Joe Doherty, Jack Broaddus and I stayed at the Holiday
Inn in Christiansburg, it was much cheaper than Mountain Lake, plus Mountain
Lake has no air conditioning. So right there I didn't think I could make it,
Canadians don’t do well in heat. It was a short drive to the start and we
arrived in plenty of time to catch the buses. This is a point to point race, so
you park at the finish and they bus you about 30 min to the start. The start of
the race is at a nice rest stop with flush bathrooms and running water. After
socializing for a bit, we were all gathered at the start and waiting on the start
gun.
As soon as the race starts you start climbing, nothing too bad but it was a
steady climb. You pass a great waterfall and make your way around to the top of
it. This is where my first detour happened. I was sitting in around
6th place and I could see the leaders when the trail was straight. Well, as I came around a corner, the course arrows looked to me to point to the right. I
followed the arrows, which took me down to a river about a quarter mile down. The race
director told us there was no major water crossings so I knew I had taken a wrong
turn. I made my way back up the climb, figured out the right way, and got to the first aid station, where they informed me I was now in
20th place. So I picked up the pace, especially on the climbs, and
made my way back up to 8th by the time the next few aid stations
rolled around. Really, most climbs were very runnable and most of the course is
either on jeep road or old fire road except for the first 5 miles and the last 7
or 8.
Somewhere around aid station 4 or 5 is where my second detour took place,
I was feeling good and just blew right through a set of arrows. Of course, it
wasn’t on a flat section so once I realized I had made another wrong turn I had to
climb back up (again) to where I needed to turn. I fell back to about
12th place this time and had no one to blame for this one but myself. I picked
off a few runners and was in 10th place with about 4 miles to go. I
started cramping up pretty bad and tried all the tricks I knew to stop the
cramping, nothing seemed to work so I slowed and got passed. I ended up in 12
place which I am happy about since this is my highest place in an ultra of
this size. I know I could have done better if I hadn’t taken the wrong turns and taken better care of myself. Lessons learned!
All pictures from race website: http://www.easterndivideultra.com/2012.html
Overall, I believe this was a very
good event. The run was fun, had a few good climbs, some trail, some roads (no
pavement), and quite a bit of rolling terrain. It was much harder than it looks on
paper, but not all that bad. The finish line and after party was very nice, it
had plenty of hamburgers, hotdogs and cold drinks. They even arranged our tents so we had some shade and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Hopefully we can
get a good CAT group to go down next year!
Here are the race results and here are more photos.
After this week's Sunday Sixer (look at this awesome group!),
Thomas was generous enough to join me for some trail work on the Rivanna Trail. I've got a goal of making the section from Quarry Park to the Woolen Mills runnable this summer - before all the weeds die of natural causes for the winter. I want to be able to run through and feel reasonably confident that I won't get poison ivy (or rub up against too many thorns, itchy grass, nettles, ...).
I've gone out a few scattered times, and was pleased to find that the sections I'd already done didn't look too bad. This means we mostly got to start where I left off:
I actually did go backwards from here, for a short stretch, trying to tear some ivy up by the roots. While I was at it, Thomas made great progress:
You can actually see the rocks, if you try to run through!
All tolled, we're about 50-100 yards closer to the Woolen Mills than when we started. I'm optimistic that the section we're on is one of the rougher sections, and future trips will cover more ground. Here's where we left off:
Despite being sunny and nearly 90℉, we were mostly working in the shade, so it really wasn't too bad. That said, the creek sure did look like a tempting place for a dip:
Last June, the Flipped Truck Fat Ass was born. To read
the account of that run, see the blog entry from June 8, 2011. I said then that
you could mark your calendars for the first Sunday in June, 2012, for the second
running. True to my word, Marc, Jason, Nick and I gathered off coal road last
Sunday for the second edition.
This year’s run was less eventful than the run last year,
but just as enjoyable. If you haven’t run out at Sherando yet, you owe it to
yourself to explore some of the best trails our area has to offer. Similarly,
if you haven’t made it out to a CAT group run yet, you owe it to yourself to
hang out with some of the coolest trail runners our area has to offer …
The nice thing about the Flipped Truck run is that we run a
figure 8 course, which is basically two 16 mile loops, so you don’t need to commit
to the entire 50k distance.
Mark your calendars now for the 3rd running of
Flipped Truck- First weekend in June, 2013!
