Rock Tahoe Half-Marathon 2019 (Douglas County, Nevada)

I've been running a lot this year and I only recently decided to join my friend, Chris, in running my 4th consecutive Rock Tahoe Half-Marathon. He is a lot faster than me and had accepted a position as the official 1:30 pacer. For me, I was just hopeful of beating my best time on this course, which was about 2:18 from four years ago. Either way though, it promises to be a great time. 

Chris and I headed up to the lake Friday afternoon and got checked into our hotel. Bib pickup is as the finish line in front of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which is about three miles from our hotel. After dropping off our gear, we drove back down to the casino to get our bibs and shirts. Upon arriving, we almost immediately bumped into other runner friends that were also going to join the fun tomorrow morning. Chris and I had intended to just grab something akin to subway sandwiches for dinner, but our friends talked us into joining a large group for a high-end Italian dinner at a restaurant just a half-mile or so from the Hard Rock. It was an unexpected pleasure to meet and dine with so many good people, and enjoy some of the best Italian I've ever had. After returning to our hotel, Chris and I quick crashed in preparation for our early morning departure. 

There really isn't any parking at the starting line, which is near Spooner Summit, and so the race provides shuttles (school buses). Chris and I quickly get ready, drive to the casino, and hop on our the bus for our thirteen mile ride north to the race starting line. As we arrive and unload off the bus, I'm amazed at how warm it is. We're standing at an elevation of about 7k' and it's about fifty-five degrees already at 7:15 AM. In year's past, it has actually been snowing at the start of the race. I'm concerned that today's hotter temperatures might actually be a problem as we drop down into South Lake Tahoe. 

I take some time to stretch and go for a short warm-up run, while Chris finds and meets up with a number of his runner friends. I bump into a few friends as well, but Chris has been part of this running community most of his life and I'm still relatively new to it, only having started running about five years ago.

As start time approaches, everyone starts making their way up to towards the starting line. This race is always lively and they have a DJ and master of ceremonies keeping the crowd excited. A local guitarist substitutes for a singer in the performance of the Star Spangled Banner and while I expect a little bit of embellishment, this particular guitarist was not very good and kind of slaughtered the celebrated anthem. I guess that's just the guitarist in me complaining, as the rest of the crowd didn't really seem to notice. And then, with a countdown and a loud-horn, we're off.

The first three miles of this course are always challenging, as we very quickly drop about six hundred feet over the distance. The difficulty comes in when trying to find the right balance between not holding back too much and not letting gravity get carried away. The downhill is always trouble for my aging knees as well. I manage to hold myself to around an 8:00 mile pace for these first three miles, which feels pretty good. Not too fast; not too slow. I wasn't wrong about the heat today. It's tolerable, but pretty hot for a run. I decide to go shirtless for the remainder of the race to help me regulate my body temperature.

After this initial descent, the course begins a series of long undulating waves all the way to the finish line. I do okay for the most part on the uphills, but I'm forced to walk briskly up the steepest couple of them. For sometime, I've been holding pretty steadily with the 2:00 pacer and thinking it would be amazing if I could pull that kind of time off at this race, but with a bathroom break and a few walking stretches, the distance between me and the pacer quickly opens up into an insurmountable distance.

I should be discouraged by loosing the pacer a bit, but I find myself pushing harder and harder. About three miles from the finish line, my problematic right knee begins to cause me issues and I find myself struggling to run through the pain. This knee has been a problem for a long time, but it normally doesn't hurt this bad. I'm guessing the downhill at the start did its work on me. Regardless of the cause, I continue pushing for the finish line. 

After making the next to last turn and running alongside the casino parking garage, I call on whatever reserves I have left in my tank and kick in the after burners all the way to the finish line. I cross with an official chip time of 2:14:55, which bests my previous course PR by nearly three minutes. Not bad considering how much my knee is hurting now. One of the volunteers places my finisher's medal around my neck and while catching my breath, I walk over to the beer table for a much-needed and well-deserved ice cold brew.