First Race Report of 2011

I finished my first race of the year and it went...well, not so much fun. It was my first full trail running race. I've done some trail triathlons, but not a full running race. It GPS'd at 12.6 miles and took me longer than it takes me to run 16.6. It was 6 miles of climbing up a trail over rocks and boulders. I couldn't even run a good portion of it. Plus, not many aid stations existed because it was out in the middle of nowhere Arizona. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive to the start line, literally out into the mountains of nowhere. If you looked for this place on a map, I don't think it would be there.

Well, not only was it hard, but I fell. I fell and sprained my wrist, twisted my ankle, bruised my hand until it turned blue, skinned my knee and elbow to the point it burned, and ended up with about two pounds of cactus needles in me, which I spent the race of the race pulling out as I plugged along. It can only go uphill from here right? I managed to finish covered in blood and cried my way to the aid station. I was crying like a baby to the man trying to clean up my dirt and blood-soaked body. Poor man.