Some pictures from the run on Sunday:
Looking east on the climb up Kennedy Ridge
Kennedy Ridge Jeep Road
About to start the steep descent down to Mill Creek Trail
Jason, Marc and me discussing something totally epic, undoubtedly
Fellow CAT runners Tom and Nick are featured in the C-ville cover story this week. A well written piece about the Rivanna Trail. You should check it out!
We were privileged to hear a talk from Dr. Mitchell Rosner on Exercise Associated Hyponatremia (EAH) this week. This is a condition where an athlete has low sodium levels in the blood during or after an endurance event. Some people may show little or no ill effects due to EAH, perhaps just some nausea; however, for others this can result in more severe nausea, confusion, seizures, and even death in some documented cases. It has become more common in the last 20-30 years as athletes are encouraged to hydrate liberally, without proper attention to keeping sodium levels up. Dr. Rosner covered some specific cases, causes, avoidance, detection, and treatment of EAH. While the cases were fascinating, I'm going to primarily summarize the causes and prevention of the condition, as that is what athletes have the most control over. Some of the data is from (at least) 2 years of analyzing Western States 100 mile runners.
- Simply put, don't over hydrate. Drink 400-800 ml (14-27 oz) of fluid per hour max. Thinking in terms of a marathon, this is probably 4-6 ounces at each aid station for a typically laid out race (depending on your pace). For an ultra, this might be a typical handheld bottle per hour. Times between aid stations vary too much to even try to generalize consumption. More than that dilutes the sodium in your blood. Sports drinks don't have enough sodium to provide much help, you'll still be diluting. Drink to thirst. The recent advice to drink early and often is bad. There's also no need to over hydrate the day before and the morning of a race. Drink to thirst. I know I already said that.
- Take salt to increase the sodium content. Salt is the key to prevent EAH. Endurolytes, S Caps, etc, have other electrolytes as well, and those may be needed for other factors. This talk really was limited to EAH. Gels don't have enough sodium to help much for this, though I just checked my Gu packages and Roctane has 3x the sodium of normal Gu. I always wondered why that was marketed to ultra runners, now I see why. On a hot day, you'll need to drink more to replace fluids sweated out, so you'll need more salt. To my recollection he talked in terms of a fast food style packet or two of salt per hour. When I look at my Endurolytes bottle, it says 1-3 per hour. Ultra aid stations should always have salty foods available, so take advantage of them.
- NSAIDS (Advil/ibuprofen and Aleve/naproxene) reduce the kidneys ability to process blood and often result in decreased sodium content. He said a number of times not to take them before or during, at all. I asked about taking a minimal amount, and he agreed that it reduced the risk, but also probably wouldn't be enough to help with the pain. I also asked about acetaminophen/Tylenol, and he said that didn't cause issues related to EAH. However, this talk ONLY covered EAH and I believe Tylenol can affect your liver, so do your own research and be careful with this.
- Sometimes you will stop processing water and it will slosh around in your stomach. Beware of this because when you stop or your system otherwise recovers and you start processing the water, it will further dilute the sodium content. I think this is why sometimes people have serious problems with EAH following the race. It follows that you should continue taking salts as you rehydrate after the race.
- People asked about dehydration, and he pretty much indicated that hydration isn't as serious of a problem and it is easily corrected by taking more fluids. I want to be careful here and not underplay dehydration. Again, 400-800ml/hour is not a small amount, so don't think you should barely be drinking.
- Losing salts through sweat is a factor as well, though Dr. Rosner said the salt concentration in sweat isn't as high as you'd think. Simply replace the fluids lost through sweating, but take more salts if you're taking more fluid.
So to summarize prevention in endurance events (over 4 hours), supplement your salts, don't over hydrate, and don't take NSAIDS such as Advil or Aleve.
Detection is very tricky, because many of the signs of EAH present similar to those of dehydration and/or heat exhaustion. The only real indicator is a device to actual measure sodium levels in the blood, and such a portable analyzer costs $5K. He thinks every endurance race should have this device. I have no idea which ones do.
- Symptoms such as cramps, salty face, swollen fingers, confusion, dizziness and urine color aren't reliable signs of hyponatremia. However brown/red urine is bad, but that can be hard to tell from dark urine indicating dehydration.
- Weight (weighing more after an event) is a decent indicator of a problem, but still not that reliable. Unless you really eat a lot, you should weigh the same or 1-3% less. If you're >4% over start weight, you're probably at higher risk because this indicates you've taken too much fluid. One study showed this well, but in another it didn't correlate too well at all. One of the studies, I forget which one, was from Western States runners.
