Given to Tri: Hole Half Marathon

Race Report: 2025 Hole Half Marathon

2025-09-28T11:00:00-06:00

I was pretty bummed out when I had to pull out of the Hole Half Marathon at the last minute last year. It’s a fun fall race and a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, so I look forward to it every year, but with last year’s Fish Creek Fire sending the AQI into the stratosphere—235 on race day—I really had no choice but to skip it.

We’ve been much more fortunate this year with a low-key fire season and good air quality most of the summer. I was once again looking forward to completing this race—not just to close out my season properly this time, but because it’s also the first time I would finish all three of my local half marathons. It feels like a neat little personal milestone.

The Hole Half Marathon is the third and last half marathon of the year in Jackson Hole, after the Jackson Hole Half Marathon and the Grand Teton Half Marathon, both in the spring. It sits in the middle in terms of participation, with about twice as many runners as the former, but nowhere near as many as the latter. (It’s also run concurrently with the full Jackson Hole Marathon, which I’ve never done—maybe someday, though.)

The course is almost the reverse of the route for the Jackson Hole Half Marathon. It starts in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, follows the community pathway across the Snake River for a quick loop to Wilson around the Stilson Lot, and then continues north on the pathway along the Moose-Wilson Road towards the finish line in the lawn of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village. It starts mostly flat, but the last 12 km are at a mild grade, ending at 1,930 m with a total elevation gain of about 90 m. It’s a beautiful route, with gorgeous views of the mountains most of the way, and the fall foliage and crisp fall weather add to the beauty of the landscape.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

With fire season finally over, the AQI wasn’t a concern at all this time—it was firmly in the “good” range on race day. As is typical for this time of year, the day started chilly, with a barely-above-freezing temperature of 1°C shortly before the 9:00 AM start. With clear blue skies and the sun shining brightly, I expected it to warm up quickly, so I didn’t bring too many layers. In previous years I’ve made the mistake of wearing heavy tops and long running tights and ended up overheating. This time I wore a lighter-weight Tracksmith long-sleeve top and half tights. It was the right decision; I was a little cold at the start but perfectly comfortable towards the end.

After last week’s result at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities, where I finished the run within five minutes of my personal best in an open half marathon, I wanted to try for another PR to truly close out the year on a high note. I gave myself a very aggressive—and probably unrealistic—goal of 1:35:00 and set it up using the PacePro feature on my Garmin watch (I had never used this feature before, so I was curious to see how it worked). It gave me a target pace of 4:30/km, which seemed tough, but worth a shot. At the Jackson Hole Half Marathon back in May, I felt like I was underfueled towards the end; this time I planned to fuel my effort with a Maurten 160 bar before the start of the race and three Maurten 100 gels spaced about 25 minutes apart, with the last one caffeinated for a little boost at the tail end of the race. This race is cupless, but I didn’t want to slow down at the aid stations or carry a bottle, so I didn’t worry about hydration.

Kate dropped me off at the Presbyterian Church at 8:30 AM. This gave me just enough time to get my bib, do a quick warmup, and use the porta-potties before the start. I placed myself near the front, and hit the ground running as soon as the gun went off. I did my best to follow the pace guidance from my watch, but admittedly let the race adrenaline get the best of me; the first couple of kilometers were a little faster than I intended, and certainly near my limit. The PacePro feature worked well, though—it gives you a special data page on the watch with the current target pace, current pace, and how far ahead or behind you are from the desired finish time. It also provides alerts whenever the target pace changes. I’m not sure if I can use this in triathlon mode, but it’d be convenient if so.

The first half of the race went well, and I stuck pretty closely to my target paces, although I was actually ahead of my target finish for most of this time. However, once I rejoined the community pathway for the uphill portion of the race on the Moose-Wilson Road after looping around the Stilson Lot, I started feeling some pain in my right knee. It’s the same damn IT band pain I had a couple of years ago in St. George, which hadn’t recurred since then. It wasn’t bad enough to cause me to DNF or even slow down to a walk, but it was definitely painful enough that I couldn’t sustain the pace I had been running. By the end it had fallen closer to 5:00/km.

