First bigger race of the year! After recently competing in a local 10k in Tucson AZ a few weeks ago in a time of 38:18 (6:10 min/mile). I knew my legs were ready for some speed. Would I be ready to translate a fast (for me) 10K into a great half marathon? That was the big question for this race.
Being from Arizona my wife and I love the Sedona area. The red rock formations are incredible and the atmosphere is always fantastic. We had been here on multiple occasions and ran on many of the trails in town, but had yet to do an official race in Sedona. After hearing great things about this race over the past few years, we decided it was time to take the 3 1/2 hour road trip north to the red rocks of Sedona. This was an extra special race because we had multiple members of our family doing it with us. My wife had been battling some nagging injuries, but has been on the up and up. So this was a test for here Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS). Her dad is working his way up for his first marathon, so this was a good mental check to see how his training has been paying off. My mother in law was also going to be out on the course helping my nephew complete his first 5k. Above all this was going to be an epic day for my mom, who has recently started walking off some pounds (37 to be exact), thanks to her fitbit and some newfound motivation to start hiking. My mom also had her best friend out there making sure she was gonna bring home a 5k finish! This was going to be her first 5k as well! I couldn't be happier for her and the rest of our group toeing the start line.
We carpooled up from Tucson, stopped in Apache Junction to pick up my moms friend and headed toward our hotel in Oak Creek (a few minutes outside of Sedona). This was our view from right outside our hotel. This was going to be awesome!
After settling down and unpacking, we headed to Sedona to the "expo", which was more of just a packet pick up. This was a small town race, but with over 3,000 competitors I expected a little more from the "Expo". We got our bibs and an empty plastic bag with safety pins, and that was all. No trial products, coupons or anything?? We went to get our shirts that we had told them our sizes upon registration and they had none of the right sizes left. How does this seem to happen at so many races. So we ended up having to get really small or extra huge shirts. The material and design were on the cheaper end so I probably wouldn't have worn it much anyway. Kinda harsh, but the truth hurts sometime! I was definitely a little disappointed in this as well because it was a lot our families first taste of a race expo.
Next was the pre race pasta dinner, the race offered a dinner for an extra charge at the same venue as the expo. We decided to head out of town as we noticed a nice little Italian place directly across the street from our hotel. Score! With full bellies we crashed out for the night ready for the race in the AM.
The race provided free shuttle transportation from multiple spots in the Sedona area, but since we were a little too far away we ended up driving to the closest shuttle stop. The shuttles were school buses that would pick us up and take us directly to the starting line. We left with over an hour and twenty minutes before race start and it was a good thing we did. Sedona is a small town and having this many people there kind of made traffic a disaster. They didn't have enough buses and people were having to wait for 2 or 3 rounds of buses to come by before finally getting a chance to board. Luckily we left early and made it with plenty of time to spare.
The starting line(which is also the finish line) is on a narrow street that was lined with booths of goodies to buy, breakfast, etc. It was jam packed as all the race distances start and end at the spot and all start 10 minutes after the previous departed. It took nearly 45 minutes to use the bathroom, make it drop off our bags and into the starting chute. There were so many people around I had no chance to for a warm up run and was not able to make it to the front of the line by the time the race started. I had pre race plans of going for a top 10 finish, but was starting off about 500 people back from the start. This made for a first mile full of zig-zags and a pace that I shouldn't have been running. I wanted to get out of the crowd and try to see how many people were ahead at this point. This is not an easy half marathon:
It was either straight up or straight down, with very few flat sections the entire time. This was an out and back course so you knew the easy downhill's on the way out were going to be the killer uphills on the way back. I had been doing a fair amount of hill training so I felt comfortable, but it took my body around 4 miles to start waking up. My favorite part about this being an out and back was that as I was nearing the turn around spot I was able to count the number of people heading back my direction! I had no idea what place I was in after my back of the pack start, so this gave me hope when I counted that I was in 14th place at the turn around. I was pushing hard and knew a top 10 was possible at this point. Heading back toward the finish was also great because everybody from all the races were running on this same road at the same time. I was able to throw some high fives and got a lot of good cheers from the other racers, which put some extra pep in my step. I slowly picked off a few runners and popped one GU gel around mile 9. Kept clicking off those hills one by one and made it to the finish line in what I thought was 11th-12th place. My legs were shot at this point, so I was glad to have finished and couldn't wait to cheer the rest of our family on to the finish! Guess my delirious brain couldn't count to 10 at that point because I just barely managed to hit my goal! YES! Not my half marathon PR, but happy for how my training has been going and for how tough the course was!
After I crossed the line I was met by my Nephew who was pumped he just completed his first 5k! My mom and her friend were also just about to cross, so I waited for them at the finish. We got our medals, grabbed some water and bananas and headed to the other side of the road to wait for my wife and father in law to finish up their half marathon. Time went by and I knew they should have finished by now; barring any kind of injury. A few minutes later they came around the corner with my father-in-law limping, but still pushing hard to the finish (turned out to only be cramping and not anything worse!) EVERYONE finished and had a great time. By the time we finished the weather had warmed up and it was perfect to go check out the sights Sedona had to offer! Here's a pic of my wife and I showing off our medals and the red rock surroundings.
Here is the whole group of finishers (from 5k up to 13.1) Congrats guys!:
Priority after the race was pizza....and beer! Which we also had right across the street from our hotel! Amazing location with everything super close by. We still had another 24 hours in Sedona that we took advantage of. Checked out the city center and went from a nice recovery hike the next morning. All in all we had a great family weekend! Now onto the points:
Race Location: Sedona is an amazing town. 360 degree views from everywhere. Some of the best running, hiking and mountain bike trails in the USA. Close to Phoenix, close to the Grand Canyon. Sedona Marathon could be a destination race if you wanted to check out what the southwest has to offer. 8.5/10
Swag: As I mentioned earlier the swag was not great for this race. The T shirt felt cheap and the design was not flattering. And also didn't have the right sizes. The medal design was just okay, but everyone got the same medal whether you did a 10k or the full marathon. They should definitely have something that distinguishes what distance everyone completed. Maybe even as simple as a different colored strap? The 5k participants received a basic medal that just said "5k", didn't mention anything about Sedona or even AZ for that matter. Could definitely get more creative with the medal and shirt design though. 6/10
Experience: The shuttle was a great idea, but could probably use a few more to make sure everyone makes it to the race with time to spare. The starting line layout was confusing and clustered which made it difficult to warmup and make it back to the starting line efficiently. The race is saved by the beauty of the course! Once on the course everyone had a great time. Aid stations were stocked and there were plenty of volunteers. The roads were not closed, traffic became a little bit of an issue on the return trip as there were runners going in both directions and traffic seemed to get dangerously close to some runners. 7.5/10
Post Race: Upon finishing race had big bottles of water, cookies, bananas, etc. Pretty standard post race spread, but gets the job done. Sedona is a place you can definitely spend a full long weekend or longer especially if you like the outdoors. You can go mountain biking, rent ATVs, take helicopter or jeep tours. They have plenty of great restaurants and a great brewery (Oak Creek Brewery). Sedona has it all and such a chill vibe that you always leave feeling like you want to go back. 9/10
Overall: We had a great family weekend in Sedona. This could be a special race if some of those minor issues were tweaked. If the t shirt and medal design were upgraded and the starting line logistics were improved this race could be a destination race for those looking to see what the southwest is all about!
Until next time Sedona!
Final Score 7.75/10. (Total of all points divided by #of categories)
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