Oh Capitan, My Capitan

El Capitan

Yosemite National Park was the setting for this year’s first Vacation Races half marathon.  The race was held on Saturday, May 13, beginning at 6:00 AM. 

That’s right, 6:00 AM.  The race was run in two heats to accommodate the large number of runners and cars.  Since the start line was in a remote area outside of the park, every runner had to be bussed to the start line.  No exceptions.  The first heat’s runners departed their assigned parking lot at 4:30 AM.  I have no idea how many busses it took – but doing the math:  1500 runners per heat divided by 50 seats per bus = 30 busses.  That looked about right. 

About that 4:30 AM departure – our hotel was only five minutes from the parking lot, so we left at 4:20.  Big mistake.  So did every other carload of runners, and the two lane highway with a single stoplight at the turn to the parking lot was backed up for a couple of miles.  It took 20 minutes to make that 5 minute drive.  Thankfully, there were plenty of volunteers to direct the cars to the overflow parking, and plenty of busses to get us to the start line – with about 10 minutes to spare.  Not enough time for the porta-potty line.  Thank goodness for the bathroom on the bus!

And we were off.  The first five miles of the race were on a decent dirt road with only a few muddy spots.  Then it was downhill most of the way, with miles 5 – 10 a blur as we floated down the mountain.  I say we because I was actually keeping up with Sue!  At about mile 10, beautiful Bass Lake came into view, and rolling hills past beach houses and shore-side businesses dotted the course. 

Unfortunately, at about mile 10 that hip injury came back with a vengeance.  As Sue’s confident stride faded in front of me, I walked the uphills and ran the downhills into the finish line.  Even so, I finished in second place in my age division.  Sue and I were stopped at the finish line by a cute 20-something who gushed about how inspirational we were and how we’d kept her on pace.  We posed for a photo together. 

After the traditional celebration, we headed to the park. According to the locals, Yosemite was 

actually the first National Park (sorry, Yellowstone) because it was set aside by President Lincoln long before Teddy Roosevelt established the National Park Service.  In any case, the land is spectacular, with high cliffs and waterfalls, glaciers, and giant redwoods and sequoias.  Or so we are told.  On that Saturday afternoon, traffic toward Yosemite Valley was at a standstill and signs indicated to park now and walk in.  But the walk would have been nearly six miles – more than our tired old legs could handle, so we turned around and took photos from the overlook.

A good reason to return – on a weekday.

Lake Powell Half-Marathon

The name of every registeredrunner is on this poster.  Pretty cool.

The Lake Powell Half Marathon is in the books!  I took third place in my age division in what was by far the most beautiful race I’ve ever run. 

I was actually surprised that I placed, considering I set a new personal record – my slowest half-marathon ever.  That said, I felt better than I thought I would.  Between the KT Tape and the preemptive ibuprofen, my back felt OK and I ran at a pretty good clip for the first half of the race.  I got tired toward the end, though, and ended up walking a couple of tenths-of-miles at around mile 10.  I guess that was the 3 to 4 percent of fitness that I lost by taking a couple weeks off running while my back tried to heal.

The Lake Powell Half is part of the Vacation Races series, which hosts eight different courses at or near national parks.  In addition to Lake Powell, Vacation Races hosts half-marathons at Zion, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yosemite. 

One of the coolest things about Vacation Races is their commitment to the environment.  While the course had ample aid stations along the way, there was not a paper cup to be found.  The company actually provided reusable hydra pouches to the racers.  These are lightweight, easy to fill and use, and easy to store on your race belt.  I didn’t take mine with me because I had my Camelbak vest, but I wish I had.  It would have been nice to get an electrolyte drink at the finish line and there were no cups there, either.  There were plenty of trash cans at the aid stations and at the finish line.  Their goal is no trash on the course – ever – and according to their web site they come very close to meeting it on every race.

I was also impressed by the Lucid Images, the official race photographers. 

I’ve been in many races where the photo packages were quite expensive.   Lucid offered a deal where if you paid $20 up front you could get all your photos, no questions asked and no extra charge.  They took 16 photos of me, and while a couple caught me blinking, most of them turned out great.  And I get to keep them.  All of them!

Sue and I had a great time running and enjoying the beautiful scenery, and had an even better time after the race.  After our traditional post-race mimosas, we took our race bibs and medals down to the beach for a photo op in the lake.  We also went to the Carl Hayden Visitors Center in the hope of taking a tour of Glen Canyon Dam, but apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea because the tours were all full.  So we did our own tour, slowly walking across the bridge that we had run between miles 6 and 7 and taking lots of photos.

By the way, Sue took first place in her age group, came in well ahead of everyone in the age group ahead of her, and beat me by a good six minutes.  You go, girl!

Next year we’re doing the Yellowstone Half.