Total Time: 5:18!!! I was shooting for a 5:30 finish time. I had done 6:21 on my first training run up the mountain and 5:58 on the second. I was thrilled with my finish time.
I came in:
1. 6th in my age group (40-44) out of 20
2. 27th out of 115 women
2. 157th out of 394 overall
Dallas and I got up super early in the dark and headed to catch the buses to the start. I got to meet Jamie, a fellow blogger, which was cool! She was volunteering at the bus pickup. Nice to meet you Jamie!
Dallas' plan was to run the whole race with me!!! I was excited about that. Here we are at the start, looking pretty sleepy!
We ran into a lot of our TTR friends at the start and even saw a bunch of trail running friends from Phoenix!
 |
| Boone Ebel from Phoenix - he's a fast one! |
 |
| Can you believe I got to run with this gorgeous man for 26.2 miles?!? |
I was having fun, although it was becoming apparent that my low back pain/referred leg pain was going to give me problems during the race. I just tried to ignore it and enjoy the beautiful views! I was in a significant amount of pain during this race, though. A lot of this stuff really is mind over matter. My friend Kathleen in CO signs her email with this quote:
"When life gives you lemons, throw them back and demand chocolate!"
"When life gives you lemons, throw them back and demand chocolate!"
Very quickly we hooked up with Chris, a recent return to TTR after a hiatus. We ran with him until about mile 20. He was a talker, which was fun.
It was awesome running with Dallas, my best friend! ;)
This race has about 6,000 feet elevation gain, but there are some downhill sections here and there. Right before the last drop into Summerhaven, the end of the race, we have to head uphill for almost a mile! That was hard - I had to walk a lot of that portion. But, we got to see some friends heading down - one, my friend Steve, who did spectacular.
Dallas and I crossed the finish line together! The photographer got pics of us crossing - however, I just ordered the pictures, so I'll add more to the blog when they come in.
Wow - what a day! We got a silly t-shirt, and a homemade medal, which was neat.
Congrats to all of the TTR and Phoenix finishers!
The downside of this race - someone messed up and the busses stopped running. So...we were stuck at the top of the mountain for quite some time after we finished. Luckily, our friend Ross had stashed his car up top and we got a ride down!
The upside - the race organizers handled the traffic well. One lane was closed down for runners and the other lane was managed using a pilot car. There was very little traffic overall, and I felt safe during the race.
This was one of the most beautiful races I've ever done. You just can't beat those views.
Synopsis:
Pinkcorker - 3!!
Catalina Highway - 0
 |
| This is my favorite part of the course - right after Windy Point |
 |
| Ahhh....some downhill! |
Dallas and I crossed the finish line together! The photographer got pics of us crossing - however, I just ordered the pictures, so I'll add more to the blog when they come in.
Wow - what a day! We got a silly t-shirt, and a homemade medal, which was neat.
The downside of this race - someone messed up and the busses stopped running. So...we were stuck at the top of the mountain for quite some time after we finished. Luckily, our friend Ross had stashed his car up top and we got a ride down!
The upside - the race organizers handled the traffic well. One lane was closed down for runners and the other lane was managed using a pilot car. There was very little traffic overall, and I felt safe during the race.
This was one of the most beautiful races I've ever done. You just can't beat those views.
Synopsis:
Pinkcorker - 3!!
Catalina Highway - 0
1 comment:
Great blog I am thinking of doing the race this year
Post a Comment