Hella

Well it had to happen sooner or later and today was nasty enough for me to decide I just wasn’t having fun on the course. I picked up my first DNF (did not finish) at the Prickly Pear 50K after having run a little over half the distance.

The course was setup to be a small out-and-back followed by three 9.9 mile loops. The markings consisted of yellow plastic plates with “PP” written on them and were stapeld to ground stakes. When paths crossed, white chalk normally marked the wrong way. There were also orange ribbons in the trees. Well somewhere around the 9.5 mile mark of my first loop, I got off course and never went past the start/finish area. This was a big mental setback for me as I didn’t feel like my race was official at that point. No one probably would have cared since it was such a small distance, but it still ate away at me. Several others were having trouble finding the correct route in this area so at least I wasn’t alone.

The weather was really bad. It was quite chilly (low 50s) at the start and it started sprinkling about 15 minutes into the run. Sprinkles soon turned to downpour and the course turned into an all out mudpit. Rocky Hill was bad; this was worse … much worse. The course had some drainage issues, too, because some of the areas were almost knee deep in water. I could have gone swimming along parts of the trails. At one point the wind really picked up and I thought that a tornado might be on the way.

All in all, I actually enjoyed the downpour but I didn’t care much for the mud. It took a lot of energy out of me. Combined with the thought that I’d repeat this same stuff two more times, I didn’t feel like it was worth it.

There was one really good part about the race. At the first aid stop on the loop, I ate the most delicious caramel brownie. Leadfoot was there and she said she was trying not to eat them all. Dang, they were just perfect! This gets my vote for all-time best aid station snack.

Filed under: Running