Race day. Death Valley is such an interesting place. Words and pictures don’t do it justice. The marathon route is a 13.1 mile out-and-back route run twice. About a mile and a half is on a rocky side road that snakes up through a small canyon. Night and day different than 13 days ago in Houston and it’s flat, paved streets. Out and back twice through the canyon is six miles of picking your feet up more than you’re used to when running on pavement. Lots of people tripping. Those miles were definitely slower.
I didn’t feel too bad through most of the race. Nice and easy and don’t push on the hamstring too much. The last four or so miles were tough. Those last four included one more time through the rocky canyon. I had just enough to finish.
Today’s run was the Death Valley Marathon. A cool race to do. Overall pace was about 11:11. I’ve wondered what the different paces were on the rocky six miles and the paved 20. Total climb was somewhere around 600 feet (just a guess).