After packet pick-up we headed out to a local pizza establishment so that I could properly carb up for the race. Steve taunted me by ordering a pitcher of the local made amber beer!! Who could have known that such evil lurked in the kind and amiable man that I was married to….however after years of abuse perhaps he was finally getting some justice.
Sunday turned out to be a perfect day to run for a couple of reasons. The first was that after taking my Tylenol PMs I actually enjoyed 10 hours of sleep Saturday night and the second was the all day rain – which is a huge rarity in CA - took place the following day!! The weather was ideal on Sunday – starting temp of 30 degrees with a high of 50 – perfect!!!
About 230 people ran the 50K. The trail is easy running – it is the ONLY race that I am able to look around and enjoy the scenery. A bit over 5200 elevation change. Sorry Joel – no quad burning stories here. Surprisingly the desert is a beautiful place for a run with some great views in the mountains. After a couple of hours the wind picked up to 30mph continual gusts making the up-hills harder to deal with. However at the end of the day the sand facial worked wonders on my face, taking off a couple of years of wear.
Not too much else to say other than I was sad when I hit the last 3 mile down hill coming out of the mountains. Too much fun to end so fast!!! Finished up with a one mile loop around the college and I was done!!
The High Desert 50K is a fun race, great markings and aid stations about every 3 miles. It is one that I am sure that I will run many more times.
We found a great Mexican place in Ridgecrest that night and then headed back to LA to attend the Ellen show and then to San Diego for a couple of days before the true highlight of the trip; meeting up with the self proclaimed best looking LPTR member – Kevin, in LA for a night of proper rehydration before our trip back home.
That looked fun. Was Kevin out there starting a LPTR feeder chapter?
ReplyDeleteDehart