Javelina 12 hour Night Run

My first night run! Woohoo!
Total time: 10:57
Total distance: 46.2 miles (my Garmin said 47.23)

My second longest distance ever! Old Pueblo 50 miler was my longest (54 miles, got off course!)

My highest mileage week ever! 67 miles. I ran 64 miles the week of OP50.

So...3 milestones. I was thrilled! The plan was to do 3 loops of the Pemberton trail, which was about 15.4 miles each.

Dallas and I went up to Fountain Hills on Saturday for the Javelina 12 Hour Night Run. This is now a more formalized training run (you have to pay) for the Javelina Jundred, coming up in less than 4 weeks. For your registration, you get a technical shirt, which was very nice, aid, and a finisher’s glass! About 200 people were registered. It was hot – probably around 95 – 100 degrees at the start.

The run goes from 6pm Saturday night until 6am Sunday morning and is held on the Pemberton trail, the same trail for the Pemberton 50k and JJ100. The goal is to do as many loops as one wants to (or can!) in 12 hours. Our goal was 3 loops, or ~ 46.2 miles. There was one aid station at about the halfway point in the 15.4 mile loop, and then the start/finish line had TONS of food – pizza, fruit, pie, soup, you name it. The volunteers were phenomenal. Aravaipa Running did an awesome job.

We planned on running the whole thing together. After the first loop (2:59), we took a 30 minute break. I had a blister to attend to, and we took our time ‘regrouping’ and eating. Out we headed again, but running the loop in reverse (you switch directions, just like JJ100). It was fun to see people coming and going. I was starting to get used to my headlamp - the moon was almost full, but not enough so to run without light.

Jamil and Nick Coury giving the run-down on the course, etc.

This past weekend marked one year since Dallas ran his first TTR run – Mt. Hopkins. He has found his inner lunatic since joining TTR and really wants to do a 50, and eventually, a 100 mile race. Dallas’ longest run to date before this past weekend was ~ 36 miles. He picked Jon Roig's brain about running 100 milers on our first loop, just as the sun was setting. We met Jon back in January at the Cave Creek marathon.

It's all fun now - 15 minutes into it!

The light is about to leave for the night...



Back at the start after the first loop - about 9pm. We look a little 'overcaffeinated'!!!

 The second loop was hard, but we arrived back at the start at 6:55 (3:56 for the second loop, which included our 30 minute break). It was at this time that we met Micah True, aka the ‘Caballo Blanco’. He had come in right after we had finished our second loop (he only did 2 loops). It was awesome to meet him, because I'm currently reading 'Born to Run', which features him prominently.

I felt stupid, because I saw his name on the board as coming in right after us, and I said, "Hey, Micah True is here. Where is he?" And he said, "I'm right there." (He was right next to me!) So, we got our picture taken with him. Cool. He was nice.


Yeah, I'm not looking that great, but it is 1am!!!



We ate, but we were tired. It was almost 1:30am at this point. All I could think about, as we sat in the car getting a few things together on our second 30 minute break, was…let’s go home! Beware the chair!

However, we had our 3 loop goal, and so we got up and got moving. Dallas ate some pizza and we again switched directions for our 3rd loop. There were still people coming in the other direction from their 2nd loop – many looked like zombies, some throwing up.

On this loop, we started feeling pretty good! We ran quite a bit of it and passed about 12 people during the loop. After passing all of those people, I looked back and thought I saw piles of headlamps behind me! I told Dallas, “I don’t want anyone to pass us.” So, we picked up the pace and kept on running strong! Eventually, there were no headlamps behind us the last 3-4 miles. Mirage?

I had a few moments of hysterical laughter during the run (too much caffeine, no sleep?) which probably had Dallas a little worried at times (is she losing it?!?). Overall, we really had a great time.

We came in a little before 5am for a total time of 10:57. Our third loop was 4:02, which included our second 30 minute break after loop 2. We were so excited! Many people had gone home (a lot of people did 1-2 loops), but there were plenty still there to cheer us on.

We got our finisher’s glass, and plopped down on plastic chairs and ate soup! We watched a bunch of others (that we had passed) come in one by one. It was awesome. One guy came in and said to us, "You both passed me running Mach 4!"

I was happy with how we did. During the run, I ate mostly bananas (about 3) and Gu Chomps. I never eat fruit on long runs, but decided to experiment. Bananas it is. They worked well.

Driving home was exhausting – we kept having to stop for Monster drinks/coffee to keep ourselves awake and at one point, we succumbed to an apple fritter for the sugar rush. Yum. I had some seriously painful legs, which got a little better with some Tylenol. We finally made it back to Tucson 2.5 hours later and crashed for about 3 hours.

We are still going over the event and how cool it was to run all night long, under an almost full moon, with stars everywhere, surrounded by a bunch of other crazy runners.

Dallas did so awesome! He is such a strong runner. He admits he is now officially hooked on ultrarunning– the ‘ultra’ juices were flowing. I wasn't even done with the event and I was already thinking of my next adventure.

I felt pretty good the day after the run. I took Monday off, but ran Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and rode the bike on Friday (about 19 miles running and 13 miles bicycling). I did skip my weight workouts this week; I've had a pretty sore shoulder and it seemed like a good week to give it a break.

I had a massage on Tuesday, which helped tremendously with some of the ongoing problems I've had. I'm still dealing with the tweaky feeling IT band, which is better at some times, worse at other times.

"Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. It's the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells 'CAN'T', but you don't listen. You just push harder. And then you hear the voice whisper 'can'. And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are."
~ Unknown