Trail Trashed Marathon, Henderson NV

Published March 12, 2016

Come TRASH those trail legs at this exciting and challenging race series! The race starts at the beautiful Hidden Falls Park and continues onto the Amargosa and Sloan Canyon trail systems.

Many of the trails in this race will be raced on for the first time!

2^nd flight to Vegas in 3 weeks, 5^th consecutive weekend marathoning – all but one on trail. Scenically MUCH more interesting than road. Gonna get STRONG…trail running won’t break me. Hydration & nutrition – KEY to success [it’s a journey, change is hard].

Randy, a marathoner I met last May in Fargo, reached out & offered a place to stay – his daughter’s home, 5 miles from McCarran International. FAAANNNTASTIC – super appreciative! Only the Half for Randy tomorrow, already registered for a 100 MILE race next week. Seriously hard core – a TRUE ultra runner. (again many thanks, man)

#dirtyflyer

Up early, easy 20 minute drive to Sloan Canyon in Henderson. Thus far, everything trail has taken 8 hours+ to finish. Today’s goal: 6 Not because I was feeling super competitive – had already bought a 3pm return ticket, months before I discovered trail racing would be so humbling. Yikes!

Pop-up tent by a trailhead, another small grassroots event. Super low key, LOVE LOVED it! Most of today’s elevation climb happened early, first 4.4 miles. Stayed hyper alert. Switchbacks & steep hill grades followed by quarter-mile speed descents over rock & trail sand.

Entered Sloan Canyon couple miles further. Rolling high desert – similar to last Saturday’s Las Cruces trek. Split from Halfers at the third Aid Station (mile 12). Not another human for an hour twenty. Lost trail, climbed a canyon wall, wandered thru the desert – then in the distance, a dog. Half mile later, BRIGHT PINK: Kim from Kentucky. Back on track 🙂

Training lesson learned – eat & eat often. *FRITOS* (don’t be a hater — the salt tastes great)

Again, no humans for 45 minutes. Rebecca, a Kiwi attempting her first 50 miler, came up from behind. We chatted, ran together thru the next Aid stop, Mile 24. She looped back into the desert; I exited Sloan Canyon, escaping the shin-deep shifting sand (past 4 miles, big trail negative).

Hot, caked in salt & sand – FINISH LINE SUCCESS, marathon/ultra #56 – just over 30 miles, just under 6 ½ hours. Best trail finish yet. Maybe I should schedule afternoon flights more often? LOL> Slice of post-race pizza, located my car, autobahn’d to rental return.

1:20 finish, 3pm flight. Cut this one close…but the gods were a smilin’. Sailed thru security, gate-arrived just as my plane was boarding. Shower’s gonna feel mighty nice when I get home 🙂