After all this, the incidence of serious problems with EAH is still pretty low. Unfortunately there is no set formula to say exactly how much to take as everyone is different. Ideally you could measure your inputs and take your sodium levels before and after and event and adjust accordingly, but most of us probably won't have that chance. He said to learn what your body needs and what has worked for you and what hasn't.
Treatment is to get more salts back into your body, either orally or with an IV of 3% saline solution. Recovery can be rapid. The difficulty is that if the problem is identified as dehydration and the typical lower saline IV solution is given, it dilutes the sodium even more and makes the problem worse. Of course if you are out of it you probably won't be questioning what the medical staff is doing to you, thus I've focused on prevention here. However, if you're assisting a friend at the finish or pacing or crewing during a race or working an aid station, be aware to push salts and not just fluids and also be aware of the runner's mental condition.
Anyone who was there or is knowledgeable about this, please correct anything I got wrong or omitted. This is an important topic and the information needs to be accurate.
Mount Mitchell (Elev. 6,684 ft) is the highest peak east of the Mississippi and lies close to the Great Smoky Mountains of which many of them are over 6000ft. Imagine the Blue Ridge Mountains on steroids (including many more peaks). This was the 15th time of the Challenge (40mi) and Black Mountain Marathon (26.2mi). Both events share the same course, the marathon turns around at the Blue Ridge Parkway. About 400 runners signed up for both races that started at the same time (7am) in Downtown Black Mountain. Following two race reports from Christian and Drew.
Christian:
Drew and I were lucky and got picked in the lottery for the challenge. Cristina's parents live close to Black Mountain, so we drove there together a day early to be well rested before the race. The spring-like weather in the area was quite nice and gave us a (false) notion that Mt Mitchell might be a pleasantly warm run. We found out however that a cold front was on it's way. It sounded serious when the race director at packet pickup said that there might be a chance that both (marathon and challenge) could be cut short to a total of 17mi if the weather doesn't cooperate and park rangers don't feel it's safe to approach the summit.
After following the weather reports the night before we were still unsure what we would get up for at 5 am. A Facebook update from the race director mentioned 9F and 70mph winds during the night at an aid station. I don't think that I was ever outside at 70mph winds. What fun! The race seemed very low-key, when we approached the "starting line" that wasn't one. We just grouped with the rest of the 400 runners at the base of Cherry St. The sparse race info we got before mentioned something about race briefing at 6.45am - however there was no "official" in sight until 6.58am. The race director gave a brief "Ok, let's go!" (or something in that fashion) to start the race.
I didn't know much about the course other than we run up a mountain and down a mountain. The first 3-4 mi we were on roads towards the trail head. Drew, Kevin Smith and I kept a quick pace on the road to avoid any bottleneck at the trailhead. My left shin started to hurt like I had a shin splint (I had this on an off a couple of days prior but only on pavement. I thought it's my body telling me that pavement is not made to be run on and I should the heck get back on a trail). The pain eased off once we hit the trail behind Montreat College. The double track trail wasn't congested at all and the climb was gradual but runnable. The more we ran up, the better you could see the sunrise behind the mountains. Very pretty! The temp was chilly but not too bad, no winds due to protection of the hollow we went up.
There were aid stations every 4-6mi so there was plenty of places the refuel - stocked with basics like M&Ms, chips, pretzels, bananas, oranges, Gatorade, water. I was hoping for some potatoes as they seem to sit well and fuel good during races, but no luck. I carried Perpetuum Solids, S-Caps! and a gel or two in my hydration pack (without bladder) which along with bananas at almost every aid station consisted of my race nutrition. Like potatoes, bananas sit well too and provide a good fuel during a race. Probably my second choice. Every once in a while I ate some orange quarters to amp up my hydration.
Cloud-filled hollows – photo by Steve Dixon for the Asheville Citizen-Times
The Toll-road trail widened to an ATV-trail with plenty of rocks, more technical than I imagined but runnable most of the time. My Inov-8 295's were just a little short of cushioning so that my feet started to hurt pretty quickly. Chatting with a few people along the trail, the sun being up now and gorgeous views over the mountain range provided good motivation. I sometimes think of long distance races like a journey where you meet all kinds of people and get to see beautiful sights. It makes the race less a race and more pure enjoyment.
