Today was the day of the 11 mile Forest Challenge race. I got up at 5am, left the house at 6am, and got to Mount Charleston a little after 7am. The race started at 8am. It was freezing before the race ! It was around 38 degrees ! I knew it was going to be cooler, but no idea it was gonna be that cold. My fellow marathoners in training James & Chad and I all did this race today. The race started on a gravel uphill trail. That continued uphill until the 3 mile mark. With the elevation changes and hills I was dying. Everyone was having to walk in parts, it was just too much. Chad took off and had a good pace going. We didnt see him much during the race. James was ahead of me also. He was doing good. I just felt like crap. Once we hit 3 miles it changed to a single trail that was kind of dangerous. A lot of tree roots and rocks, and a few spots you could've fallen down the mountain. But that was the best part of the race. It felt like Cross country in high school. I was by myself, and I just kept a nice pace, and it was going downhill. Some parts were too dangerous to run so I had to walk those spots. hit the 4 mile water station, and knew I was almost to the turnaround. Was still feeling better than going uphill at the beginning, and then it hit me. I'm going to have to go all the way up that I've just come down. I made my way towards the turnaround and I saw Chad on his way back, and then a little while later saw James. James told me I was almost to the turnaround, and sure enough a little bit further and I was.
I didnt realize until they told me after the race, but the turnaround was actually right near where we started ! We had gone up the mountain, then down, and then back up and down. The trail part going up was bad. I had to walk different sections, almost tripped a lot, but never fell. Once I finally made my way up to the next water station it was 4 miles to go. Another mile and it would be all downhill to the finish. Got to the last water station, and was happy it was only 2 more miles. During the race my hands were starting to go numb. i looked at my hands and they were so swollen. I had to loosen up my watch and my rings were making my fingers hurt. I kept going and actually saw 2 people ahead of me. By this time my legs were almost in shut down mode, and my objective was to just finish. I could see those 2 guys the whole rest of the way down the gravel trail. I kept waiting to see the gate we started at, but it seemed like it was never going to appear. Finally I saw it, and just kept at my same pace. Could not go any faster. As I was heading down the last hill I saw James & Chad waiting at the finish yelling "Good job Nancy ! ", and a few of the other people there started calling my name too. That was pretty cool. I made it to the finish line and was so relieved. I think my time was 2 and a half hours. Not too concerned with the time, considering it was an insane course.lol. Overall it was a neat experience, but not something I would ever want to do again. I will stick with the flat roads thank you very much. : )
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