The Nuclear Bunny Blog

Today I ran the half-marathon course of the 2008 Duke City Marathon event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was my first organized half event and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I followed the advice of my running group back home and treated it just like a training run.

Luckily, it was a very well organized event. The “motivation stations” every 2 miles had plenty of water and gatoraide so I wound up not using my water belt much during the race.

The route had us wind through downtown for about two miles before taking us onto a trail system that followed the banks of the Rio Grande. This had the double benefit of being the lowest altitude in the area and fairly flat.

I was concerned about the high altitude compared to the near sea level back home, but it turned out to be a non-issue. My heart rate during the race was the same as home and I never felt light-headed or got a headache afterwards. I completely credit this to my hike up the mountain 2 days before and the pint of beer I had at the top.

I finished the race in 2:09:35 which is about a 9:54 minute/mile average pace. That is just a tad faster than the pace I average during my long training runs so I am really pleased with that result.

Woo hoo; now to try and improve my time at next week’s Houston half.

This weekend is one of our pilgramilage trips back to Albuquerque. We try and make it back at least once a year to visit Lori’s parents and to partake in local flavors. I always try and work in some outdoor fun while I’m here too.

On the east side of town are the Sandia Mountains and a favorite hiking trail is the La Luz that follows a very steep route from the foothills to the north crest. I have hiked this trail about a half dozen times now, but this was my first time outside of the summer months.

As it turns out, it was a great time to go. The weather was cool but not too cold (until after dark at the crest itself). The Aspen trees had turned and the parts of the trail through their area was littered with bright fall colors.

It had snowed about the week before and there was still a quarter inch of icy remnants on the upper portions of the trail and near the crest.

All of my marathon training was noticable in the hike, but not quite as much as I had hoped. As usual, once 9,000 feet was reached I was just plain tired. But, afterwards I was not nearly as worn out as on previous hikes.

Once at the top, I stopped by the High Finance restaurant that is next to the ski area and enjoyed a nice pint of Red Hook India Pale Ale and watched the sunset.