I arrived at the half-way mark (turn-around for the marathoners) on the Blue Ridge Parkway that was closed due to winds and ice which was nice so I didn't have to worry about traffic. So far the pace was good and I thought I didn't walk too much. Now the real climbing was about to start. The first part was a little more flattish, the wind picked up and brought some mean chills. I later heard that the gusts were about 40mph. FUN! Then a steep 1000ft single track climb to the summit slowed me down quite a bit. Some parts were pretty technical and not runnable at all, and some parts had thick ice patches that I tried to circumvent. I followed a guy who did the challenge 3 times and the last year broke his shoulder on this very part of the race. I figured it might be safe to keep close as I was sure he had not forgotten the exact spot to best break your bones.
Made it to the summit in 9F
We made it, the summit! Breathtaking views! I took a minute to take it all in and looked forward to the downhill to come. It was pretty windy and cold up there, luckily the aid station was in a heated ranger station of sorts. This allowed to defrost my water bottle. I took about 3mins or so to re-fuel, hydrate and defrost. Figuring I could catch up quickly on the down hill. And I did. The immediate steep downhill was a fantastic. Soft pine forrest ground, switchbacks and technical for at least 2mi made it a blast. I just skidded once but could catch myself before falling. Immediately thereafter a mile or so climb up a gravel road. The last climb of the race...
View from the summit of Mt Mitchell
The next section was rather boring, about 4 or 5 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ugh! pavement! I managed about 8-9min pace. My legs started to feel a little tired. The road section seemed forever but after I finally hit the aid station I knew that the rest should be a fun, gradual 12mi downhill. I think I have never before run for so long only downhill so I was unsure if my legs would keep it up. Turned out they did, just my feet felt beat up. I think I might have even bruised the side of my right foot. Pain is temporary I thought. During the last 12 mi I slowed down a little but kept a fairly steady pace. The ice patches on this stretch were mostly melted by now, so I didn't have to pay attention too much.
At the second to last aid station I was unsure what I wanted and asked what these cups with foam on top have in them. They said Beer. BEER?. Yup, beer!. Sweet! I took a cup or two. What better hydration could you get nearly to the end of a race, I thought. Great!
Ok, 5mi to go - can't be that a bad. By now my I could feel what 12mi downhill do to your legs. They hurt (despite beer). I slowed my pace on the final downhill yet again. Then we winded through neighborhoods on mostly pavement again, yuck! Finally arriving at a lake and the finish line. Yes! Finished in 6:24h. Not what I was hoping for (sub 6) but still content. Overall I had no or only little problems with stomach, nutrition or legs. Quite happy with the race.
Post-race food was great though. Beans, Hot Dogs, Chili, Slaw, Hot Tea, Water, Coke, Chips, M&Ms etc. It was a fun race and went without any major hitches. I felt the course markings could have been a little better (more streamers) and a short pre-race briefing would have been nice. Otherwise great race!
Drew:
The Mt. Mitchell Challenge was full of uncertainties for me. I joked with Cristina prior to the race that I was breaking the golden race day rule by trying all kinds of new things on race day: I had bruised the balls of my feet when they went numb on a run over a month earlier, so I was wearing a new kind of shoe, which I had only logged a long run of 16 miles in, I was relying on a paper thin jacket I’d never worn to keep me warm in what promised to be cold conditions, and I was using a fueling strategy I’d used on a few training runs that lasted a couple hours, but nothing beyond that. Coupled with the new gear, I was worried about my feet since they were a bit bruised still, I’d had a lingering pain in my knee for the last week, my training had been a bit erratic leading up to the race, and my legs had felt trashed for the last week and a half. All that added up to not having a ton of confidence that things were going to go well on race day.
In addition to my own doubts about my physical well-being and new gear, I was completely blind on how the course ran, what the trails were like (where they technical or smooth?), and due to uncertain weather predictions, we were unsure until the race started whether we’d be running the full 40 miles or a weather shortened course only 17 miles long (part of me was hoping we’d be running the 17 mile option!). Standing at the starting line, I asked Kevin Smith what color the course markings were-he was in the same boat as me...we’d figure it out on the trail, right?
I guess feeling so ill-prepared and uncertain could have been really stressful and unnerving. For some reason, however, I found this approach really refreshing. I had no expectations for a finishing time, and I told myself that I was just going to go out and run each section as it came to me, not worrying about what was ahead at any point.
The weather at the start of the race was decent, around 28 and windy, but the air at the start line was filled with a palpable sense of trepidation as we wondered what the conditions would be like on the summit. We were told that the previous night the temperature atop Mt. Mitchell was 9 degrees with 50 mph winds!
