Catalina State Park 5.2 Mile Trail Race

I woke up at 5am to a gray and sleepy morning. It was pretty chilly outside, but I assumed it would get warmer (more like desperately wanted it to get warmer) so I dressed in shorts and a tee. Only sort of regretted that later. 

Chance and I drive up to the State Park. I was bugging Chance the night before about getting there early because when I was helping out with packet pick-up the day before, everyone was telling me to get there early or I’ll have to park down the road. And since I have never been there before, I had no idea how far that would be. So, we ended up getting there at around 6:30am and the parking lot was pretty much empty. Oh well. Better safe than sorry!

Since the race didn’t start until 7:40am, Chance decided to take me for a little hike. We walked up the road, down a wash and then walked along a trail to Romero Ruins.
But I forgot to take photos of it. Maybe next time. 

During our hike, the sky seemed to be getting a little darker, making me nervous, but I thought, “hey, it’s Tucson, it won’t actually rain.”  

We got back in time to see some of my Ragnar teammates, Dave and Kendra, who were running the 10-miler. Basically, the 5 miler is one loop of the trail and the 10 miler is two. It was no easy loop. I definitely have respect for those 10 milers now.
The 10 miler started 10 minutes before the 5 miler. So, as it was starting we headed over to the start line to watch everyone.

Right after the race started, I started to take off my warm clothes.  I striped down to my shorts and t-shirt. Super cold!

 I headed over to the start line with minutes to spare and did some warm up stretches to get me ready. I saw a few people with gloves on. I remember wondering if I should have brought some but kept talking myself out of it because I heat up so fast. Then we were off!!

We ran down the paved road for about 30 seconds and then hit dirt. Yay! My first trail race. It was all very exciting. But then we took a left and suddenly had to asend a HUGE hill. We were in single file and shuffling for a little while because the 10 milers were coming down the other side. We were really packed together at this point. Finally, we go to the top of the hill and ran along the top of a ridge. It was so gorgeous! The clouds had moved in through the ranges in the mountains. The air was so fresh and crisp and cold and almost prefect running weather. Soon we made a turn around and headed back the way we came. Finally, the rain came.  It wasn’t hail or anything, just a light sprinkle. It felt great! After all that hard work up the hill, a little bit of rain was just what I needed. :)  It didn’t last long though and only got me partially wet.

I flew down the hill and took a left down another trail. Actually, it more like a wash. It was very sandy and extremely hard to get a good footing. A bunch of sand got in my shoe because I don’t have gaiters yet. Lame. It’s on my to-buy list. I saw the photographer up ahead so I tried to look like I was having fun. 

Ran down this trail for a bit. Then the rain started to pick up again. My shirt and shorts were starting to get soaked. I could feel the water in my shoes building up. Every time I took a step I felt the squishiness.

Dislike this photo. I look old. And tired. And pale. I definitely need to work on my trail race photo face.

And then I saw the stair climb. And immediately I realized I should have done some more trail training before this. I did what I could which was walk up it…slowly. I turned around to see if anyone else needed to pass me but instead what I saw was this long line of other runners…all walking up this hellacious stair climb.   I imagine it wouldn’t have been so bad if I just ran it before. I’ll learn one day. :)

I wish I took more photos but it was so wet and so cold it was almost impossible to get the camera out. My fingers were numb at this point so just taking it out for one photo was hard enough. It was even difficult to get my camelback closed! And don’t even get me started on my shoelaces. I swear, I had to bend down to tie them every few minutes once they got wet. 

A water station was at the top of the hill. I took a breather and went on my way. At this point, I was soaked though to my underwear. The rain didn’t feel like ice pellets anymore. It actually felt really good. I felt alive. The next mile felt the easiest. I was taking in the sights, the smells, the cold rain, I was loving every minute of it! My mind was no longer focused on my body, but instead everything else around me. On another section of trail I was able to see everyone in front of me and that helped to distract me as well. I really liked getting a look at everyone. It’s cool to see how many different people come together to run. LOVE IT.

Flew down another hill. I remember feeling how cold the wind was. My thighs, my fingers, my arms were so numb but I couldn’t really feel it. My shoelaces  came untied a few more times before I finished. I couldn’t even really tie them near the end, my fingers were so numb, so I shoved them into the sides of my shoe with my knuckles.

I came out from the last loop, on to pavement and saw the finish line.  I ran as fast as I could when I saw it. It hurt but I love feeling completely exhausted when I cross a finish line. It makes me feel like I accomplished the task I set out to do.  

