Given to Tri: Grand Teton Half Marathon

Race Report: 2025 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2025-06-09T08:00:00-06:00

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.

With over 2,000 participants, the Grand Teton Half Marathon is the biggest of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, and it’s become my favorite as well, with great organization, cool swag and medals, and a chill course with lovely views of the Tetons.

This year’s course was exactly the same as last year: It starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heading west toward Wilson on the Jackson Hole Community Pathway for about a kilometer and a half before looping back towards R Park. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, it continues along Wyoming Highway 22, then turns onto Spring Gulch Road around halfway, finishing at the Jackson Hole Golf Club. The first half of the route is fairly flat and on the Community Pathway; the second half is at a slight grade and on the road, but with cones and ample separation from car traffic, it never feels even remotely dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 98 m, most of it on the second half, on Spring Gulch Road, which has an average grade of about 0.5% according to this Strava segment I created. I know a lot of people travel for this race, so it’s also worth mentioning that the average elevation at this race is 1,905 m—if you’re planning to do it, make sure you know how to prepare for racing at altitude.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

The parking situation for this race was more complicated than in previous years due to the ongoing construction of the new Stilson Transit Center near the start line, so I asked Kate to drop me off instead of taking one of the shuttles provided by the race. It was a brisk but beautiful 2.8°C morning, with clear blue skies that guaranteed gorgeous views of the mountains from Spring Gulch Road and at the finish line. I got there shortly before 6:00 AM and did a short warmup to shake off the cold before seeding myself near the front for the start.

I didn’t have specific time goals for this race; last year I finished fourth in the male masters category with a time of 1:37:09, so finishing faster than that was more of a stretch goal than anything else, although I did hope to get on the podium again. The past two times I’ve done this race, I’ve started too fast and then blown up a little bit towards the end, so I wanted to try to pace more evenly and finish stronger. I also wanted to see if tweaking my nutrition would help—last month at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I felt like I could have used one more gel, so my nutrition for this race was a Maurten Gel 160 before the race start, another one about thirty-five minutes in, and a Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 about thirty minutes later, for a final caffeine boost. The aid stations, roughly every 5 km, had plenty of Honey Stinger gels and waffles, along with bananas and oranges, but as always, I prefer to use Maurten, since it’s what I’ve trained with and what they have at the Ironman aid stations. Train like you race, as they say, although in this case maybe it’s the other way around.

The race started at 6:30 AM on the spot, and even though my goal was to not start too hard, it quickly became obvious I didn’t have much of a choice—I just didn’t feel strong at all. Maybe it was poor sleep or accumulated fatigue from my previous workouts, but some days you just ain’t got it, and that’s the exact thought that crossed my mind almost as soon as I started: “Nope, I ain’t got it today.” Oh, well. Still, I did my best to hang on and managed to hold an uncomfortable pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, until the turn on Spring Gulch Road, where I expected to slow down a bit due to the slight grade. Right after the turn I started feeling some pain in my left calf, but I dug deep—I didn’t want to let my pace get slower than 5:00/km. It was a struggle and I got passed by a few people, but despite the niggling pain in my calf, my pace for the second half of the race was a steady 4:47/km. I think the second gel helped; at least I didn’t feel myself fading towards the end, like I did two weeks ago.

Almost there. Credit: MarathonFoto

I crossed the finish line in 1:37:49, just forty seconds slower than last year. I got third place in the male masters category and twenty-second overall, out of 2,166 finishers, so even though I was slower than last year, I moved up a spot on the podium. Considering I wasn’t firing on all cylinders, I’ll take that as a win.

After sticking around for the awards ceremony and collecting my medal—in an all-Wyoming podium for my category, interestingly—I rewarded myself with breakfast and pastries from my favorite bakery in town, the biggest upside of racing at home.

And with that, it’s almost time to start my taper for Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene, where I’ll find out if doubling up on these half marathons was a brilliant strategy or a stupid, reckless idea. Stay tuned!

Race Report: 2024 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2024-06-15T08:00:00-06:00

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.

I ran this race last year for the first time and it quickly became my favorite of the local half marathons, not just because it’s the most well-organized and has the most scenic route, but also because I unexpectedly podiumed last year, so of course I wanted to race it again.

This year’s course was basically the same as in previous years, with the slight difference that the first couple of kilometers are now on the new pathway along Highway 22 instead of running on the shoulder of the road, a much welcome improvement. From there, the course rejoins the existing pathway in Wilson before heading back to Jackson over the pedestrian bridge over the Snake River, and then turning north on Spring Gulch Road, where you get to enjoy scenic views of the Teton Range all the way to the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Course. This final stretch of the race is on the road, but there’s not a lot of traffic and runners are given plenty of space from cars with traffic cones so it didn’t felt particularly dangerous. The total elevation gain for the course is about 100 m, most of it after the halfway point, once you turn onto Spring Gulch Road.

See this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

On race morning I got up at 3:00 AM after a terrible night of sleep, which was convenient, since parking at the start line at the Stilson Lot closed at 5:00 AM and I didn’t want to take a shuttle. I arrived there shortly before parking closed, which left me with an hour and a half of waiting before the start of the race. At 6:00 AM I gave up on trying to get some more sleep in my car and figured it might be a better use of my time to stretch and do a thorough warm up—the weather was much better than last year, with clear skies and gorgeous views of the mountains, but it was freezing, at -1°C, which made me wish I had worn warmer gear.

I seeded myself conservatively towards the back of the blue wave, behind the 1:50 pacer; while it was cool to podium last year, I didn’t want to overdo it or risk an injury, given that I had a 70.3 planned for the following week. Rather than target a specific pace or time, my plan was to simply run at a pace that felt comfortable, treat it as a my long run for the week, and see where that landed me.

