Jemez Mountains 50k (5/25/19)

On memorial day weekend, instead of going to a party I’ve been to for at least 7 years straight, I packed the girls up and we headed to New Mexico for a 50k.  This was a key race for me since it would be my first at altitude.  We overnighted in Amarillo.  At this point, my stress levels were just continuing to increase.  I had very little time to do anything but work (some) and train (a lot).  So much that I got a stress meter from Audrey to “warn” them where I was at.  I got a short 5 mile run in around the neighborhood that we stayed in before we headed out that morning.  At this point, I was trying really hard to be sure I still paid attention while I was out there.  Wherever out there was.  In this case, it turned out, we were in a very rural part of Amarillo.  The llamas and goats made me laugh.

Anytime I could, I tried not to make our trips about my races or my training, but I would always try and sprinkle fun things in.  I stopped at Cadillac Ranch on the way out and made our way to Meow Wolf.  My plan was to get there as early as possible and spend a few hours there.  The camp site was about 30 minutes from Meow Wolf.  We would still have to set up camp, eat dinner, get ready for race, etc. I’d pretty much gotten the camping thing down by now.  I had the tent and the food figured out.

Everything went okay, but man, the mountains are no joke. I had never run in the mountains. Lots of walking later, I finished in 8:42, which was waaaaay longer than I thought it would be.  Having kids with you at a race brings a totally different dynamic.  In getting the ready for the day and waving goodbye, I had forgotten my poles. Really bad idea since we had to walk a mile straight up a ski slope.  A very nice runner from Dallas saw me sitting down.  Yes, sitting down.  He gave me one of his poles and told me to get up.  Trail runners are so nice!  Since it was a holiday weekend, I wrapped it up with the girls first river rafting.  This trip wore me out.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into with the race and then I planned all the extra stuff on top because of the holiday weekend.  Lesson learned.  Again.