On January 6, I ran the State 47 Las Cruces Marathon. I ran this same race a year ago. Deb’s oldest brother lives nearby, so it was a chance to visit.
Wednesday, January 3
The closest airport is El
Paso, TX, but there aren’t any direct flights there from Minneapolis. Instead, we flew to Tucson, AZ. It’s a longer drive, but we were able to get
a direct flight to Tucson. Deb is still
in a wheelchair, so fewer flights meant fewer times that Deb had to endure
boarding and deplaning via an aisle chair.
Rather than fly and drive
the same day, we spent the night in a hotel near the Tucson airport and waited until
the next day to drive to Las Cruces.
Our flight arrived almost
an hour early, but we lost that time and more when we got to our hotel. We had booked a handicap accessible room at
Home2 Suites, but there was a mix-up with our reservation. When we arrived, they didn’t have any accessible
rooms available. The hotel manager was very apologetic and found us an accessible
room at Hilton Garden Inn, which was only a block away. Our room was free, and we also got a free
breakfast.
Although it took longer than
expected to get into a hotel room, I still had time to go for a run before
dinner. The weather in Tucson was warmer
than the weather in Las Cruces, and it was much warmer than the weather at
home. It was nice to be able to run in
shorts and a T-shirt.
The restaurants near the
airport were all fast food and chain restaurants. For dinner, we drove into the city, where we
found a nice diner.
Thursday, January 4
Thursday morning, we
drove to Hatch, NM, where we had lunch with Deb’s brother Jim and his wife
Kathy.
From Hatch, it was a 30
mile drive to Las Cruces. Deb’s knee was
bothering her, so after we checked into our hotel in Las cruces, Deb relaxed at
the hotel for the rest of the day. I waited
for it to get warmer, and then I went for an afternoon run.
Rather than run on the streets
near our hotel, I drove to La Llorona Park, which is in the Rio Grande
valley. I knew I could park there and run
on a paved trail that follows the river.
This section of trail is part of the marathon route, and it has also
been used for the Day of the Dead Series.
I’ve run back and forth on this section of trail dozens of times, so I
felt at home running there.
The weather in Las Cruces
on Thursday wasn’t nearly as nice as the weather in Tucson on Wednesday. The temperature was in the upper 40s, but the
wind was so strong that it was blowing sand out of the mostly dry river
bed. I also had to endure a brief rain shower.
Neither of us needed a
big dinner, so rather than go out, we picked up some fast food and stayed in
for the evening.
Friday, January 5
We didn’t have to be up
early for anything, so we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.
For races, I run with a
fanny pack, so I have a place to put things like car keys, room cards, and gloves. I discovered on Thursday that the fanny pack
I brought from home wasn’t in my suitcase.
I realized I must have accidentally left it behind when we left our hotel
in Tucson. Housekeeping found it and set
it aside, but the soonest I could go back and get it was Monday.
There was a Wal-Mart near
our hotel, so after breakfast, we went to Wal-Mart to buy a new fanny
pack. Then we went to packet pick-up,
which was at a nearby Holiday Inn.
Besides my race bib and T-shirt, my race packet included a pair of
sunglasses.
We spent the rest of the
morning exploring shops in Old Mesilla, where we bought way too many sweet treats. We also had lunch there.
After lunch, we went to
the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
On our way back to the
hotel, I saw someone running on a trail that runs parallel to the freeway. I had never noticed this trail before, even
though it goes near our hotel. For my
afternoon run, I went running on my newly discovered trail. It was the day before the marathon, so I didn’t
run as far as I did the other days.
For dinner, we went to an
Asian buffet that was right next door to our hotel. I’ve stayed at this hotel four times, and I’ve
driven by there many times, but this was the first time I tried it.
Saturday, January 6
Saturday was race
day. The race didn’t start until 8:00
AM, so I didn’t have to get up outrageously early. As is often the case, I was awake before my
alarm went off.
The start and finish were
both on the track at the Field of Dreams stadium. There was plenty of parking, and the stadium
has heated bathrooms. That was
especially nice, since the outdoor temperature was in the 30s. It was cold enough for tights, so I wore my
cheetah garb. I recall wearing the same outfit
for this race last year.