To my surprise, when the race started at 6:32 AM, the pace that felt comfortable was… fast. I ran a pretty sluggish 6:54/km at Ironman 70.3 St. George last month and I’ve rarely run faster than 5:30/km in my training runs since then, so I really wasn’t expecting to run as fast as I did last year. I’m not sure if it was the race adrenaline or the fact that I was coming off of a recovery week in my training plan, but I was pretty surprised when I comfortably passed the 1:40 pacer a few minutes after starting the race, so I just kept going. I was holding a pace of 4:30/km through the first half of the race, although I knew I’d probably slow down a bit once I started going uphill on Spring Gulch Road.

Crossing the Gros Ventre river, a few minutes away from the finish line.

Sure enough, that was exactly what happened, and the last few kilometers were a real struggle, the kind where I start doing all kinds of mental math to bargain with myself, but at least the mountains were out and I enjoyed the view to distract myself from the suffering. At least I didn’t make the same mistake I made last year with my socks, and wore my normal Darn Tough running socks with my Hoka Rocket X 2 shoes, so I had no problems with chafing this time around (and the shoes may have contributed to my faster pace). The aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges, but I didn’t really need any fueling besides the Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 I ate right before the start, so I just skipped them all. (The chocolate milk at the finish line really hit the spot, though.)

I finished the race with a final time of 1:37:09.6, my fastest half marathon ever. My final pace was 4:36/km, and I finished 28th overall, out of 1,720 participants, and fourth male finisher in the masters category, with a shiny bronze medal to show for it. Not bad! I haven’t really put a ton of effort into my outdoor training runs so far this year since winter just barely ended, so it’s pleasing to see some progress in my running fitness nonetheless.

Gotta savor these small victories; this one almost makes up for missing my race in Boulder.

Race Report: 2023 Grand Teton Half Marathon

2023-06-04T10:00:00-06:00

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.

Just before the finish line. Credit: Grand Teton Half Marathon

After my painful run at St. George, I visited Dr. Bullington at Teton Orthopaedics to get my knee looked at, which thankfully revealed it wasn’t a serious issue, but a simple patellar tracking issue—a muscle imbalance between my quads and hamstring or possibly a tight IT band pulling my kneecap out of alignment. He said I wouldn’t cause any damage if I kept training but referred me to Peak Physical Therapy in Wilson to get started on some PT and get it resolved.

While I’ve been doing that, I’ve been taking it very easy on my runs, so my plan was to still do this race, but treat it as my long, easy run for the week. For the most part, I’ve been capping my runs at one hour out of an abundance of caution, but I did a 1:30 brick run the week of the race and the knee felt great, so I was optimistic I’d be able to run a half marathon without issues.

The Grand Teton Half Marathon is the largest, and in my opinion, the most well-organized of the three local half marathons in Jackson Hole, with over 1,800 participants. The course starts at the Stilson Lot next to Rendezvous Park, heads towards Wilson for a couple of kilometers before heading back over the Snake River on the community pathway, and then turning on Spring Gulch Road about halfway through, where it’s mostly uphill until the finish line at the Jackson Hole Golf Club, with great views of the Tetons along the way (if they hadn’t been completely socked in, which they were on race day). The entire course is on paved paths and roads—although the photos on the website show a segment on gravel, that section of Spring Gulch Road is now paved.

The weather had been pretty wet in the couple of weeks leading up to the race, with storms almost every day, so unsurprisingly, it was chilly, drizzly, and overcast the morning of the race. Kate dropped me off at the Stilson Lot at about 5:30 AM, and I did a lot of stretching and warming up while I waited for the race to start at 6:30 AM. I got placed in the “blue wave” based on my expected sub-2 finishing time, and they had various pacers within that wave.

In the tumult at the starting line, I got mixed up and accidentally seeded myself with the 1:40 pacer group, but rather than wait for the next group, I just went with it, even though it was slightly faster than my past half marathon paces. To my surprise, the 4:45/km pace felt great so… I sent it. I managed to hold that pace for most of the race with no pain or discomfort in my knee, only slowing down a little bit towards the second half of the race, since it was slightly uphill.

While my knee felt great the entire race, I did run into a few small issues. A few months ago I got a free sample of Compressport running socks, and liked them enough that I recently ordered a few pairs of the no-show version. They’ve been fine with my cycling shoes and the Hoka Clifton 8 running shoes I use on my treadmill, but I hadn’t tried them with the Hoka Carbon X 3 shoes I wear to run outside. Boy, was that a mistake. The shoes chafed right in my ankles badly enough that both shoes are now covered in blood. At least I didn’t find out in the middle of an Ironman.

Separately, I missed the fact that it was a cupless race, so I didn’t bring a bottle or a reusable cup, and as a result I didn’t have any hydration for the entire race. I had a Maurten 100 Caf gel right before the start and that was about it for nutrition. Thankfully, I didn’t need any more than that, although the aid stations were pretty well stocked with Honey Stinger gels and waffles, bananas, and oranges.

Despite those two minor mistakes, I was able to finish the race just fine. Per my GPS, the distance was slightly short of the 21.1 km of a half marathon, at 20.89 km, and I finished in 1:42:16, for a pace of 4:54/km. My official time and pace were 1:42:11.7 and 4:44/km. More importantly, I finished first in my age group (male 40-44), out of 51, and 45th overall, out of 1,858, so I managed to get on a podium for the first time in my life. Not bad!

Needless to say, I am beyond happy with this result, considering a year ago I had never done a half marathon, and a couple years ago I could barely run more than a minute without stopping. Can I do this again next weekend at the Jackson Hole Half Marathon? We’ll see.