44.1 miles out of 50 miles

We're home and back to the land of snow. It was great to be in the desert for a few days.

As you might be able to tell from the title of this post, I didn't finish the race. These were my race goals:

• Finish the race
• Hydrate-20-32 oz of fluid/hour
• Eat regularly-200 calories/hour
• Take enough meds-5-10 mg of hydrocortisone/hour and 200-400 mg of salt/hour (about 100mg of HC for the day is my best guess)

I did great with three of the four!

Race report:
The day was hot and about mid-day, very windy. I found the wind pleasant but the spectators waiting at the start finish line hated all the sand being kicked up.

I started out strong and happy at 6:30 am, eating, drinking and taking my meds regularly. It's a challenge to eat, drink and medicate all day long. Accomplishing those tasks was all I was able to think about. It worked out well though because I did not have any stomach cramps and felt fine at the finish (with the exception of my feet, more on that later).

The course is beautiful and very, very rough. I had forgotten about the sheer drops to the ground below. A trip could have been fatal. Fortunately, my balance was good, conditioning was good, sunscreen coverage was adequate and above mentioned items were successfully accomplished. As my friend Colleen suggested, I did not decide to quit or continue at the turn around at mile 25, I got to mile 31 and decided to continue. Colleen and Paul, I was cursing you both when I headed out from mile 25!!!! My overall downfall was my tender feet. I've never had problems with them before and they were blistered and painful, causing me to be unable to continue the race at mile 44.1 at about 6:00 pm. It was a good learning experience and I now I have more empathy for people whose feet blister and bruise easily. I need to learn how to bandage and care for blistered feet on the trail so this doesn't happen again. I got driven back to Paul (my support crew and the person to whom the race was dedicated) and was quite coherent, more so than other people. Being coherent at the end of a race is something new and different for me. We went back to the hotel room and ate some dinner, I stayed up until 10 pm and then I slept until 6 am. Over the last three days, I've been sore but not anything too bad.

I am happy with my performance but wish I had been able to continue to the end!

I did this race for Paul, my husband. He did great in the 10 mile race. He came in third in his age group. Thank you Paul!!



PICTURES FROM THE RACE

Pictures taken at the race by the race people. Warning, I look bad.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

The start and finish line at 6 am. This is where all the volunteers slave away all day taking care of the runners.

Nervous runners awaiting the starting gun, a view from the back of the pack.

The 25 and 50 mile races start!

Just as the race started, the sun was coming up over the Book Cliffs of Fruita, Colorado

Mile 3



Approaching aid station one, mile 5.9



Mile 5.6. This is where I quit the race 12 hours later at 44.1 miles.

A view of the trail system on the mesa below and the Colorado River. I don't know what mile this is.


Mile 10 and 40. I only saw the view at mile 10 by mile 40 all I could think about were my aching feet!!

A section that we had to scramble up and then down during the race. Mile 11 (up) and mile 39 (ouch! down)



Steep!!! Mile???



From the trail. Mile 18 and mile 32



Mile 18.5 and mile 32.5, nearly flat