I started coming down
with a cold just before Christmas. It
was worst the week between Christmas and New Years, but I still had some
congestion and an occasional cough. I
could tell from my training runs during the week that my cold was slowing me
down. Since I wasn’t fully recovered, I wasn’t
inclined to pace myself too aggressively during the race. There would be other races where I could try
for a fast time. This one was all about finishing.
The course was mostly
out-and-back. The majority of the course
was paved, but there was a mixture of surfaces.
After running around the track, we came out of the stadium onto city
streets. We followed city streets for
about a mile before running on a dirt trail for one block. Then we turned onto an asphalt trail that
took us to the river.
Just before getting to
the river, we crossed a dirt trail with some rocks. Then we got onto a wide concrete sidewalk along
the river.
I started the race at a
pace that felt comfortable. I was
surprised to see that I ran the first mile in 9:15. It didn’t feel tiring, but I knew that pace
was too fast, so I eased back until I was averaging about 9:30 per mile.
About three miles into
the race, I heard two women behind me talking.
Their names were Merry and Kimberle, and before long they had caught up
to me. I remembered meeting Merry a few
months ago at the Clarence DeMar marathon, so I said hello.
Next, we ran under a bridge
and through the parking lot of La Llorona Park, where I had started my run on Thursday. There was an aid station set up in that
parking lot. We each got something to
drink, but as Kimberle and I left the parking lot, Merry was no longer with us. I ended up running with Kimberle for the rest
of the race.
For the next few miles,
we were on the same paved trail where I was running on Thursday. When we reached the end of that trail, we
crossed a road and turned onto a different trail that took us away from the
river valley.
Along this section, we
were briefly talking to another runner who was wearing a Boston Marathon jacket. The jacket caught my eye, because it was from
2013. For the next mile or so, the three
of us were trading stories about our experiences at Boston.
Roughly eight miles into
the race, we turned onto a two lane road.
We were on this road all the way to the turnaround. On one side of the road, we ran past groves
of pecan trees.
Early in the race, my
hands were cold, even though I was wearing gloves. As the sun got higher in the sky, I started
to warm up. Along this road, I finally
felt like I was warm enough to take off the gloves.
I was also wearing arm
warmers. About two miles after taking
off my gloves, I started to wonder if I would also need to take off the arm warmers. I didn’t, because I started to feel a cool
breeze.
The turnaround was between
12 and 13 miles. Before the turn, I didn’t
know which direction the breeze was coming from. After the turn, it was obvious. The wind was at our backs before. After turning around, we were running directly
into it.
Shortly after turning
around, we reached the halfway point. At
the time, I was on pace to finish in about 4:12, but I realized the second half
was going to be slower. Running into the
wind was tiring. I knew I wouldn’t be
able to keep up the same pace going into the wind. I also knew we would be running into this
wind for most of the remaining miles.
The wind wasn’t just tiring. It was cold.
I was glad I never took off my arm warmers. After less than a mile going into the wind, I
had to put my gloves on again.
I had a pair of shell
mittens in my fanny pack that I had been wearing over my gloves before the
race. After another mile running into
the wind, my hands were cold enough that I had to put on my mittens as well.
I wasn’t paying close
attention to my pace. I found the pace
tiring, but I was trying to keep up with Kimberle. We had about three more miles before the next
turn, and I found it difficult to keep up.
Finally, after about 17
miles, we left that road to turn back onto the trail that would take us back to
the river. Now, the wind was at our
side. I no longer felt cold, so I
immediately took off the mittens. I was tempted
to take off the gloves too, but I knew we would be going in this direction for
less than a mile. Then we would get back
onto the trail by the river, and we would have a headwind again.
Before we got back to the
river, Kimberle mentioned that her heart rate was getting too high, so she
needed to take a brief walking break. I
was all too happy to slow the pace down.
For about five miles, I had been finding the pace to be too tiring.
Once we were alongside
the river, the terrain was familiar to me.
That helped, but we had a tiring headwind again, and we still had eight
miles to go.
