Coldwater rumble

Yesterday I ran the Coldwater race. It is a well organized local event part of the Desert Runner Trail series. I woke up very early and could not go back to sleep so I went to the race about 2 hours ahead of my start time. I watched the 50 mike, 50k and 31k runners head off before I went to my car to get myself ready.
My hip, knee, and shoulder were still very sore and tender from falling at Deems Hill Thursday afternoon but not enough to keep me from running.
I picked 2 guys right away that I knew I needed to stay away from. One was a guy I encountered at Xterra Black Canyon half marathon last year. He started near the front but did not have the speed that everyone ahead if him had. When we all entered a very narrow bottleneck section that had literally 50-60 feet of straight down cliff to the left and a wall to the right this guy was going about 2-3 minutes per mile slower than everyone who was right behind him and despite people asking him to move over he would not. People needed to literally push their way past him if they wanted to get by. I started ahead of him and kept him in my rear view even though this trail had no similar sections. Second guy was an older dude who felt the need to let everyone there know that he knew EVERYTHING there was to know about the bathrooms, trail incline/decline, weather, terrain, etc. Once the race started he began yelling that we had 1.27 miles of gradual incline ahead of us and the gravel would start turning smaller and more dense around the next turn. Every time guy would give advice he would look around to see who was listening. Didn’t matter if it was which bathroom had a shorter line or technical trail info. Myself, I decided to run this race sans music, so I had no way to drown this guy out. Unfortunately he ran close to the same pace as I did but he eventually became silent and focused on catching a guy in a blue jacket who was ahead of us. We both ended up catching blue jacket (see the pictures below) near the end and if my hip wasn’t sore I would have blown past Mr. Information but he got me by 5 seconds.
The trail was good for a shorter distance. There were some good vertical climbs that challenged you but there was enough smooth single track and road to let it rip and run fast if you wanted too. I did see that people who did the longer distances found some if the technical climbs pretty tough.

I used a product for the first time, and I know this was a shorter distance and I wasnt trying to crush it, but Sport Legs really seemed to work.  I will use them more in the future to see, but despite my lungs blowing up in sections my legs never got “the burn”.  They were tired and I knew they were getting used hard but they never burned.  Interesting stuff.  This morning my hammies and calves are sore but not yesterday.
I will be doing the next 2 races in this series then making the decision on if I want to try the newly reincarnated Crown King 50k. From what I read and hear it deserves its name as north America’s toughest 50k (as there are about 45 races with the same claim).
Today us also the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon. I despise the RNR series on philosophical grounds, and wish people would stop running and volunteering for these races but it has become such a watered down feel good event that it will take time for it to go away. Bottom line is the company who runs the races (not competitor, their daddy) is all about the dollar bills. Everyone who volunteers is placing between $75 and $300 in their accounts as thru are not paying someone to man a station or work the expo. I prefer the smaller races that are making some money but are all about the events and runners. Not operating under the guise of being all about the charity and community. That is all a bunch of crap. Sedona marathon is headed that way with their 5 event circus. Scale back and enjoy the event. Don’t count the pennies.
Anyway here are some pics from yesterday’s race.

The race shirt

Blue jacket and Mr.Know it all about hale mile from the finish

Awards for those who were fast enough