46/50 - Sandia Crest Marathon

Ooh look, a camera! Me during the race, sometime before things fell apart.

This wouldn't be fun if it were easy, right? That's what I keep telling myself. I've been after this goal of running a sub-3-hour marathon in every state since my first in 2009 at the Boston Marathon (1st blog entry linked). This recent 3:14:55 at the Sandia Crest Marathon in New Mexico didn't meet the mark. In fact, it was my worst since that Boston race. But setbacks are inevitable. Tenacity is what will get me to another start line, and 9 of those start lines remain.

In 2018, I've run my best and worst marathons. Shortly after running a personal best at the Lower Potomac River Marathon in Maryland in March, I got injured and lost my mojo. With continued training and racing since then, I was mentally and physically exhausted going into this race. On the plus side: Michael was with me for another state, our 7th together. He's a great training and travel partner!

I was excited for this trip because I had never been to New Mexico. We flew into Albuquerque on Friday afternoon for the Saturday race. Modeled after the successful Revel Race Series downhill marathons, Merit Race Series created the first downhill option in New Mexico and this was its inaugural year. It's difficult to run a sub-3-hour marathon in this state if you live at sea level and don't like heat - factors I tend to ignore... until they affect me.

We landed and I directed Michael to the closest brewery for lunch - surprising, right? Green Jeans Farmery is a collective of eateries, brewery, and shops constructed entirely of shipping containers. We grabbed pizza then a beer flight from Santa Fe Brewing Co., New Mexico's oldest brewery. Nativo Lodge, a Native American-styled hotel featuring a series of rooms displaying murals by Native American artists, made our stay in Albuquerque unique and authentic.

See, pre-race beers make you happy

After packet pickup, we rode the Sandia Peak Tramway - a 2.7-mile ride up the mountain yielding breathtaking views of Albuquerque and the mountainside's flora and fauna. You know what the state animal of New Mexico is? The black bear! Though we didn't spot one, the mountain is home to many. Once on top of the 10,378ft Sandia Crest Peak, we hiked for a couple miles aiming for the Kiwanis Cabin (a stone cabin overlooking the Rio Grande Valley built in 1930 by the Civilian Conservation Corps), but took a wrong turn, and to our surprise ended up at the start line of the next day's marathon.

The Tramway down at sunset is spectacular

That 3:15am alarm came quickly. We were on a 1-hour bus ride to the top of the mountain at 4:45am. We've learned to be early after my bus never made it to the start of the 2015 Revel Rockies Marathon, and our bus to the start of 2016 St. George Marathon was late, delaying the start time.

There were about 250 runners at the start of the marathon. Compared to the Revel Rockies Marathon, the descent was aggressively faster, hotter, and with more uphill stretches. After mile 4, there was a mile-long uphill. It was too early in the race for me to have doubts, but they were creeping around in the back of my head nonetheless. The next uphill, also about a mile long, came at mile 12. I still wasn't exactly feeling it, but I told myself to get to mile 18 and reassess before the last long uphill at mile 20. When I got to mile 18, I walked.

I just wasn't having fun. The sun was hot and I felt so out of shape. I walked and ran my way to the finish and I wasn't alone - it was oddly reassuring to see folks in this pace range walking at this point. With less than a mile to go, I heard Michael approach and I started running again so we could cross the finish line together, and we did. I've been hoping for that experience at one of these races!

FINALLY, a finish pic together! 

In the finish chute we found donuts and chocolate milk, Chris Brown (a friend from the Libertyville Running Club who now lives in San Diego), and an ice bath. It's a party now!

Michael doesn't drink but I kept sneaking in brewery visits, this time, for lunch at Nexus Brewery with Chris and his wife, Moira. It was good catching up and getting to know Moira. We took a private van tour of Albuquerque which helped us make sense of this seemingly sprawling metropolis. There is something unique about New Mexico: the art, architecture, turquoise jewelry, culture, atomic bomb history (inspired by a discussion at Bosque Brewing Co., I'm now reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb and it's dense AF!).

I promised Michael a post-race milkshake and 66 Diner didn't disappoint

Albuquerque is the ONLY place where Route 66 intersects itself. Strange, right?

If you didn't know already, Albuquerque is where Breaking Bad was filmed and when you're here, you will be reminded of it constantly - it seems to be one of their top tourist attractions. The Candy Lady candy shop in Old Town made the crystal meth prop for the show and you can buy it - it's rock candy.

Meth or candy? 

Look familiar? It's Jesse Pinkman's home from Breaking Bad

Albuquerque is having a renaissance. It's becoming hip and trendy with new restaurants, breweries, and construction everywhere. This will be the next Portland or Austin or at least, it'll try to be.

On Sunday, we had enough time for breakfast at Frontier (an old Albuquerque staple), a hike through Petroglyphs National Monument (fake, totally fake!), and Rude Boy Cookies, which, for a ska-themed cookie bar, really needed to have a black and white cookie.

The first text The Wife sent to me after she saw the race results was "I can't wait to bring the whole family back to New Mexico!" Not hitting my goal and having to go back is made a little bit easier with a bit of light-heartedness and the knowledge that I'll be coming back to a true gem of a state. See you again soon, New Mexico!