30 June, 2001
Laramie, Wyoming
It seems like I’m out
of town every year when the Pilot Hill Run rolls around. I’ve done it once before, and the
16 mile trip across the sandy/rocky/loose terrain to the top of Pilot and back
stands out as the most difficult long distance running race I’ve
done. This year, I was almost out
of town, spending the preceding three days in Washington, D.C. sitting in
meetings. Not exactly the way you
want to prep for this tough a race.
I arrived back in town at about 9 PM on Friday, with an early start time
on Saturday. I had also been
fighting with a mild injury all spring, a case of plantar fasciitis in my left
foot. I thus resolved to take it
easy and “run it for training”.
This was to be the 25th
anniversary of the first race, and a record crowd of runners turned out. Of particular note was Farhad Jafari,
fleet-footed math professor, Annette Van Baalen, fleet-footed physician, and a
guy I know only by virtue of admiring his pace and form as he galloped around
town. This last gentleman was Ray
Harvey, who ended up setting the course record. Well, I bolted off the line as usual and after a mile of
running on the relative flat and level ground, found only near the start and
finish by the way, I settled into a more reasonable gate. I was lodged in behind the first place
woman, Jane Welzel, who, despite not being the
youngest woman there, was certainly the fastest. She reportedly was/is/can be a world class marathoner. I wasn’t tailgating Ms. Welzel
for long and slowly drifted back.
I usually like to keep training up until an event, and I certainly felt
the rust of inactivity. I felt
pretty good though, up until taking water at about 6 miles. I drank too much, lost my breath and
never really gained it again on the way uphill. I lost several positions over that time, positions that I
should have kept. On the way back
down I could feel my plantar fascia becoming more and more irritated –
but what are you gonna do? I ran
as well as I could and by the time I hit the last two miles of relatively flat
and smooth terrain, I was a hobbling mess. I still managed to run it in and didn’t lose anymore
positions on the way to the finish, but I sure didn’t pick up time on
anyone. The bad thing about the
experience was that I hurt my foot so bad I had trouble walking for days, and
months later I still wasn’t running. And I was counting on running to keep me in shape during my
travels in the month of July…
I finished in
2:13:33, just over 2.5 minutes slower than when I raced it two years ago. That placed me second in the 40-49 age
group (way behind Farhad), and in about 10th overall. Other notables included:
Ray Harvey, 1:42:48 (1st overall, reputedly a
record time)
Farhad Jafari, 1:48:50
(3rd overall)
Jane Welzel, 2:08:31 (1st woman)
Annette Van
Baalen, 2:48:12
Return to Mountain Biking in Laramie