Altitude and Wind and Hills...Oh My!

Medicine Bow Half Marathon Report

• The most scenic race I've run inland.
• The toughest half marathon I've run.
• The race started at 8723 feet. It's been a long time since I was that close to God.
• It was windier then the Olathe Marathon-just not in your face-it usually was a side wind whipping you around.
• The hills were crazy. One right after another. And the last mile seemed to be straight uphill.
• They started the races with a prayer and a moment of silence for those who have and do fight for our country-very cool.
• The race temperature at the start was 33 degrees. By mile two-I was sweating-very strange.
• The first 6ish miles, Doug and I ran together until it was time for him to continue on without me. Again...the course was tough. At that altitude I felt like I had another 50 pounds on me.
• We would be walking...and it felt like I needed to stop to catch my breath.
• You could smell pine trees everywhere. Ahhh...
• The 'trail' was a gravel road, not the rocky, rooty trails like WyCo or SMP which is way okay considering the other elements we had to deal with.
• Would I do this race again? Probably not. Is it worth doing once? YES! It's beautiful. The pine trees, the HUGE granite stone formations, the blue blue sky, the snow, the streams and so much more. It was worth every breath I did not get to take!

A granite monument of Abe at the rest area where the races started.

Granite formations.

The trail.

• I finished in just under 3 hours. I think 2:57 is the time they recorded when I came in.
• That's about an hour sooner then what I thought my finish time would be when we first got started!