Mesquite Canyon 30K

I "ran" the Mesquite Canyon 30K today. I did more hiking than running though. :(

When I woke up this morning, my right foot was sore. I think I messed it up playing xbox with the kids. The outside edge of the foot is what was hurting. I may or may not have done some awesome jumping karate moves while playing Adventures. No, there are no pictures. Ok, there are but no way am I putting those up here!

So, I was kind of hoping that it would feel okay once I warmed up and decided to go ahead and run. I did my usual pre-race routine and headed over to the race. The plan was that the family would come over around 11 and then we'd have a picnic after and enjoy the day in White Tank. It was going to be clear and 80ish so a good day to be out.

When I got to the race, I saw a Run It Fast shirt and figured it was @Bateluer so I introduced myself. Luckily, it was. Lots of fun to meet another Run It Fast Club Member!

The 30K race went off at 8am. I felt pretty good. The first 5 or so miles was soft dirt/sand trails and I made it to the 1st aid station at 5.5 miles in an hour. I had to decide there if I was going to keep going because the next aid station wasn't for another 9 miles and it wasn't near a road. My foot wasn't happy but I thought it probably wouldn't get worse so I decided to keep going.

After the aid station, we really started heading up and the next 3 miles were uphill and really rocky. I didn't mind the uphill but the climbing over the rocks did a number on my foot. When I could run again, it wasn't pretty, more of a shuffle.

I was trying to not make my foot worse because the Old Goats 50 Miler in 2 weeks was hanging over my head. I wanted to finish this but I didn't want to mess up my chances for running that. I decided it would be okay if I hiked and I resigned myself to hiking a lot of it and it being a long, long day. The rest of the 30K was spent hiking the rocky parts and running/shuffling thru the dirt/sand sections. The views were pretty, the weather was warm, and there was a cool breeze so it wasn't a bad day to be on the trail.

I was really happy to get to the 2nd aid station because I ran out of water. They filled my water bottle for me and I was on my way. They had great support and food at the aid stations. All my faves were there but I didn't eat much, just grabbed a couple of cookies each time and made sure my bottle was full.

There was 1 more aid station before the end and it was near a road. I could have dropped then but I was just a couple miles from the finish so I kept going.

Finally, I could see the finish and my sister and my niece were waiting for me and then I saw Robert at the finish taking pics of me. Then I was done.

Gotta say, it was a weird feeling. Not tired, not satisfied, a little disappointed, but happy that I finished it. After I got my glass, I introduced my family to Robert, we talked for a little bit then left to meet the others at the picnic area.

So once again, not the day I wanted but not a bad day. Any race that lets me spend some time on the trails for experience and lets me see my family is a win. For sure.

I've been icing my foot since and using BioFreeze on it and my ankle which I whacked on a rock. I'm going to take a couple of days off from running and let it get better. I'm a little worried about it. Hopefully a couple of days will fix it. Cross your fingers.

I'm most sad that I have to drive home tomorrow. I don't get to see the kids nearly enough and they are growing sooo fast! Maddie is almost as tall as I am and Max is hilarious! I didn't get to see my oldest niece because she's spending spring break with her best friends family in Florida. I'm going to have to come back soon!