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| Pre-Event: Old Pueblo is a popular event, and rightfully so. It has the special mix of beautiful desert scenery in the Santa Rita Mountains ESE of Tucson with about 7500 ft of ascent and 7500 ft of descent, wonderful organization by RDs Julie and Duane Arter, well-stocked aid stations with helpful friendly volunteers, and a beautiful belt buckle for a finisher award. Because of its popularity, and limited entry, the event fills within 7-8weeks or less of the registration being opened in early September for the following March. ( Last September the event filled earlier than the year before despite the increase in the entrant limit). I had entered 2005 Old Pueblo (OP50) to avenge my dissappointing run at the event the year before. In 2004, I entered OP50 with the goal of breaking 11hours. About 18miles into the event, I took a bad fall . My right elbow, hip and knee took the brunt of the impact with a dirt road embedded with small rocks . The adrenaline rush from the fall carried me the remaining mile to the Helvetia aid station. But leaving the aid station, I began to feel the aches and pains from the fall and was reduced to a slow crawl for the next 5-6 miles. My elbow continued to bleed and seep. And each time I stopped at an aid station, my knee would stiffen up and then it would take a while to get everything moving again. Finally around the 33mile mark, I began to feel better. I had exactly 4 hrs to complete the final 17miles, and it seemed I might be able to do that. But I came up a bit short when I reached the finish at Kentucky Camp for a finish time of 11:01:20. The day ended with a trip to a hospital ER in Tucson to have gravel removed from my elbow and some x-rays taken of the elbow and knee. Not to miss sending in my entry for 2005 OP50, I quickly returned the entry form to the Arters shortly after receiving it in the mail last September. Also on my planned agenda for early 2005 was Coyote 4 Play (C4P) in Southern Califonrnia. I had wanted to go to C4P in 2004, but could not due to starting a new job. In 2004, there had been two weeks between C4P (in February) and OP50 (in early March). I assumed such would be the case in 2005. However, in November, when I began looking into travel logisitics for 2005 C4P I was surprised to notice the 2005 calendar only afforded one week between the 2 events. Yikes! Well, I probably would not break 11hrs at 2005 OP50 either. C'est la vie. As it was, I had taken most of November off from running to let a foot injury heal. Thus, I was not certain what I would be able to do or not do in late February and early March. After getting over the intial shock of this realization, I decided to go forward with my plans to do both events. I mailed in my C4P entry just before Christmas. My general rule is not to do more than one ultra per month. Because I was breaking this rule, I decided to compromise and back off on my planned mileage at C4P, and then do the best I could at OP50 knowing that I might end up battling the aid station cutoffs later in the course due to having tired legs. Worst case I would DNF at OP50, but it would still be a good training run in the Santa Ritas even if I did not make the full 50miles. How time flies... Before I knew it the month of February had arrived and then it was time to start packing for C4P. C4P was held Feb 24-28. I decided to shoot for a total of 70-80 miles across those 4 days of fun. (The maximum mileage for the 4 days of C4P is around 130miles). The beautiful trails of the Ojai-area and the Santa Monica Mountains beckoned, and we played, and I ended up with a total of 92miles at C4P (7mi on Thursday, 42mi on Friday, 23mi on Saturday and 20mi on Sunday). The Friday Ojai run up to the snow on top of Topa-Topa was my favorite. I returned to Houston in a "C4P Daze" very tired with much muscle soreness, especially in my calves. A massage helped to reduce the soreness. I consumed plenty protein and fluids. By Thursday all the soreness was gone. However, I had a couple of long days at work that week which prevented me from getting as much catch-up sleep as I had wanted. But not having sore muscles gave me some hope. I read my report from 2004 OP50 to reacquaint myself with the course, and last year's splits into some of the aid staions. My flight to Tucson was on Friday afternoon, and I reached the Sonoita Inn before dark and in time to join Wayne Coates and his friend Patricia for dinner at a restaurant nearby in Sonoita. I am fortunate that Wayne will be my pacer at WS in June and Patricia will help crew for me. |
| Old Pueblo 50Mi Endurance Run Santa Rita Mountains Sonoita, AZ March 5, 2005 by Linda Hurd |
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