The 2016 Red Mountain 55K is now completed!
It is well advised to always take some time off between any Ultramarathons, but I went against the grain here and decided since we were down in St. George already, to run this Ultra only a few miles away from our house! It turned out to be a great choice. I basically took it easy through the early parts and held on to a conservative and steady pace through the whole adventure. I even had some left at the end and started picking up the pace a mile from the end!
I was a bit leary of the 8 hour time limit when I heard 5 minutes from the start of the race that the course was actually 34 miles - basically another 55K. Having done a time of 8:40- 2 weeks ago, I was kind of worried. However! The sand gods did not grace the course with their impenetrable sand! Yes! There was plenty of rock though and switchbacks! Whoa! The course had us go up 4 separate rock reef peaks in the Santa Clara Reserve outside of Ivins, Utah. This was a very interesting area with an unreal amount of bike/running trails everywhere! Oh, and did I say rock everywhere? There wasn't a tree within miles in this area! Here's a picture of the area.....
The course was set up nice with a main aid station in the middle of the course and runners would do all their separate loops from that area. It's nice so you could set up your drop bag their and not have to carry a lot on your run. The longest and hardest loop was the last one (naturally) and went on for 10 miles. After this loop we had a 5 mile slog down a trail, a couple of roads, and a trail called "upper graveyard". Naturally, I did not want my race to end there, so I gust churned through that area with my head down and said a couple of prayers!
I saw Lori with Shady a mile before the last aid station and she cheered me on and took pictures. She told me I was making good time and that it was just about 1pm. It was sure nice to see her for sure! She ran a while with me and Shady by my side. I then saw Lori and Shady about a mile from the finish and it inspired me to pick up the pace and bring this little adventure to an end! I did just that and came through at 7:50:40 and was totally relieved. Very happy to be done! Lori, Shady and I celebrated with some served smoothies and relaxed with runners whom I ran with during the day.
I met one guy who actually fell only about 2 miles into the race. He hit his face directly on a rock and bled the entire run! It also was his first ultra to boot! What a way to get introduced to ultra running! He is bound to be an ultra runner now! Another guy whom I ran with for the first part of the 7.7 mile loop was Tom. Tom also ran the Antelope 55K run two weeks ago as well! Tom ran with a straw hat so I could always see him up the trail. He finished only about 20 seconds ahead of me and I didn't even see him on the run for the last 22 miles! Go figure?
Anyway, I feel so blessed to be able to run these ultras and to keep contributing to the research for a cure for Alzheimer's. I know my Mom is gracing me to keep this tradition up and is granting me all these days of running I do during the year. Thank you Mom and God!
Here are some more pictures! Thanks everyone for your support!
$100.00 donated 3/6/16
