Winter Trail Series - Race #2

Today was the 2nd race in the 3 race Winter Trail Series here in sunny Tucson, Arizona. This one was out in the Tucson Mountains - the 36th St. trailhead. It was freezing - about 30-35 degrees at the start. Very beautiful, though! Lots of rolling hills and dense cacti forest. The single track trail was fairly narrow most of the way with a lot of loose rock. We did a loop in combination with an out and back on one portion. Here is the start of the race:

The last mile had a hill that I had to walk up - it was brutal! Here it is:

The race was about 4 miles, but my friend Laurie and I ran 6 more afterwards for a total of 10 miles today. I'm supposed to be doing 16 miles this weekend for the marathon training, but I wanted to do an 8 mile training trail run tomorrow morning for the upcoming Arizona Trail race, which will be held on February 3rd. So, I'll get in 18, but not all at one time. I'll be doing a 16 miler next week, and starting in February (after the Arizona Trail race) I'll be doing 18-20 mile training runs. I love the longer runs - I think I was built for distance, not speed! I registered last week for the marathon I am training for - the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon (26.2 miles), which will be on March 30th in White Sands, New Mexico.

When Laurie and I got back from the additional 6 miles, Laszlo (the race director from Blue Pants Racing) had left a note and some goodies on my bumper. How sweet!

All done with the run. Time to go home and eat. :)