Roughly halfway through the race, in the Stilson Lot. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

Those remaining 8 km were uncomfortable as hell, and the last couple in particular felt interminable, but I managed to finish the race in 1:38:14, with a final pace of 4:40/km. I was 3rd out of 23 in the M40–49 division and 15th overall, out of 345. Not quite the personal best I was hoping for, but still my third-fastest half marathon to date—I’ll take it. My knee is a little sore, but I have plenty of time to nurse it back to health before my next race, whenever it may be.

And with that, this year’s race season is finally over. With four successful Ironman 70.3s and all three of the local half marathons done, it’s safe to say this has been my best season so far. But now it’s time to rest and relax, enjoy some fall bike rides and runs just for fun, and start dreaming of next year’s races. Onwards.

Well, I had to skip the Hole Half

2024-09-28T10:00:00-06:00

I look forward to this race every year—a chill fall half marathon at the base of the Tetons is usually a great way to close out my season before winter sets in, but at this moment the AQI in Jackson Hole is 235, firmly in the “very unhealthy” range. Instead, I’m reading a study on the impact of air pollution on running performance to reassure myself I made the right decision.

Race Report: 2023 Hole Half Marathon

2023-09-24T10:00:00-06:00

This year’s race season didn’t go the way I hoped at all. After a strong start at Ironman 70.3 St. George in June, I failed to finish Ironman Coeur d’Alene and had to drop out of the Echo Triathlon in July to deal with my knee pain. My make-up race, Ironman Canada, was canceled at the last minute due to the wildfires in British Columbia. After all that, I was looking forward to this year’s Hole Half Marathon, so I could at least get one more race in the books this year and finish the season on a high note. It went pretty well, so without further ado, here’s my last race report of the year.

Just before the finish line at Teton Village.

This summer in Jackson Hole has been the wettest in 25 years, with frequent storms and rainy spells, and this week was no exception. While race day wasn’t as cold as last year, I woke up to blustery, overcast weather with chilly 6°C temperatures and a light drizzle that made me want to stay in bed. Still, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed and to the start line at the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole. By the time the race started, at 9:00 AM, the weather had begun to clear up, and it ended up being a lovely sunny day, albeit maybe a touch too warm for the long-sleeve shirt and long running tights I wore. The race was cupless, but I didn’t feel like carrying a bottle, so other than a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and a Maurten Caf 100 gel with a few gulps of water right before the start, I didn’t have any nutrition or hydration for the duration of the race. I targeted a pace of 5:00/km or faster, but my priority was to finish without injuring myself, so I planned to back off at the first sign of trouble.

This year’s route was slightly different than in previous editions, replacing the loop on the side of WY-22 in Wilson with an out-and-back on Boyles Hill Road. I assume this change was made due to the ongoing construction work to replace the Snake River Bridge, but I hope they keep it for future races—it’s far, far better to run on this quiet, bucolic country road than on the shoulder of a busy highway with cars zooming by just inches away.

View this course in Garmin Connect or Strava.

After this out-and-back on the road, the route followed the Jackson Hole multi-use community pathway for the remainder of the race, with a slight elevation gain of 94 m and the finish line at the Teton Village. Almost immediately after joining the pathway, I had an altercation with a cyclist in a narrow section of the route; despite the pathway being packed with runners, this guy refused to yield to anybody and instead rudely cursed everyone out while riding through the crowd and almost crashed head-on into me. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only inconsiderate cyclist I saw during the race: shortly after the halfway point, another cyclist almost crashed into a pack of runners ahead of me while trying to pass them at high speed without announcing himself. A few miles later, I had a near miss with someone going at full-speed on an e-bike, despite me running all the way to the edge of the pathway. Incredibly, every driver with whom we had to share the road today was more patient and considerate than most cyclists I saw on the pathway—sometimes, it’s no wonder people hate us.

