Palm Springs

My exercise coordinator has been very patient with me.  I skip workouts all the time and do things not as prescribed.  If I were him, I would fire my ass but thankfully he has not.  But, after I did the 25k version of the Tiger Mountain Fat Ass in January, he was trying to get me to commit to something in an attempt to get me to be consistent.  

So I registered for another 25k and then very very foolishly also registered for a 50k.  The 50k is in June so we can chat about that later, but the 25k was in April. In Yakima, the Palm Springs of Washington, where jumping rope is not allowed.

I didn't do too much research into the event, I was a bit stressed because I was leaving the next day to go to London for a week for work.  But I knew they put in a requirement that everyone needed to start out with 40oz of water and that there was 4800 ft of elevation.  

I had no way to carry that much liquid, so Leslie came to the rescue and let me borrow her vest thingy.  She let me practice with it on a few runs prior too.  She is actually the reason why I even did the first 25k in January.  After I lost my job, I went with her on a bunch of her training runs because she was doing her first 25k.  I had so much fun on those runs with her, and being able to do those with her gave me enough confidence to do one on my own.  

So Saturday, the day before the race, which I was calling and event, and actually calling a hike with some jogging on the downhills and possibly on the flats, I spent the morning packing for my trip.  Then we went to sirus's soccer game! MVP

Loaded up in the car and headed first out to ellensburg. I pre warned Eric that I was super stressed and that I might not be able to be held responsible for my level if bitchyness.  He said he was bracing himself for it.

But I was so happy to head up to our property and hike around.  Not only did it act as a mild opener for the next day, but the fresh air and amazing views bring new life to me!

We eventually got into Yakima, basically in time to get ready for bed. 

In the morning we tried to figure out where the race started.  The website was confusing, at least to me but we figured it out. And then it was go time!  I made the very risky move of wearing shoes that I had worn only once before. Luckily they worked great!

Eric and the kids hung out as I got suited up, pinned up, watered up, and ready to go.  I made one last potty stop and I was off. Ya, those sunglasses- they stayed on top of my head the hole way.  Thankful for the hat!

The first part of the run is like 2100 ft of elevation in the first two miles or something rediculous.  And it was tough. 

We all kind of hiked it together.  One foot infront of the other.  It was about an hour of straight up!  See those tiny people way way way up there?

It was pretty steep, but then there was a section right before it sorta leveled off called The Stairway to Heaven. It was tough, loose and dusty. 

This one is looking back on that initial climb.  Can you see the river down there?  That is where we started!  

Once at the top of the initial climb, it got fun.  It was rolling for the next almost 3 miles.  It was so nice to be running rather than hiking up hill, but after a while I started to realize that all that downhill was going to be uphill on the way back.  At the far end of this hill, 5 miles in, we took a sharp turn left and headed straight down for two miles, down to the river again.  This is where I started to see a decent flow of the people who were heading back already.  At the river was an aide station, which was at 8 miles, where i got a sunblock misting which felt delightfully refreshing, had a 1/4 pbj and some oranges.   I was there for like 2 or 3 minutes and then headed back up, at a race time of 2:03.

The trail back up was tough.  Not just because it was steep but because the footing was loose and dusty, too.  When I got to the water stop at mile 10-11, the volunteer there said we were done with the big climbs.  Which was not entirely true.  There was a ton more climbing- remember those rollers on the way down?  Yeah, up hill rollers are not as fun.

The last few miles were super steep downhill, down that Stairway to Heaven.  Wow! It was steep!  But it was fun to watch the average pace on my Garmin drop thanks to the downhill.  4:14 in, with no real idea of how much further it was to the finish I fell!  Yikes!  I geeked my knee and it HURT!!  I sat there on the trail repeating OHNOOHNOOHNO wondering how I was going to get the rest of the way out, wondering how I was going to manage my London trip the next day.  It was panic time.  So I stood up, ow ow ow!!!!  Shook it off and started running again.  Finish time of 4:21!

The kids asked if it was fun.  I said I wasn't sure if fun was the right word for it. Sirus asked how many miles and how myco climbing.  While he did acknowledge that it was a lot and he congratulated me, he was quick to follow with "now you know how I felt when daddy took us on that enchantments hike."  That day, they did 15 miles with 5k of elevation.  And they were 10 & 8.