The race started at the base of Cherry Street in downtown Black Mountain. I liked the low-key vibe of the start-no start line, banner or fanfare-just a bunch of spandex clad runners mulling about waiting for someone to yell ‘Go!’
With a quick briefing from Jay Curwen we learned we were running the full 40 miles, and we were off! The first few miles of the race were paved roads through the towns of Black Mountain and quaint campus of Montreat. Christian, Kevin Smith and I stuck together and we talked about our recent races and what we thought we could expect to find, weather wise, on the summit of Mt. Mitchell.
After 3 or 4 miles the pavement yielded to trail and we started to climb in earnest. The climbing tapered off a bit after a mile or so, and I alternated between running with a 9-time veteran of the Challenge, who filled me in a bit on the course, and a woman from California who wanted to come run the race so she could visit her sister, who lived in Asheville.
The beginning sections of trail were great! We ran under arches of Mountain Laurel, which sheltered us from the wind. The trails were non-technical double track, and I was able to avert my eyes from the trail to take in some views of the gorgeous morning unfolding in the mountains around us.
There was a fairly steady stream of runners stacked up on the trail as both the marathon and Challenge runners started at the same time. The front pack of Challenge and marathon runners had taken off early on the pavement, and I was happy to watch them go!
The weather conditions were great on this stretch, and I was able to unzip my light jacket and feel comfortable. As we progressed up the Toll Road (which is dirt trail) towards the Blue Ridge Parkway, runners started to spread out a bit. I had no idea who was running what race, what kind of place I was in, and was perfectly content to just keep running my race as I had planned to do. The conditions were still great and I was enjoying the stunning panoramas along this entire stretch as we climbed towards the Parkway.
As I neared the Blue Ridge Parkway (and marathon turnaround), the wind started howling down the trail. Strong gusts pummeled us as a harbinger of what we’d be encountering from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the summit.
I hit the Parkway in 1:58, and as the marathon runners turned around, things thinned out a bit. I saw I had closed the gap on the Challenge veteran I had run with earlier in the race a bit-he was about a minute ahead. A quick look back down the Parkway revealed the woman from California about a minute or so back. The race still seemed young, so I was happy to just keep running my race.
We were running into a headwind on the Parkway, which at times was very strong. The hood on my jacket whipped like a flag in the wind and I leaned forward hard and put my head down to keep moving. During one particularly strong gust, the wind suddenly changed direction and I almost fell on my face because I was leaning so far forward! A few miles of being beaten down by the wind on the Parkway, and the course peeled off the pavement to the Buncombe Horse Trail, which provided a bit of respite from the wind.
Up until this point my fueling had been going well. I had been taking a gel at least every 30 minutes, popping a new packet in my glove for at least 10 minutes before it was time to take it to let it heat up a bit. However, once we hit the Parkway, the temperature dropped precipitously. I started to hear ice in my water bottle clank around, and soon my bottle froze solid. I needed water to wash down the gels, so at this point, my fueling came to an unexpected halt.
Those who’ve followed my races know I’ve struggled to find a fueling strategy that works consistently for me, and with each race, I’m learning a bit more about how to keep my energy steady. Leading up to this race, I learned that when I lapse in fueling even a bit, my stomach shuts off. Learning this was a big leap for me! I knew going in to this race I had to eat early and often, as they say. However, as my bottle froze up on the way towards the summit, I realized I could be in for some trouble.
As I was starting to feel a bit low, energy wise, I heard footsteps crunching through the frozen mud/grass behind me. The woman from California had caught back up. Having someone else with me provided a needed boost (after a post-race introduction, I learned the woman I was running with was Rory Bosio). Rory and I chatted and ran the remainder of the Buncombe Horse trail, passing the veteran I’d been chasing all day as he filled his bottle from a stream. The section of trail was fairly flat, but had quite a bit of running water/ice/boggy mud to be carefully navigated. We eventually reach the summit trail, and Rory set the pace as we ran/talked/power hiked up the steep, technical and icy final mile to the summit, which we reached in 3:19. The summit was cold! I looked up the summit weather conditions after the race, which showed the conditions around the time we summited as 10 degrees air temp, -10 windchill, and 40 mph wind gusts!
Reaching the summit (Picture by citizen-times)
After summiting, we stopped off in the heated ranger/aid station. Rory was smart and asked the volunteers to help her out with all that she needed (her hands were so cold she couldn’t move them much). I was ready to get moving again, and stupidly didn’t think to take the time in the heat to take down a gel or two while I had access to water. I left the aid station and told Rory I’d see her in a few minutes, fully expecting her to catch up to me.
