Recently I had the opportunity to create a course map and elevation profile for the Canylonlands Half Marathon. This is one of my favorite races, and I’ve participated in either the half marathon or the 5-mile event for five of the last seven years. My familiarity with the courses would definitely be helpful in creating accurate maps, but I also felt particularly obligated to present the striking beauty of the course through cartography.

Fortunately, the state of Utah has the best GIS data clearinghouse I’ve ever used: the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) and associated GIS Data Portal. From this website, users are able to download many datasets, include 2007 1-ft color aerial imagery and 5-meter digital elevation models…for most of the entire state…for free. Finding data at that resolution, currentness, and cost is truly amazing, and for that reason I love the AGRC and love making maps for locations in Utah.

The 1-ft color imagery allowed me to zoom into the route very tightly (about 1:1000), and precisely digitize every tangent of the route and closely simulate its certification. This helps makes the elevation profile and the mile markers more accurate.

But the 5m elevation model was the real gem. For most of the United States, the best you can get is 10m resolution. In some places you can get no better than 30m. So to get 5m resolution for a tiny town in the middle of Utah is remarkable. I should note that 2m DEM’s are publicly available for some locations in Utah.

What a 5m DEM provides is better hillshading, which is the backbone of this particular map. Every ridge, canyon, drainage, and other topography are sharply defined, even at large scales. This not only makes the map more vivid, but allows it to be blown up to larger scales (and larger prints), and still look wicked good. In addition, the extra resolution of the 5m DEM accommodates better profiling, especially in narrow canyon areas. For much of the Canyonlands race, runners are tucked right up against a huge sandstone cliff. This can really mess with an elevation model, which tends to interpolate/average elevation values in steep areas. With a higher-resolution DEM, this effect is lessened.

The final maps turned out well, in part to the quality of the underlying data. I ended up making an overall map, an elevation profile, and zoom-in views of the start line and finish line. The race management also printed a poster version of the map, which is available for purchase here.

Canyonland Half Marathon poster

Map showing zoom-in view of finish line

It’s been a short but sweet racing season with a little symmetry to it, as I ran my first and last races in Moab. Last week I completed The Other Half, the sister race to the Canyonlands Half Marathon.

This was an interesting race, primarily because I had not run more than a few miles over the last 3 weeks. My shin issue, which was later diagnosed as Tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath), kept me confined to the elliptical for the preceding weeks. Although nothing is as good as running, my 60-90 minute sweat sessions in the gym kept me fit. However, I didn’t appreciate this out until around Mile 8 of the race, as I was quite nervous before the race and during the early miles that I would just utterly bomb, or that my shin would flare up and make me drop out.

But the outcome was quite good: a time of 1:14:02 and 1st place overall. Can’t complain, especially given the circumstances. I knew my initial goal of sub-1:12 was out the window, so I went out at 5:40-pace the first couple miles, and pretty much held that effort the entire way. You can read my full race report with gory details here.

And I loved the course. The first six miles feature small rolling hills in a redrock canyon along the Colorado River. This stretch is pretty fast. But then the canyon opens up to Castle Valley, and displays amazing views of the LaSal Mountains in the background and large sandstone monoliths in the foreground. Very inspiring. However, the terrain also changes from here to the finish to large rolling hills, and the course gets considerably harder during the second half.

Fortunately, every uphill had downhill on the other side, and I actually thought the more challenging second half of the race was as fun as it was beautiful. The race finishes on a nice downhill into Sorrel River Ranch, a resort spa nestled along the Colorado River. The race had a lot of “frills” (which I don’t care much about), but it was also well-managed: the expo was easy, they started the race on time, and it was a closed course. The jacket, pint glass, finishers’ medal, and beer garden were just gravy, but a nice touch I suppose. But really, the course and the scenery were the stars of the show. I may be back next year, hopefully in better health, to try to get my 1:12:00.

Little Seth proudly wearing daddy’s finishers’ medal

But that’s it for me for 2008. Despite being injured to laid up with with an A.S. flare for most of the year, I did manage to squeeze in 5 races, most of which were pretty good considering my fitness. What’s next? Well, my shin has greatly improved since the race, and I’m starting to run again. If things go well, I’d like to build a big base throughout the rest of the fall, all winter, and into the spring. If I’m going to do another marathon, I’d like to do things right! Reading “Once a Runner” and “Return to Carthage” has inspired me to be patient, as the main character Cassidy was patient. Staying cool and calm, building a big base over a period of many months, will make my next marathon a great one. No sense in jumping the gun.

Right now I’m about 75% sure I’m going to sign up for the Indy Mini Marathon. My next big race will be the Indy Mini Marathon. Registration is in, so now it’s a matter of good training and praying to stay healthy. The Mini is a flat, fast half marathon course near sea level, plus I will be in town that weekend to visit my family, so it would be a shame not to go for a PR. Beyond that, if things are firing on all cylinders I would like to find a good marathon in late May, and perhaps make a run for the Trials.

With having ankylosing spondylitis, it is so hard to plan far ahead into the future. As a “normal”runner, it is hard to stay healthy as it is, but A.S. greatly increases my chance of tendon injuries, not to mention the background back and neck pain. Yet, dreaming and planning is something that makes me love running and love life. I don’t think I can give that up. So while I eagerly make plans and scope out potential races with one half of my mind, the other side duels with it and tries to prevent me from too much disappointment and letdown. It’s a hard transition, but I don’t think I will ever truly give up dreaming.