Thankfully, the rest of the race was uneventful, although I had to dig deep in the last few miles to hold my pace. I’ve cut back on my training since Ironman Canada was canceled and, in particular, reduced my running mileage to give my knee a break. I can tell I’ve lost some running fitness since then, but on the upside, my knee felt pretty good; it’s still not 100%, and I had some minor niggles here and there, but it feels much better than it did in St. George back in May. Despite that loss of fitness, I was able to finish the race in 1:46:10, with a pace of 5:02/km, not quite as fast as in the Grand Teton Half Marathon earlier this year and just shy of my target pace, but still over a minute faster than last year’s race, and my second-fastest half marathon ever. I even finished third in my age group. Not bad!

Despite my race season fizzling out this summer after only completing a single triathlon, I’m glad I did this race and managed to end the season on a higher note than I would have otherwise. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy the rest of the fall before kicking it back into high gear in January to prepare for next year’s races. With any luck, things will go better than this year.

Race Report: 2022 Hole Half Marathon

2022-09-24T17:00:00-06:00

This will likely be a short one: Today I raced the somewhat confusingly-named Hole Half Marathon, which is entirely unrelated to the Jackson Hole Half Marathon I did earlier in the summer. It went fine.

About halfway through the race. Credit: Jackson Hole Marathon Races

I went in without any goals other than get a good workout; my training plan had a 2:30 run today, and this seemed more fun than running that long. If anything, I just wanted to do my best and have some fun, and with that in mind, well, mission accomplished.

The race started at 9:00 AM from the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, and followed a route very similar to the other Jackson Hole Half Marathon, albeit in the opposite direction, ending in Teton Village, which meant a slight grade for most of the course. It was cold at the starting line, just shy above freezing, at 1°C, but as is normal this time of year, I expected it to warm up quite a bit, so I didn’t bring gloves or a lot of layers. The race was cupless this year, so I brought a bottle of Maurten Drink Mix 320 Caf 100; that was my only fuel and hydration for the entirety of the race (I also had a couple gels just in case, but didn’t use them).

The race course for the Hole Half.

After running through a few quiet neighborhood streets, we joined the full marathon course and headed towards Wilson on the community path. From there on, it was… completely uneventful, I really don’t have much of anything of note to write about. I kept a steady pace of around 5:00/km for most of the race, and had no issues, pain, or stitches at any point. Towards the last five kilometers or so, Ian, one of the marathon runners, tagged alongside me and helped me push my pace a little faster, which I appreciated. I ended up with a finish time of 1:47:28, slightly slower than my previous half marathon, but I’m confident I left nothing on the table so I’m feeling pretty good about it. I finished 4th in my age group and 20th overall, which was a definite improvement since last time.

On the equipment front, I swapped my Wahoo Rival watch and the Stryd pod for my Apple Watch for this race. For whatever reason, the Rival has become very unreliable lately, crashing frequently during workouts, sometimes randomly factory-resetting itself, and has stopped connecting to the Stryd pod altogether. Thankfully, the new running features in watchOS 9 meant I could just use my regular Apple Watch today, and it worked just fine. Its implementation of running power, in particular, seems to track very closely with Stryd’s, which helped me with pacing; I tried to stay between 230 W and 240 W for most of the race. It’s definitely good enough I don’t think I’ll keep using Stryd going forward (although I’ll need to replace the Wahoo; there’s no way I’m doing an Ironman with an Apple Watch).

Overall, this was a fun day; I got a pretty good workout and I’m feeling pretty good about my performance, considering I only started running consistently in March. Next up is my final race of the year, Ironman 70.3 Arizona. As of today, I’m feeling strong and ready to start tapering. I’m excited to see how I do in Tempe in a couple of weeks.