Death Valley Trail run

This past weekend two of our Average Jo members, Curtis and myself, along with Barb and Paul Sweeney, went to the Death Valley marathon for a 30km trail race. Barb looked it up and when she mentioned Death Valley, it sounded crazy enough so we were happy to sign up. The plan was to leave Friday for Vegas, drive 2 ½ hours to Death Valley and come back for a little fun in Vegas the Saturday to fly home on Sunday.

Let the Trip begin.

We flew into Vegas Friday afternoon, where we would keep driving to our hotel which took about 2 ½  hours. It’s a beautiful place called the Furnace Creek inn in the middle of nowhere; definitely a place that I would stay there again and take the time to enjoy the pool after the race.

Race day: We woke up at 5:45 for a peanut butter and banana bagel, made our way to the starting line and listened to the race director who calls himself Chip (because he’s the timing system as no chips are given). After explaining the rules, they started singing America the beautiful; which in itself was pretty cool being around 300 singing racers.

We made our way to the bus for about a 30minute ride. During the ride we met great people from Calgary and Vancouver. Talk about a small world. At the starting line Chip came up for some more direction, last minute advice and explain how the race was going to start:” Listen up guys, I’m gonna drive ahead and when you see my brake lights going off and my hand drop you can start!”.  So it began.

Curtis and I took off at a good speed and started talking to the first place women from last year for a while but she took off pretty soon. We would find out later she is the race organizer for the Del Sahara race that we will do in March this year! The first 5 miles were a little bit of a downhill and a steep long climb. The climb was very hard but there were a lotr of people that chose to walk it…Curtis and Barb kept running up. The people from the previous years told us it was all down hill after this but I didn’t really believe them. Well they were right!!  A 23km quad and calf burning festival! After ½ hour to the top, an amazing view was waiting for us. You’re on a small gravel road for the entire race. No single track and oh yeah no Ipod. It was a new rule they decided to apply this year. I thought it would be hard but it was very nice to talk with Curtis and Barb during the race. It’s great because you’re going down this hill at a crazy fast past but since you’re going down your HR is low enough to have a conversation. 10km to the finish line Curtis turned it on and took off. Barb was feeling great as well and kept a good pace ahead of me. I had no other speed than the one I was doing.

With only 5 km to go you could see the finish line with the buses waiting for us. Chip told us when you see those buses you’re going to think were playing a bad joke on you and we keep moving them further and further - he was right! The buses didn’t seem to get any closer but I was really happy to be close so I didn’t mind too much. By this time you’re a little scared that with every stride your calves of going to explode!   

Finish line was awesome, Curtis 2:16 2nd in his category - Barb 2:18 3rd in her category – myself 2:25 1st in my category and to watch Paul cross the finish line was amazing. Someone that never ran over 10km said 2 months ago let’s go for it and finished it with a smile on his face. It was so nice to see everyone succeed this weekend.

If you are racing for money, this is not the race for you. If you’re racing to have a great time, meet great people and love downhill running, come do it with us next year! The winner of this race got a rubber chicken! This weekend wasn’t necessarily about the podium finishes but the personal victories filled with good times. To some it up – a great poem from Maya Angelou:

People may forget what you said,
people may forget what you did,
but people will never forget
how you made them feel!

Thanks Barb and Paul, we will cherish this trip forever.

TAJ Member - Isabelle Thielen