Cedar City Half Marathon 2020 Recap

The Cedar City Half Marathon is my hometown half. I’ve run it every year since I started racing, but I was worried the 2020 race would be cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the city went ahead with the event, and everything worked out great.

Race History

In late summer, my training was mostly geared toward running the St. George Marathon in October. Then St. George was cancelled, and I was left without an goal race. My original plan was to run the Cedar City Half as a “fun run”—kind of a warmup for my Virtual Boston Marathon, which was planned for two days later. It didn’t exactly happen that way.

Historically, this race has been my yearly PR event for the 13.1 distance:

2016: 1:38:12 (7:29 pace)
2017: 1:29:55 (6:52 pace)
2018: 1:27:19 (6:40 pace)
2019: 1:26:32 (6:36 pace)

I honestly didn’t think there was any chance I could match (let alone beat) my 2019 time during the year of COVID. As it turned out, I was wrong.

Racing During a Pandemic

One of the great things about the Cedar City Half is that I know so many of the people who run it. This year, my buddy Doran came down from Herriman to race it with me again, and I had a few new running friends along for the ride.

The race organizers gave us surgical masks to wear as we rode the bus to the starting line. Hardly anyone grumbled about it—we were all just happy to have a race to run. Up at Woods Ranch, where the race begins, they usually have fire pits and barrels to keep everyone warm until the race begins. This year, they didn’t want people to congregate, so they 86ed the fires. That meant it was a lot chillier at the start.

The Cedar City Half

At the starting line, one of my local runner friends told me, “My main goal is to keep up with you!” I just laughed. Kirsten is young and super-fast; 30ish, and a former college cross-country runner. I figured she would smoke me, and I was totally okay with that. Because COVID, right?

The race started right on time, and I stayed with Kiersten and our friend Diana for the first couple of miles. Eventually, they pulled ahead, so I just did my thing.

Racing during a pandemic really focuses your attention on what you miss. I felt sad as I passed the big boulders at around mile 3.5. The previous year, there had been two men on those rocks in full Scottish regalia, playing bagpipes as we raced down the mountain. This year, the canyon was quiet except for the sound of rubber on asphalt.

For most of this race, I was totally focused on the fact that I had a full marathon to run just two days later. I knew I couldn’t wreck myself completely, but I still wanted to do well. Even though I’d made myself a pace band, I didn’t really look at it all that much. I knew the overall pace I was shooting for, and I just checked in with my Garmin watch from time to time, to make sure I was roughly on track.

Another disappointment came when we wound our way into town. Last year, there was a rock band set up around mile 11 or 12. This year, there weren’t even any crowds. Racing during a pandemic, I guess.

How it Ended

The entire Cedar City Half Marathon is downhill. According to my Garmin, the elevation gain during the course is exactly zero feet. That makes for a fast race, but it also punishes your legs something awful. My biggest worry, coming into the final stretch was that I’d overdone it, and wouldn’t be able to run my Virtual Boston race the next Monday (my birthday).

Even with the pandemic, there were some spectators at the finish line. I ended up finishing 17th out of 382 runners, with an official time of 1:26:02. That was a 30-second improvement over last year’s time. (Kirsten and Diana finished 14th and 15th, a little over a minute ahead of me.)