The mile and a half section off the summit was steep, very technical, and icy…which made for some fun ‘running.’ It probably would have been smart to slide off the big boulders on my butt during this section, but I ran and jumped off the boulders with some reckless abandon and had fun! By the time this section ended, I felt like I’d been worked over by a jackhammer, and I was happy when it ended. I knew that we had one long climb remaining at this point, which I dreaded. My hip flexors were really tight, and running the climbs was starting to get challenging. Knowing it was the last climb, I put my head down and ran up the mile long climb and smiled as I topped the hill and pulled into the aid station. I took a few swigs of coke, thanked the aid volunteers for braving the cold, and took off for 18 miles of downhill fun!
I maintained a decent pace down the Parkway. I thought it may take people a bit of time to get their downhill legs going after all the uphill, so I wanted to make sure I got moving on the downhills from the onset. I knew there were a few Challenge runners somewhere behind me, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t settle into cruise control on this section.
The return trip on the Toll Road got rough when I started bonking with about 12 miles to go. I managed to stomach half a gel here and there in the early miles on the way down, but I could tell my stomach was too far gone. Bonking is sadly all too familiar territory, so I didn’t feel too mentally anguished over this development (is it troublesome that I’m starting to feel confident with my ability to hang on and grind it out?). I settled into my standard routine of slamming coke in the aid station, holding on for dear life until the next aid station and repeating as necessary until finish.
As I closed in on the aid station around mile 30 or so, the volunteers complimented me on my nice beardcicles (I’m sure they were much more impressive at the summit!) and told me I was running in 4th place for the challenge. I had not had any idea of my position all day, so this was a welcome surprise. With this information, I had a bit more focus for the rest of the race, now determined not to get passed from behind for lack of effort on my part.
I was bonking really hard, but at this point it was all about getting to the finish! I pushed about as hard as I could and didn’t let up until I was half way around Lake Tomahawk and I could see both the finishing chute and that nobody was going to catch me from behind.
I crossed the line in 5:45 for 4th place. I felt a huge sense of satisfaction for having a good race when I was so uncertain about so much coming in to the event. The best part was that all the new stuff I was concerned about worked out great, save for the fueling issues.
Per usual, the CAT support leading up to the race was huge. Christian and Neal pulling me out on weekend mountain runs really helped me get in the early season training I needed to have a great race.
This is the part of the season where my trail running takes a back seat to teaching, kid sports, and work-related travel. This is especially true for Spring 2012, which has seen a big fall off in my mileage. So it was a big lift for me to get to check out some new trails this week during my travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. Yesterday (and hopefully again, later this morning), I drove the 25 or so miles from the Sunset Strip into the Mojave Desert-world of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
The park is this pretty vast area of red and brown mountain outcroppings rising up from the desert floor, and a world set completely apart from the flash and cheese of Vegas. Yesterday, I ran the White-Loop/La Madre Spring loop, a little over 6 miles, with not much more than a 1,000 feet of elevation gain. The loop took me on a crushed gravel trail around the backside of a large sandstone outcropping into the LaMadre wilderness area before circling back up over a pass that afforded great views of the desert valley. I went through pinyon pines, lots of scrub brush, and ran pass old Navajo agave roasting pits and hand prints on rock walls (OK, the hand prints were near the parking area and carefully roped off -- I didn't just stumble on those). Although I missed any wildlife sightings -- save a few lizards -- the area is a known hangout for all sorts of desert and mountain animals, from bighorn sheep and mountain lions to scorpions and gila monsters. Oh, there are also wild burros and horses in the area. The weather was gorgeous, dry with temps climbing from the high 40s into the low 70s while I was there (typical winter weather!).
In short, it was an all-around great experience, something I would recommend for anybody that ends up being in Vegas for some reason!
Somewhere around aid station 4 or 5 is where my second detour took place,
I was feeling good and just blew right through a set of arrows. Of course, it
wasn’t on a flat section so once I realized I had made another wrong turn I had to
climb back up (again) to where I needed to turn. I fell back to about
12th place this time and had no one to blame for this one but myself. I picked
off a few runners and was in 10th place with about 4 miles to go. I
started cramping up pretty bad and tried all the tricks I knew to stop the
cramping, nothing seemed to work so I slowed and got passed. I ended up in 12
place which I am happy about since this is my highest place in an ultra of
this size. I know I could have done better if I hadn’t taken the wrong turns and taken better care of myself. Lessons learned!
