Race Report: Rock the Canyon Challenge, Wellsboro, PA This challenge included the PA Grand Canyon Half Marathon on Saturday AND the Full Marathon on Sunday. Although these races are considered road races, they are actually on hard packed dirt roads along the west rim of the PA Canyon. You have to take a 25 minute shuttle bus ride up to the start/finish line because there is almost no parking available. 58 brave souls signed up for this challenge; 51 completed it. Of course there were plenty of runners running just the Half or the Full too. The courses were very challenging as you can see by the elevation profile pictures below; the Half is on the top & the Full in on the bottom. Most of the race details were very well organized and overall it was a great experience. I decided to go ultra conservative for the Half since I knew I would be starting the full on tired legs & didnt want to make that any worse than necessary. I had several pleasant conversation with other runners along the way. I felt great at the finish with a time of 3:03:20. On Sunday, I started the Full marathon 1 hour early (@ 6 am). There was only 1 other woman starting that early so we stayed together for the 1st mile-ish, until we finished the section on the road where the buses were still dropping people off. Everyone was super friendly & encouraging, even the lead runners. I told myself many times that I was going to finish this feeling good for a change. I was not going to let myself get dehydrated & pukey. I was not going to give in to thoughts of quitting. I was going to smile & enjoy this the whole time. It helped a lot that the course was an out & back so there were plenty of other runners along the way to give encouragement. I reciprocated every chance I got. A little ways after mile 22, I came upon a woman who was walking & seemed to be struggling to continue. I decided to walk with her for a while, especially since we were on an uphill. We chatted all the way up the hill, then she felt better so she took off down the hill. I caught back up to her on the next up, she was walking again. So we chatted more, ran a little together, and after a while realized that we wanted to finish this together. She didnt feel she could run anymore so I said that it was ok, wed walk it, but when we hit mile 26, we had to run in the last 0.2. She told me I was delirious! We continued on & both of our boyfriends had come back looking for us to see how we were. We talked more to each other instead of them. When we saw the mile 26 marker, she began to run. She had me at a sprint the rest of the way; an 11:14 pace! We crossed the finish line together holding hands raised above our heads like champions! My time was 6:40:15. I think I could have finished by 6:30 if I hadnt helped a fellow runner out, but I loved the warm fuzzy feeling of making a new friend & helping her finish feeling good! The real superstar was Joseph. He won 1st in his age group for the Half Marathon, 3rd in his age group for the Full Marathon, and on top of all that . . . he PRed his marathon by 10 minutes!!! Im super proud of him!!! :)
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 22:03:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015