This past weekend the family packed up and headed over the beautiful North Cascades Highway to the small recreation filled town of Winthrop and the complete Methow Valley. We decided a couple of days ago that we would take off for the weekend and that I would run in the MVSTA Sunflower Relay & Iron event. A 21.7 mile that gave me a true sense of thanks and amazement of what God has created and what He has given us to enjoy. To see exactly what I'm talking about, you'll have to visit, however there are a few pictures here the the MVSTA staff took of all the competitors.
The race started close to 8:30 and I was off, hoping to see Annalisa, Raely and Teva (A.R.T) at an Aid station in the near future, however having never run the course I had no idea of what kind of times I was looking at. Needless to see, I was faster than I predicted myself to be to the first Aid Station and from then on knew that it would be difficult for them to know where to expect me next.
Start - Aid #1 (~33 minutes)
The first 3.9 miles was mainly jeep trail with the occasional 1/2 mile of single track. I battled with my ego at the start, not wanting to go out to fast and regret later, so I used the first 5 or so minutes as a warm-up with my AHR at 160. After about a mile and half we got into the first climb of the day, nothing to serious, and was a great opportunity for me to settle into my race pace. A few other racers had Garmin watches on and I overheard them saying "We're at 8:15... 8:30... 8:20" and so on and figured, why not hang out here as I was feeling good. It took me ~33min to reach this first Aid Station where I opted to pass on refueling my water.
Aid #1- #2 (~33 minutes - 1:06.40 TTL)
Then it was down and along the river for the next couple of miles until popping out on a paved road, which made me realize that my times were going to be way ahead of what I had thought out. I hung out with a few different people during this section and talked as casual as we could running at close to 8 min./mile pacing. I got to the Aid Station hoping to find A.R.T. there waiting, but I had beaten them again (I guess that is a good thing).
Aid #2 -#3 (~33 minutes - 1:40.00 TTL)We hopped on the Methow community trail that wound through open fields, over small bridges and then up to Sun Mountain. This is where I acted out strategy and began to more shuffle and fast hike the climb rather than burn myself up by trying to run. Smart strategy as I pasted a number of people once reaching the top and the course flattened out a bit. We ran past Patterson Lake and WOW what great views!
Aid #3 - #4 (~33 minutes - 2:13.00 TTL)
I don't much remember this portion of the race, other than meeting Mike, a guy from Seattle. We were talking for almost the entire leg and it really made the time go by. He has ran this before and gave me a little briefing on what was to come. It was very helpful and encouraging, thanks Mike!!
Aid #4 -#5 (~33 minutes - 2:46.40 TTL)
The first few miles was a climb back up out of the valley we were in and it was worth it as when I reached the top I was taken back to an earlier amazement in God's creation! We truely have a God that has an amazing imagination. The picture of me wincing is just as I crest the hill.
From aid 5, it was pretty much downhill to the finish with oh yes... one more climb.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my time and overall results, complete results are posted here, but here is the quick version.
20-29 Male - 4th of 10
Overall Iron - 39th of 143
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