Superstition Wilderness 50k

Dallas and I decided to skip the scheduled TTR run and instead, headed up a little Northeast of Tucson (~2.5 hour drive) to join a group of ultrarunners (10 of us total) for a 'fat ass' 50k in the Superstition mountains. We had never run there before. We love trying out new places to run.

Total distance: 31.55 miles

AEG: 4,547 ft.

Total time: 9:01 - jeesh!

Thanks to Jeremy for setting up this run! His fiancee and sister did the aid station.

It was below freezing at the start of this run, but we warmed up after a bit. Dallas ran with me the entire run. What a guy! He said that he wants to run all 'out of town' runs and races with me.
♥ How sweet! ♥

Right off the bat, we were in the rear of the group. Several times, Jeremy stopped and regrouped everyone to wait on us. After a while though, we were left in the dust - some top AZ ultrarunners in this group - Honey, Boone, Jeremy, Paulette, Jon, and a few others we hadn't met yet. We were okay with that - I hated making all of these fast people wait on us!

This was one pretty run.

Amazing rock formations.

Took FOREVER to run this course, because it was very rocky and the trail was fairly iced over in spots.

Lots of slip 'n slide action

Unbelievable views,  awesome people to run with, an aid station set up at mile 19, nice singletrack -...however - the trails were loaded with catclaw, sticker bushes, cactus, etc. We were torn up from head to toe!!! It got pretty painful at one point. I also slipped in the creek a banged my shin a little and soaked my gloves. Oh, and I did fall later in the run, just banging my elbow a tad. Did I mention the mud? Yes, we call this fun. 

My deep in thought 'Julie' pose

Great fun (well, if you don't mind 1000's of little razor cuts all over your legs). Thanks to Jeremy for the run, his fiancee and sister for the aid station (yum, rice crispie treats w/peanut butter!!!) and to all of the Phoenix area ultrarunners who are always so gracious to me and Dallas.

Ultrarunners are just cool people.