November 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Race Report – USA Women’s Palm Desert HM. Clear and cool 51F at start and 70F at finish.

This race is a remake if you will, of the Nike Women’s race from several years ago. There was a lottery to get in and I entered it with a bunch of women in my local Oiselle Volée group. Ended up they didn’t have as much interest as they expected so no lottery really needed but it did eventually sell out.
The race was held in Palm Desert and was advertised as a ‘luxury experience’, Ha! More on that later.
My first indication that this weekend may not go as planned was our hotel was cancelled about 1.5 weeks before the race. It was a new Marriot that was supposed to open in late summer. They sent an email telling us they were not ready and we would need to find another location. When we looked most all of the hotels were full or the rooms were $400 or more! Fortunately, we have pretty high status with Marriott (all my work travel paying off!) so after a few phone calls we were able to secure a room at a cost comparable to what we previously had.
Friday, we headed out to Palm Desert for packet pickup which was oddly held right in the middle of an open air multilevel mall. There were no signs but we found the few vendor tents but no packets and no one to ask (vendors didn't know). I finally asked another runner and she laughed and said ‘oh it is upstairs. I had to wander around to find it.’ To get there we had to go through a store and up their escalator (I am sure they loved having all these runners wandering through their store to go up or down!) as the only other way to access the other levels were way at either end of the mall.
The race offered a free spaghetti dinner for the runners and you could add on family members for $10. With my frequently iffy GI I really didn’t want free pasta made for 3000+ so we headed out to dinner and had a really nice meal. It ended up being a really good decision as I heard from several runners later that they ran out of food and were trying to bring in enough pizza to make up for it. I had my ‘Hug a Runner’ t-shirt on and a table of 4 ladies saw me and came over to chat and see if I was running the race too. They had lots of questions about the race start and shuttles that the organizer hadn’t really given great information on. We had driven to the start and the race route earlier so I was able to help a little. They invited me to meet up with them during the race and while we tried it just didn’t work out.
I was able to meet early with the Oiselle Volée group for a prerace picture and to cheer on a couple of women running the full marathon (there were only ~200 entered in the full). Then after a quick trip to the porta pots it was time to get ready to run. Note we went to where they had a few set up beyond bag check and there was really no line. The ones at the start had huge lines and my new restaurant friends were still waiting in line when the HM started.
I placed myself towards the back of the start not wanting to go out too fast. They didn’t have corrals but had markers by pace that really didn’t do much. I should have stayed in the middle and ended up darting around many walkers and groups of walkers. There were lots of groups doing run/walk intervals and my only complaint was a good number of them spread across the lane and you had to force your way between them. This was true for at least the first 4 miles. My plan was to take a short walk break every mile and that included the water stations and porta pots which were placed about every 2 miles. It was a good thing my stomach behaved this race as there were huge lines for the bathrooms along the course, not that I was going for any kind of PR but I wouldn’t have wanted to waste 30 mins waiting.
The first 9 miles went wonderfully. I was keeping to plan, didn’t go out too fast and had passed the 3 hour and the 2:45 pacers and was right where I wanted to be cruising along. I was hoping to finish right around 2:45 or maybe a bit faster. Toward the end of mile 9 my knee started to complain loudly and hurt even when I slowed to walk. It was my 2nd slowest mile. I continued to try to run some, until my knee complained and then I would walk again. By mile 11 I was just walking and then it started to hurt even when I walked. Because my knee hurt I wasn’t walking or running normally and my calves and glutes started to hurt/cramp. I was in tears and really just wanted to quit. I thought of @somum walking her entire HM on an injured ankle and figured I could finish the last couple of miles. I met another lady who was having calf issues and walking so we walked the last mile together to the finish line. While we were walking mile 13 the 2:45 pacer came blasting by followed just a bit later by the 3:00 hour pacer. Given that my time with walking was a minute under 3:00 their pacing efforts must have been pretty far off.
Once over the finish lines we were directed to get in line for our ‘medals’ a Tiffany’s necklace, the real reason I finished the race! It was a huge long line, the sun was beating down and all I really wanted was some water and a banana or something/anything to eat. There was nothing.
We were supposed to have a buffet breakfast with mimosas. There were showers if you wanted to take one before eating and massages available. So after I got my medal and shirt I was able to find someone handing out water and wandered off to look for food. There was another huge line by the postrace porta pots and showers and I thought people were waiting for that. Nope, that was the line to get to the buffet breakfast winding through the park. I waited in line for a while until another runner came by who had finally gotten to the food. All they had were bagels (no toaster) salami and cheese and fruit salad. Not even any of the usual postrace foods and certainly not a buffet breakfast in my mind. The line for mimosas was equally long, not that I wanted one without some food in my stomach anyways and there was only one person giving massages so again a very long wait.
While I was still on the course about 2 hours in, my husband was trying to get near to the finish area parking (there was still plenty of parking available) but was stuck in terrible traffic. While running we passed so many lines of cars waiting to turn one way or the other and unable to get where they needed to go. The drivers were frustrated and honking and the police were giving them tickets when they would start honking. There were signs alerting people that the race was going to occur and to make alternate plans I guess many of them didn't notice or figured it couldn't mean they would be inconvienenced. My husband eventually texted me and asked me to get on a shuttle to one of the hotels and he would pick me up there. So, I went looking for the shuttles. No one knew where the shuttles were picking up, no one. These were provided by the race so you would think someone would know. One person even suggested I call one of the hotels. I met so many other runners looking for the shuttles. Many had planes to catch and checkout times to meet. It wasn’t like you could call an Uber either because they wouldn’t have been able to get through. I texted my husband and found a place to sit figuring he would eventually be able to get over to where I was. Once he picked me up (he had been stuck in traffic for over 2 hours and was not happy) we had to drive around and around trying to get back to the hotel because even though the race was over they still had all the streets blocked off. I still hadn’t eaten anything (now over 2 hours postrace) but knew we had to get to the hotel so I could shower and meet our late check out time.
I heard later that they ran out of the food at the ‘buffet’ breakfast, ran out of coffee and most importantly ran out of water (running in the dry desert even if it is only 70F you still need water after the race). Essentially this race was just a 💩 show. Hopefully they will get better but I would never recommend this race to anyone. I have done other USA Endurance races and they have been pretty well run but this was definitely not.
Pictures from the start and course and swag under the split.