Miles- 5.2
Time- 1:03:50
Avg Pace- 12:16.5
Overall Place- 156
Age group Place: 3RD!!! So awesome. :)

Chance brought me a towel (thank goodness I keep those in my car for the dogs) while I stood in line to get my t-shirt. Pretty cool design. As soon as I picked mine up  headed back to the car to get changed. Since I wasn’t moving as much anymore it got cold…fast. I began to shiver like crazy! Chance helped me over to the port-a-potties so I could change inside. Not as gross as you may think. It was a small race so they were fairly clean. Also helps if you have a towel to sit on. I warmed up my hands with the towel the best that I could before trying to change. It is impossible to do with numb fingers! I felt stupid and helpless. Finally, they started to warm up a little but it had already taken me about 20 minutes. Poor Chance, standing in the rain, waiting for me. I love you!

I came out and I went to go get the free Mexican breakfast and smoothie that always comes with this race. SO AWESOME. I love Steve Landaus races. They are the best. Especially since they usually have free massages. Unfortuantely I looked over at the ,massage tent and it was empty. :(   I doubt I would have stayed for one anyway. Definitely next time. I took the food back to the car and ate like I was homeless. Seriously. That food was gone in a few seconds.

6 things I learned about trail races:
1.) ALWAYS bring a change of clothes in your car. No matter if it looks like it will clear up or even if it’s a beautiful sunny day. You never know what will happen. This is something I always try to do, no matter the race. It would have been a major bummer if I had forgotten it for this race though.

2.) Bring a towel while you’re at it. So glad it was already in my car. It really made the difference, especially since I had to change in a port-a-potty.

3.) You should probably buy shoes without shoelaces.

4.) Gaiters would have been helpful.

5.) I didn’t wear headphones for this race and I LOVED it. I recommend you leave them at home for trail races. You’ll miss too much of the experience! I believe there’s enough variety in a trail such as turns, rocks, hills, animals, etc to keep you focused and not leave you feeling bored.

6.) Not sure about other races, but this one thankfully had lots of food for the runners afterwards. When I run another one, I’ll be sure to bring my own food just in case. As soon as I finished I was so hungry, I felt like I could eat a horse!!!

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That weekend, I also ran the Race for the Cure 5k. I didn't take any photos because personally, it's my least favorite race. It's for a wonderful cause and I support it entirely but the course sucks. And there's too many people for it to be a fun race. So, I concentrated on finally breaking a 30 minute 5k and guess what? 

 

I DID!

Time- 29:49

Avg Pace- 9:36

Overall Place- 431

A New PR!!!  

You can fight without ever winning, 

but never ever, win without a fight.

--Rush

Tackling the Mt. Lemmon Marathon

I'm going to do it! I'm switiching from the Mt. Lemmon Half Marathon to the Mt. Lemmon Marathon. 

This is very exciting for me because:
1.) This will be my very first, mi primer, marathon! 
2.) It is a mostly uphill course with an elevation change of 5250 feet! Loving the challenge!
3.) A lot of people are intimidated by this marathon, they refuse to do it. They think I'm crazy for even thinking about doing it.
4.) I'll have an extra 13 miles to take in the amazing views. 

Last years winner.

Mt. Lemmon means a lot to me. I was born and raised here in Tucson and Mt. Lemmon has always been right out my window. I spend almost every summer up there as a camp counselor. I also hike and camp up there too during the other times of the year. It's pretty much my home away from home. I love Mt. Lemmon. And now, with the opportunity to run up it, it is very exciting and it makes me happy to be a runner.
 

Check out that view!

I regret not doing it last year. Last year was it's very first year and I felt a little intimidated by it since I had just started running in January. I wanted to be involved however, so I volunteered. I enjoyed seeing the runners tackle this crazy race. I loved seeing the motivation and their strength. 

I even got to meet Bart Yasso!

So this year is the year. I'm finally going to do a marathon and I'm going to do the one that means the most to me. This is the training plan I picked up on the website:

I like it because it's tailored to running the mountain. Other plans I looked at don't factor in the intense incline. 

I'll be adding in trails, of course. :)
I'll be up on the mountain as summer so I'll have plenty of time to train during breaks at camp. 

Official Training will begin on July 3rd! 

Anyone else planning on running it?

Two race recaps are coming your way, just as soon as I upload the photos. 

A trail run is planned for this weekend on Mt. Lemmon. I need to get used to the elevation before training starts. 

Happy Thursday!

Busy Busy Weekend!

I had 2 races planned for the weekend:

The Catalina State Park Trail Race (5 miler) was today

and the Race for the Cure 5k tomorrow. 

The Catalina Trail Race was AWESOME. I will post a recap shortly. :)


Must get some rest for the 5k tomorrow morning!

Saturday Morning Bike Ride

I got a new bike!
Ain't it a beauty?

