Grand Teton Half Marathon

Last year I surprised myself on the run at Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene—I came out of T2 like a bat out of hell and it ended up being my fastest run split in a 70.3 to date. There were probably multiple reasons for that, including the shortened swim, but I think one factor was the Grand Teton Half Marathon, which I had raced two weeks prior. That was also my fastest half marathon to date, and I suspect that strong run kicked my running fitness up a notch or two just in time for the race.

This season, I’m putting that hypothesis to the test by racing not one, but two half marathons before this year’s edition of Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene. The first one was the Jackson Hole Half Marathon two weeks ago, so without further ado, here’s a quick race report about the Grand Teton Half Marathon, my last running race before heading back to Idaho later this month.

A couple weeks ago I raced the Grand Teton Half Marathon, the first of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole this year. I wasn’t planning on writing a race report for it because it was a quick and uneventful race, but since I didn’t get to write one for Ironman 70.3 Boulder, which I had to skip due to COVID, I might as well do it.

Recently, I’ve been debating if it’s worth it to keep writing race reports for running races because I’ve done a few now, running is not my specialty, and I simply treat them as part of my triathlon training. But this one is a little special because I podiumed for the first time in my life, so here it goes.