Back-to-back races

Race report 50k - Saturday morning I woke up at 2am with the feeling of not being able to complete the 50k. As much as I tried I never fell back asleep. Before the race started I was having a tough time deciding if I wanted to drop from the 50k to the 31k or the 19k. I chose to stick with the 50k and did an early start time of 7am. When the race started the sun was just starting to light up the sky enough not to need a headlamp. I was left behind shortly after starting giving me about 45 minutes on the trail alone to enjoy the beauty before others started to pass me. It was pretty watching the sun rise and the hills start to show. It was cool enough at the start I was wishing I had my gloves. The trail took you through some washes which had their own unique beauty. Most of the people running the 50k had passed me by the time I made it to the 5 mile aid station and the 31k people were starting to pass. This part of the trail took you across some more washes but it was mainly trekking across the desert. In this section I talked to a guy that was doing the 50k and the full marathon. He's ran many races in about every state and he is going to be running the Chicago marathon for the 25th time this year. After he passed me I was alone again on the trail. The trail had started to follow an atv wide road that was at times extremely sandy. Between mile 9 and 10 the first 50 miler passed by me again. I had been watching my Garmin waiting for the 10.7 aid station and found it around mile 11 something. When I got there one of the 50 milers was in bad shape. He was an 18 year old kid that didn't eat prior and had not trained. He was in the top two spots when he dropped. The next section of trail was listed as 8.8 miles to the start/finish. There was a lot of climbing in this section of trail. The runners of both the 50 mile and 50k were passing me at this point. They were on their second loop and I was still on my first. There were other people out on the trail at this point as well. I loved seeing the dogs and horses and was able to pet a few of the animals as well. Petting the animals helped me get through the last part. My Garman died 16 something miles into the race. About a mile and a half left I ran into the guy pulling the flags. He showed me the map and told me the turns I need to take to make it back to finish line. Almost ten hours after I started I finished the 19.6 miles. I wanted to finish the 50k but I knew there is no way time wise that I could. I'm happy with the 20 miles I did get done.

Race report 13.1 miles - Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty good after 20 miles the day before. I got ready went out to the lobby of the hotel and have breakfast while waiting for Mike to pick me up to head down for the race. The race started and finished at Arizona State University in Tempe. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the start line from corral 18. The first mile was tough on my legs they were working out the soreness. In the second mile I had to stop for a restroom break and there long lines for the porta potties. Mike wanted to beat our time from the Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll half marathon. As the miles ticked by I was enjoying the bands that were along the course and the cheerleaders. Out of the three rock 'n roll series I have done Arizona is my favorite. At the halfway point I was not sure that we were going to make it faster then the time that we did in Vegas. About mile nine and half PF Chang's started having motivational signs along the road. The signs were great to read and helped me keep going. When we had the 5K distance left I realized that we were on track to at least cross the finish line at the same time we did in Vegas. When we had about mile and a half left I told Mike if he wanted to finish before our Vegas time he would have to take off on his own because my feet were hurting. When I saw the 13 mile sign I took off running as fast as I could to cross the finish line. I made it in exactly 4 hours. It was two minutes faster than Vegas! Mike finished two minutes faster than me. I am proud of both of us for finishing the race in the time we did.