After finishing the Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, we were hooked. We decided to do the next Rock 'n Roll race, which was scheduled for January 16th in Phoenix, just 5 weeks away. The race course had the run going from Downtown Phoenix into Scottsdale and ending in Tempe at ASU stadium. The headliner was scheduled to be Vertical Horizon. I like their music, but Renee didn't care for them.
We got to Phoenix on Friday night and stayed at a hotel near the ASU campus. We hung out Saturday and did a 5 mile walk around the area to breakfast and later to lunch. We found that walking the day before helps to stretch out and limber up the muscles, but we don't run the day before a race. One thing we have learned is that you need to get a good night's sleep 2 nights before the race, because nerves and anxiety set in the night before and it's sometimes hard to get a good night's sleep. We went to an Italian restaurant and had pasta to carb up a little. Depending on your body, you might not want to have tomato sauce or meat sauce the night before the race. It can cause some stomach issues and you may find yourself needing to use the restroom during a long run. Tomato sauce is highly acidic, and I don't know about you, but it cleans me out!
Race Morning
Alarms go off bright (or dark in this case) and early on race day. We got up at 4 am and made sure all our stuff was ready to go. Checks and rechecks done, we were reaady to head out. We needed to be at the ASU campus at the Stadium before 5:30am in order to catch transportation to the start line. It was cold out! Luckily we had warm clothes and got to the buses after groggily trekking across the lot from the parking garage at the stadium. The bus ride to the start line seemed like it was an hour long for a 13.1 mile race, but we got there and got situated. The Rock 'n Roll races are set up extremely well. You check your gear, which is stored in canvas race bags, in UPS trucks, which are taken to the finish line area, and you get them back after you finish the race. We learned that you really need to put the following in your race bag:
1. Change of clothes.
2. Wash cloth.
3. Flip flops.
4. Recovery drink.
5. Deodorant.
The reason you want these things is simple. After running 13.1 miles you tend to be a sweaty mess. You feel nasty, basically, and you will want to get out of your running clothes to make yourself more comfortable. The wash cloth will give you a mini bath using bottled water. When you run distance, your feet swell from the constant pounding on the pavement, and taking off your shoes and walking around in flip flops allows them to breath and relax. Recovery drinks help replenish your lost calories (usually between 1200 and 1600 calories are burned in a half marathon) and gives you much needed protein. Deodorant, well let's face it, you stink after running distance, to the point of being offensive. I tend to offend myself, actually. After you wash off a little, it feels good to smell good, but that's an individual preference.
I love the starts at the Rock 'n Roll races. It's a corral start, and you move up gradually to the start line, so if you are back in a slower corral like we were the first few races, you don't have to be at the corral right at race time. You can take your time and chill out before the race. Gives you plenty of time to go the the bathroom, get some nutrition in you and warm up. The race announcers get everyone jazzed up to run and crank the music to get your blood pumping. The first few corrals are for the speedy people, of which we are not! We like to be back in the pack and ease into our race pace. The Elites and the age groupers that expect to do well go in the first couple corrals. There are usually anywhere from 25-35 corrals, with a few hundred people in each. I love the atmosphere at race time, it's one of the things that I thrive on during a race. You feed off the crowd's electricity and it energizes you.
The Course
I have to say that I have nothing against Phoenix. It is alot like Las Vegas in many ways.. hot, dry and crowded. I also have to say that the half marathon race course was not that great, in my humble opinion. Now maybe I was no authority, having logged a grand total of 1 half marathon in my life as a distance runner, but the course was not that great. We ran from downtown Phoenix, which was surprisingly nice, and went down a long stretch of road that was filled with vacant lots, graffiti and homeless people. It was not the most scenic of routes. Vegas totally blew it away by comparison. My opinion was this: if I am paying good money to run in a long race, it would be nice to run in a nice place. I could see that stuff here. Whe nI travel to do a race, I would like a little something better to look at. Enough said.
Most of the course was flat. Our pace was nice, probably around 11 minutes or more, which made it easy to breath and we weren't pushing it. Our Vegas experience taught us that going slow at first made it easier to run the long distance. Going out fast will make it hurt and not fun at all. The first half of the race, with the exception of one restroom break, went well. We were targeting our Vegas race time of 2:38, and all we wanted to do was come in better than that. We got to miles 9-12, where it got a little hilly by a nature park just outside Tempe. We train for hills though, and while other people walked the hills, we ran through them with no problem. Our hill work in Henderson, which has nearly no flat terrain, came in very handy here. We hit the 12 mile mark on a bridge that crossed the Salt River, and this older fellow (like 75 or so) jogged past us. I looked at Renee and shrugged my shoulders and said "really??" I thought it was funny. I checked our time and we were on pace to just beat our Vegas time, so we stepped it out a little and took it to the finish line strong, getting in at 2:35 and change.
After the run you get your finisher's medal from a volunteer and walk through the finish area and get some much needed water, electrolyte drinks and some food. Then there is a visit to the merchandise tent to claim your finishers shirts and whatever trinkets you want to remember the race, as if the pain in your legs wouldn't be enough to remember. After you get to walk off a little of the pain, you get your gear at the check area where the UPS trucks brought them, and you refresh a little. We decided that we had had enough of the race atmosphere and we skipped the concert and just drove back to the hotel.
Because we finished but the Las Vegas and the Phoenix Half Marathons back to back, not only did we get both finisher medals, but we also got a "Desert Double Down" medal for completing both desert races. 3 medals for 2 races. Not bad! We quickly found out that they have a "Heavy Medal" program, where the more races you finish in a calendar year, the more medals you get! We decided to enter as many as we could aford, because the bling is awesome!
Conclusion
Because of the course, and the course alone, I wouldn't do Phoenix again unless the Desert Double Down medal was different next year and they changed the course. Some people dont care about that sort of thing, but I don't want to run through the 'hood when I am paying for a race. In retrospect after doing 5 races now, Phoenix was the worst course, in my opinion, because of the route. I know they are subject to the city and permits and such, but there has to be a better route that goes through all three cities there - Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe.
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