“Red Hot” 50k not exactly “Hot”

So I finally “get” the joke of the Red Hot 50k… it’s COLD in Moab! And not just cold, it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit at the start of the race (8:00). And there was snow… a LOT of snow. I was completely surprised by the snow. I always knew there was some snow in Moab during the winter, I was even snowed off the Kor-Ingalls route on Castleton Tower one year, but I never saw it “stick” in any quantity.

This year was apparently a tad heavier than usual, as nearly the entire climb to the top of “Metal Masher” was in a foot or more of grainy, non-packing snow that was more like sand than snow. Every step was unstable, slippery, and was often accompanied by a “near fall” where every muscle in my body worked overtime to simply maintain balance. I stopped and shot this photo of the race start from the rim trail as I ran towards the second aid station. The snow here was well over a foot deep, and I must have rolled my ankles a dozen times each. A couple of near falls caused me to strain my left knee to the point where every step became more and more painful as the run continued.

By the time I made it to the aid station at about mile 18 (11:45), my knee was swollen and seriously painful. The course marshal at the junction had run the course several times and warned me that to continue would be a potential problem as extraction past this aid station was difficult at best if things worsened. As I contemplated her comments, I also thought about the fact that the 24 hrs of Moab at the end of March would be at risk if I seriously injured myself, and that race is more than just a race... it’s a fund-raiser for my daughter to be able to volunteer for the MORE project expedition, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that, so it was time to call it a day.

The course marshal I spoke with asked me to drive her car into Moab when I got back to the start (I would ride back with the aid station volunteer), and that seemed pretty reasonable, so I hung out in the sun and took a nap on the warm sand. Funny how 38 degrees can feel “warm”. When we finally arrived at the start at 2:00, I gimped to her car, climbed in, and I discovered… it has a manual transmission. Every time I pushed the clutch in I was reminded that particular motion was exactly what my knee didn’t want any of.

After making it to Moab, my wonderful and very patient wife drove the entire way home so I could keep my knee iced and get an early start on recovery. Now, three days later, I’m really feeling the net effect… my training was pretty good for a 50k race, but it was inadequate for the conditions. All of the small muscles in my legs that are responsible for stabilizing are completely wasted. My big muscle groups feel fine, but even my hip stabilizers, abs, back and neck are far more sore than I would expect, and I believe all due to the constant effort they expended to keep me from falling as I ran through that snow.

I always look back and analyze my runs, regardless of how they went, just to see if there's anything I can learn. I really think I could have avoided any injury buy just pulling back to a walk for the entire climb up Metal Masher and down to Aid 2. Instead, I kept checking my watch and tied to keep my pace up. I also think my training program is lacking in stability training. Even the guys at Lifetime have told me that, but fitting it all in is tough.

Oh well. I’ll chalk it up to experience, I'll include some stability training as a regular component of my regimen… and I’ll wait till next year for a Red Hot success.