my new DryMax socks. Let me tell ya - THEY FAILED!!! My feet are MANGLED! I have the biggest, sorest blisters I've ever had in my LIFE! Good to find out at the end of the season with a little race, right? I'll stick with Injinji's+Wright socks for racing. I'll still use the DryMax socks for training.
In the photo, the extent of the blister is marked in red.

The blisters started just half way through. It felt kind of like sand or little gravel got in, but there wasn't any. That was just the skin separating.

I remembered to dose with Astelin and Albuterol, but I still had two asthma attacks. One was at 10 miles, and the other was just after the only real climb on the course. I had to slow, concentrate on form, and chill out.

Even though I didn't place well, I set another milestone! The Rim Rock Run was my first average-pace below 8min./mile. Well today I dropped the average pace to 7:45/mile. I know - the shorter the race the faster your pace SHOULD be, but mine hasn't been. It was like anything between 5K and 50K was the same pace, no matter how I tried. I've done two 10-mile races this year that were barely slower than 8 min./mile. So to do a half-marathon at 7:45 means I've finally broken through my plateau.

I need to push it down to 7 min./mile this winter!

I've got a few tweaks bothering me - all on the left side. Two on the knee and one on the heel. I didn't want to really take time off, but these blisters demand it. So I'll take an extended break - like two whole days! LOL!