Notes
RR: It's been quite the week since my training run on the course last Saturday. Just a few hours later, our dog got very sick very quick and died. She was only 8 but has been sick for about a year. We got her as a puppy which is not usually the case with our dogs. I have great memories running with her back in Oklahoma and here in the desert in New Mexico. That all stopped when she got sick and for about the last year, she has been a shadow of her former self.
Like I said, I've been practicing on the course. It's a system of trails I hadn't run on much because mostly mountain bikes use it and the road there is sandy and full of ruts. Since Sharon is in Europe hiking the Camino with 2 of her sisters, I took her car because it has better clearance! I knew how hard it was going to be, with 1,450 ft of elevation gain and the same amount of loss. Temps went from 60 to the mid-70's which felt warmer! Here are some other numbers for those so inclined: RHR 54, avg 140, max 174. There were two sections that weren't runnable, to me anyway, so I hiked them.
Only in a small race...could you win your AG (50-59, I'm 58) and finish 36/39! I finished strong! Took a nap when I got home. Checked my previous trail half marathons here at altitude and this was my PR for that type of race! [that's why I added it as a PR here]
Note to Coach Neely: Whoop gave this a 19.0 Strain Score which is almost the max at 21.