Six Tunnels Half Marathon

This was a big weekend for the Harbers. It was our first race of many planned this summer. Saturday morning we drove out to Lake Mead for an 8:00 start. It was nice to start in the morning but it wasn't long until it was in the 90s.

The course was staged on an old decommissioned Union Pacific railroad track. We ran through six tunnels where they had to cut through solid rock for the original track (hence the name of the race). The race then continued through the middle of the desert, and at this point it was blazing hot. The course turned into and old fire road that was sand a loose gravel. This made it pretty tough not to mention the 2 mile stretch that was uphill. Laura and I both said that we were glad we didn't notice how steep the course was until the way down. I'm just happy that I heard from many different people that it was a hard course, it kicked my butt.

I will now reveal my race strategy. Laura thinks it's because I got to the start line late, but I say it was purely strategic. I started at the very end of the pack, there might have been 10 people behind me. My start was slow so that I could warm up, and I had to let the pack thin out. After about 20 minutes. I picked up the pace and immediately started passing people that had started too fast. It easy to start too fast when your excited for the race. Because I had started in the rear, all I did the whole race was pass people. This was purely mental for me, every time I passed someone it was as thought I took their soul (Ha Ha) and their energy.

Laura and I both finished faster than we had planned. I will have the official finish times by tomorrow.

We recommend everyone find something to train for otherwise it's hard to get out and exercise. Only 2 1/2 months to the San Diego Marathon!