Back before I started running again, I followed my buddy Doran as he ran one particular race over and over again: the Snow Canyon Half Marathon. He kept telling me it was a really beautiful course, but I didn’t really appreciate this at first. Then I ran it with him in 2016 and I saw what he meant.

This year, I knew the race would come on the heels of the St. George Marathon. I wasn’t expecting much, but what I didn’t really expect was to run hurt and sick, and still do pretty well.

Running Hurt

I had a great race in St. George in October. Hell, I qualified for Boston, which was way more than I could’ve hoped for. At the end of the race, though, I started having ankle pain that wouldn’t go away. I allowed my body to recover, but my ankles would hurt after any run of more than five miles or so.

Eventually I went to see a podiatrist. It turns out that I had strained my ankles during my car accident in May. He suggested a set of orthotics to help correct the problem and keep me running. The problem was, by the time the Snow Canyon Half Marathon came around, the orthotics still hadn’t come in. So I knew the race was going to hurt.

Running Sick

Two days before the race, I felt a tickle in my throat. By the next day, I had a full-blown cold. Even as Doran and I were picking up our race packets, I was seriously considering bailing on the race. It’s never fun to run while you’re sick, but especially not a race. But later that night, I decided to just go for it.

As they say, the only thing worse than a DNF (Did Not Finish) is a DNS (Did Not Start).

At the Starting Line

At the starting line, my head was full of cotton and I had a sore throat. I’d brought along a handful of cough drops to suck on during the race. Still, Doran and I managed to take our requisite pre-race twofie:

I’m smiling in the photo even though I don’t really feel like it. Fake it to make it, right?

During the Race

To my surprise, I began to feel a little better once the race started. My head cleared up and my throat didn’t feel so bad. I wasn’t exactly running to win, so I felt okay taking a few photos once the course wound down through Snow Canyon State Park.

Finishing Strongish

The final miles of the Snow Canyon Half Marathon wind through a residential area built in lava fields. The course to this point is mostly downhill, so it’s always a shock to the system when you suddenly have to work against gravity while chugging uphill. The rollers serve as a reminder that your legs aren’t quite as fresh at this point in the race as they were at mile 0. Still, I powered through the final miles and finished with a respectable (for me) time of 1:36:33.

By the time I was done, I had almost forgotten I had a cold at all. I’ve heard people say that exercise is the cure for the common cold, but I’ve never seen that principle in action before.

I’m glad I was able to finish this race. It was challenging to  run, but a great experience. Also, the only thing worse than a DNF is a DNS.

In case anyone is interested:
Course map
Course elevation

Update: I got my orthotics the week after the race, and they’ve helped immensely. No more ankle pain!