Valley of Fire 100 Miler Recap

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

“I really don’t like this,” I said out loud, to myself, around mile 47. The Nevada heat was getting to me, my skin was turning a deep shade of red, and I was s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g. I was in the pain cave, but I’d been here before, so I knew that the best thing to do was to keep going. Bad things (and good ones) don’t last forever and I knew I’d turn a corner eventually.

“You are strong,” I told myself. “You are capable. Nothing can bring you down.”

“You’re awfully red,” a woman at the aid station told me. “Hold still while I spray you down.” She grabbed a tube of sunscreen and applied it generously to my shoulders and neck. Luckily, the day was short and the heat wouldn’t last long.

The race started at 4 a.m. and almost immediately, many of us were lost. The course markings weren’t reflective and myself and three men ran the wrong way less than two miles after the gun went off. When we caught up with another group of runners, they looked at us and said, “Where do we go??” a question none of us could answer. We eventually found our way, shining our headlights around the dark desert looking for the next marker, and the next.

The course was comprised of 6 ~16 mile loops and then a weird out and back to finish. I liked the loop because my…