Race Recaps

Race date: July 22, 2023  At the pre-race meeting, the evening before, we're instructed on how to navigate the course successfully. "Try not to throw up," the medical director mentions, since it can deplete your body of valuable liquids and electrolytes. I mentally add that to my list of tries for tomorrow. Someone else on the race staff steps forward and says that on the section of trail he marked a week earlier, mountain critters of some type have been eating the colored sprinkler flags he put in the ground. So we're told we may need to keep an eye out for bare metal wire sticking up from the ground. At least that portion of the race will be in daylight. Race start time is 2:00 AM. Check in at 1:30. We'll be working a graveyard shift in the mountains. I have the seats folded down in the back of my SUV and make myself a little bed. The guy next to me gets into the passenger seat of his car and leans it all the way back. We both nod to each other, acknowledging th

Race date: May 6, 2023 The night before the Salt Lake Foothills race is the usual tossing and turning garbage. I manage a few "naps" over the span of midnight to 5 am. I don't know why I become so nocturnal before a race. I say to my brain, "Look you idiot, you're going to be running for half the day tomorrow - let's go to sleep!" And it says, "No, you'll be carrying me with you while you run, you donkey!" (Except it uses the Biblical version of donkey.) I wake up in a daze, eyes puffy, and make the drive to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. It's cold this time of the morning. 40 F and windy. I hem and haw over how to dress for the weather. I settle for a t-shirt and Allen Iverson arm sleeves I got from a golfing event at work, small knit gloves, and an ear band over my cap. Like livestock we're corralled to the starting line. At this point whatever I'm carrying is what will sustain and protect me over the next 31 miles. I'd l