Kali and I went for my 1st official ride Saturday morning (the rest have been rides to school so of course it doesn't count as official).
We took the path down the river and rode down to Craycroft. Not all that far, but you sure start to feel it...you know....down there. Not so comfortable! I will definitely need some tips on this!

It wasn't a very serious ride. Not like those of you training for a tri. Nothing like that. I promise. But super awesome. :)

It was so beautiful outside! Cool temps in the 70's. A beautiful, big, blue sky overhead. No cars nearby. Perfect for riding. And running. We saw a TON of runners. Most of them were WAY fit. You know, the abs, the legs, the whole fit runner package. I was little jealous. I was very close to jumping off my bike and going for a run instead. I have a runner's mentality. 

These pictures are taken at the end of the paved path. There's a longer path down the opposite side of the wash, but it's all dirt. :c  

Sometimes, I wish my bike was a transformer and could transform into a mountain bike when I needed it to.

Plan on doing any awesome rides or runs this weekend? 

Super Spartan Race 2011 Recap!

Aren't you all lucky ducks? 2 recaps in a row!?! What is this craziness!?

The day didn't start as early as I had imagined. Thankfully, Joann lives pretty darn close to Rawhide (this cute western town with a steakhouse, but it's twice as big as Pinnacle Peak/Trail Dust Town for you Tucson townies). So we woke up a little later than usual (I ♥ sleeping in).

We got to Rawhide and wandered through the town to the start line/to find the group Joann signed up with. We walked past one of the obstacles. It was a wall with little planks of wood nailed on to it. Very intimidating. I was only a little worried at that point. Then, we walked past a dry wash with stacks of Duraflame lined up neatly. I asked Joann what the Duraflame was for. And then...oh. 

We finally found our group, put our stuff in a car and got pumped. Joann and I wrote our numbers on each others arms. We walked around to see some free samples we could score. I grabbed a free 5 Hour Energy for later. 

Then we saw this wall. We joined in and wrote our names on it.

Then, it was time to start the race! I made a poor decision and downed the 5 Hour Energy before our wave was about to start. So. Freaking. Gross. I had this cough medicine taste in my mouth for quite awhile.

People started to move. Then some broke into a run and then there was smoke. Everywhere. Apparently, being a Spartan means you have to run though a cloud of smoke. And I'm not talking bearable smoke here. It was so hard to breathe. I already have a lot of trouble with cigarette smoke. This was awful.

Here, we think, is Joann and I. She found this on a website covering the race. You can sort of see my orange shirt, black pants, maybe? And Joann is to my left? Tell me what you think. Anyway, this was the smoke. 

Next, we ran over some hay steps. Not too bad, I'm thinking. But after we rounded a building we saw more smoke. Uh-oh. We rounded the corner and realized we're going to jump the fire NOW! Holy Crap!

That was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. Seriously. That fire looks small. But when you face it head on, it's a HUGE WALL OF FIRE. For a split second, I told myself I couldn't do it. But then realized the men with the fire hoses wouldn't let me catch fire and die. 

We jumped, survived, then almost was knocked over by the intense pressure of the hoses. We ran though a tunnel, and along a path for a while. I was doing good, until I saw the water. As in "river" water (man made).

It was a big man made river! It felt like it took forever to cross it. And it was cold. The cold knocked it out of me. My shoes were weighing me down. So were my shorts. Good thing I told Joann not to wear pants this morning, I was thinking. Finally, we made it across, but we had to walk because the cold was so shocking. Finally, we got our groove back...for a little while. Then we saw we have to cross the river again.

We ran for awhile on a small desert trail. People were starting to break up and it gave us a little more room to run. I really like when that happens. :) Got some water (finally). Seriously. If it's one thing this race needed more of, it was water. You know, to drink. Not to swim through, there was enough of that.  I may have to suggest that. I know, I know, it's not very Spartan of me...

From that, we did some more crazy stuff.
We ran though a very small tarp covered river, through tunnels, and then crawled though a mud pit with barbed wire. Fun. NOT. Look at my face. It tells all. That was not nice mud either. It was rough, rocky, hard, not fun mud! I'm pretty sure I got a mud burn. 

After that, we climbed some walls, jumped through tires, and pulled some cinder blocks. Yup. Sure did. Just before that we had the option of solving a 4-square Rubik's cube or 30 push-ups. Guess who did the push-ups as soon as she heard she had to solve that hellacious thing. ME. I will not deny it. 

We ran some more, almost died of thirst. We had to climb a very tall wall. Painful. Ran some more. Almost died of thirst...again. Finally, we neared the little town of Rawhide. We had to cross the cold, little river again (but this time it felt amazing!) and climb a slippery wall. I think this obstacle is where I got an ugly bruise on my leg.

