Craig's Running Blog

Moab Red Hot 55k

I planned on pushing it hard on this race, and had some high hopes. Even though my weekly mileage was kind of low, my overall fitness was good. I had some need for some new shoes, so I ordered the new Hokas. That ended up being a decent choice in terms of saving my legs, but the terrain wasn't ideal for Hokas...

I started out running pretty well and feeling good. I was up towards the front through the first climb, the several miles of flat, and the second climb to the lookout around mile 10. I flew on the downhill and got to aid station 2 at mile 13 in record time. After that aid station, I was keeping a fast pace on the rolling hills and hit a rock wrong on my right foot. My ankle rolled, and it was one of those rolls that you can't just run off. I had to wait a couple minutes and limp it off, then I tried to run. I could run a couple steps, but then the pain would shoot through the ankle. This part of the run wasn't bad terrain, so I made it to the next aid station at mile 17 without too much trouble. A guy there taped me up pretty well, and I felt good enough to continue. Unfortunately, the terrain turns again to something nasty around mile 19 and doesn't get better until 28. Those 9 miles were spent mostly walking, and mostly in pain. I got passed too many times to count, but finally reached mile 28 in good spirits knowing that I could run much of the last 5. That proved to be the case, but I was pretty sore from compensating for the ankle, and my pace the last 5 wasn't much better than 8 min/mile. I finished at about 5:45, which was acceptable to me. Hopefully, my ankle will heal itself on the road and I can try the shoes again on some better trail terrain.