For the rest of the race,
our pace was much slower. Kimberle
needed to manage her pace to keep her heart rate from climbing. We ran at a slower pace, and we took frequent
walking breaks. At this point, I could
have gone faster, but I was enjoying the company, and after several tiring
miles, it felt good to slow down.
The next few miles were familiar
to me. Then, as we retraced the last two
miles through the river valley, the wind got stronger. Those miles were tiring.
It got a little easier
when we finally turned away from the river.
We still had more than three miles to go though.
Instead of taking the
most direct route back to Field of Dreams, we had to do two extra out-and-back
sections that we didn’t do earlier in the race.
Those miles were slow, but at least we were no longer fighting a headwind. When we had the wind at our backs, it suddenly
felt hot.
When we finally got back
to the stadium, we had to run twice around the track before finishing. Having run this race before, I knew that was
coming. I told Kimberle about it, so she
would also know what to expect.
In the last 100 meters,
Kimberle started her sprint to the finish.
I sped up too, but didn’t quite keep up with her. I finished a step or two behind her.
My time was 4:32:10. That was disappointing, but not surprising. I was almost 20 minutes slower in the second
half. That was mostly due to the tiring
headwind, but I was also holding back at times so I wouldn’t leave Kimberle
behind.
The finisher medal was in
the shape of New Mexico. Runners who
placed in the top 47 got a small roadrunner pendant that attached to the
bottom. I didn’t place in the top 47. I was 80th.
By now, it was 50 degrees. It was a sunny day. It was only the wind that made it feel colder.
Post-race food included
birthday cake. January 6 is the
anniversary of New Mexico becoming a state in 1912, so we were celebrating New
Mexico’s 112th birthday.
By the time I finished
the race, Deb was getting hungry for lunch.
I hurried back and got cleaned up as quickly as I could, so we could go
out for lunch. We wanted something
quick, so we went to a nearby place with burgers and frozen custard.
On our way back from
lunch, we saw some vendors selling rocks, geodes, fossils, and jewelry in a
parking lot. We stopped to shop for
almost an hour before returning to the hotel.
We stayed in for the rest
of the afternoon, and I had a good soak in the whirlpool.
For dinner, we went to
Bosque Brewing. They were one of the
race sponsors, and runners could get a discount on food or beer by showing
their race bibs. Besides their beer,
also have a full food menu. We got their
street tacos.
Sunday, January 7
We were originally
planning to spend the day with Jim and Kathy, but Jim wasn’t feeling well. There were other things we could’ve done in
Las Cruces or El Paso, but we decided to drive to Tucson a day early.
There was a strong wind
advisory in the forecast for later in the day and all day Monday, and we wanted
to get ahead of that. The section of
I-10 between Las Cruces and Tucson is prone to dust storms, and the last thing
we wanted was to get caught in a dust storm during the four-hour drive back to
Tucson.
We left Las Cruces right
after breakfast. During the last hour of
the drive, the wind was picking up, and we could see dust clouds to the
south. Thankfully, we didn’t have to drive
through any dust clouds.
We ate lunch on our way
into Tucson and then stopped by Hilton Garden Inn to pick up the fanny back
that I had left behind on Thursday. I
didn’t get a roadrunner for my finisher medal, but I saw one outside the hotel.
Rather than stay at
Hilton Garden Inn again, we opted to stay at Home2 Suites. We appreciated the way they took care of us after
the reservation mix-up earlier, so we gave them a second chance. They had an accessible room for us, and we
were pleased with the accommodations.
Deb and I have been to
Tucson before, so we’ve already done most of the sightseeing there. That’s just as well, since it rained all
afternoon.
I wanted to do a short
recovery run, but I wasn’t excited about running in the rain. Instead, I settled for doing some walking on
one of the treadmills in the fitness room.
After a big lunch,
neither of us had room for another big meal.
Instead, we opted for smoothies from a place near our hotel.
Monday, January 8
Our flight wasn’t until
the afternoon, so I had time to go for a run before heading to the airport. The temperature dropped into the low 30s, so
I had to bundle up. It won’t be any
warmer at home, so it’s time to get used to it again. At least Tucson didn’t have any snow.
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