Yay! Finally a battle scar. Can you believe I have never gotten a bruise, scratch, black toenail, etc from a race? But now. It's all changing. I'm actually proud of myself. 

We got to Rawride, ran though the town, reached the walls we had to climb across (if you fall you have to do 30 burpees!). So tired at this point. Then we had to throw a spear at a target. But I missed so I did 50 push-ups. Yay push-ups. We had one more mud pit to cross and we were done! Of course, we had to get past the gladiators first. 

Thankfully, I got past them without being knocked over and finished! 

Not sure about my time yet, but when I do find out I will update. 

We both got our medals, and used our meal ticket to get our burgers and beer/soda. LOVE that we get food after. Every race should do that. No matter the distance. 

You can check out some awesome photos of my sister from this race HERE. (her blog)

Hope you enjoyed it! I loved the challenging aspects of this race. It really pushed me to try harder and go farther.  I also liked the fact we were in a team because yes, it was cheaper but I liked meeting the other people who ran as well. They had some good stories. And runners are usually awesome people. :)

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I have so many things to tell you about! I got new shoes, new medals, a new bike, new races in my future and I met a new group of people that I was welcomed into and would love to  get involved with! I'm so excited! You should be too. Also because I'm sort of close to my 100th post. That probably means a giveaway!! Get ready, it's approaching. :) 

Ragnar Relay Del Sol 2011 Recap!

Wow, sorry for that wait! I have been studying my butt off for midterms and now I'm done!!! Spring Break has come and gone, the Wildcats are in the sweet 16, and life is good. :) So I finally got a chance to sit down and do this!

Also, I have been sort of embarrassed by the lack of photos I took for this race. It was so crazy! I wasn't sure what to expect and how to time things and so on and so on. Excuses, excuses. I know. So, I stole a lot of photos from my teammates facebook pages. I hope it's enough for this recap. Also, I did bring my video camera but I didn't really get anything good. I can't really explain why but I guess I was in this weird, sleep deprived, adrenaline fueled state the entire 33 hours. If you've done a Ragnar before, you may understand what I'm saying. If not, you better get out there and do one cause it's definitely an experience you won't ever forget. 

Since I took so long to do this recap, there may be some details I'm missing. But you'll get the general idea...

Alrighty! The recap! Sorry about the photos, facebook has this weird thing now where they won't let you save the photos. I had to screen capture mostly everything!

 I want to start by saying my team was freaking awesome! Most of us were strangers but by the end we became very close! We plan to do this next year, maybe even do Ragnar in Las Vegas in August. We had a blast! It was the perfect group of people. I'm on the right. And yes, it was cold. 

Here I am starting off the race (in the orange shirt and blue hat)! I was runner #1 and I had a blast starting it off! The elevation was not fun however. I needed my inhaler before I even hit the halfway mark. Didn't help I was wearing compression socks and it was uphill! UGH. But it was challenging and fun. :)  

The scenery was beautiful on my first run! Wickenburg may be in the middle of nowhere, but at least it's a pretty place to be. 

The rest of the way was crazy! I'll admit I have to work on my photo taking skills for next year because I missed a lot.
The following photos are a mix between what I took and what I got from my teammates:

Decorating Van 1.

Exchange 3. 

Casey supporting Lori on one of her legs.

Kendra coming into an exchange.

Kevin's Ragnar face. 

Exchange 6!

Sleeping at a high school before Van 1 starts the 2nd set of legs. 

Kevin during one of his legs. 

Kevin and Clancy acting silly. Must be the lack of sleep....or not...

Guy during one of his legs. 

Waiting for Christine to come in. 

Waiting to start my 2nd leg!

Laura getting pumped up for her night run. 

Christine being super reflective. 

Exchange 12!

After my last leg! I came in during the sunrise. It was so pretty! :)

Meeting some biggest losers at an exchange. 

Finally, we made it to the beer garden!! ...I mean, the finish line...

Waiting (in the beer garden of course) for Christine to get closer to the finish line.  

Here she comes!!! Our last runner, Christine, comes running into the finish. So we all join her...

We all run to the finish! 

WE FINISHED!

Place- 265th

Finishing time- 32:57:47

Sorry for the short and sweet recap, but I think I like it that way. Leaves more to the imagination! :)
My goal for next year to have a better plan for capturing photos so that my recap won't be all over the place. Also, it's hard to do a recap when you're sleepy. 

Hope you all enjoyed it! My team plans to do the Del Sol relay again next year. We may even consider the Las Vegas one coming up, but that hasn't been decided yet. I'll have to do another post with the metal, it's pretty sweet. :) 

And, my sister and I ran in the Super Spartan Race in Chandler last Saturday, so you'll get another recap shortly! 

HAPPY RUNNING!