Quick update 1 - Bighorn 100

Whoops.  I went a while without updating the blog.  So here goes.

June: Bighorn 100 -
This race is the reason I didn't update my blog.  I was hopeful prior to the race to come in around 26 hours.  The weather gods had other plans.  The race itself felt difficult for me early on and that was not weather related.  Yes, it felt pretty hot as we climbed the thousands of feet to start the race.  My climbing legs seemed to have gone missing though that was expected from Bear Mt. experience and from my lack of hill training.  Still, I was being passed by everyone and don't recall passing anyone on the climbs for these first 10 miles.  I felt better when we got to the descents and though I was feeling pretty foul for the upcoming 18ish mile climb that was coming from mile 30, a runner told me that the climb is nowhere near as bad as the initial 10 miles.  She was right.  However, rain started a little before I got to the climb and continued for I think 12 hours.  The rain turned the course into a mudfest and the mud was shoe sucking and slippery.  Not a good combination when you are climbing forever and even worse when you are descending forever.  It was even snowing at the top of the climb at the turnaround and I was lucky (smart) enough to carry cold weather clothing in my pack to help get me to the turnaround in better shape than most of the people in that tent.  The way back was more treacherous.  There was no moving quickly.  There was lots of flailing and falling.  There was much thanks given for carrying my trekking poles.  I was hopeful once the sun came up and with about 30 miles to go that the mudfest will be gone but things got worse.  The mud became even more inhospitable on the extreme climbs back out and the heat shot up making the work to move up through this mud even harder.  I was going slower than 2 miles per hour for a few miles and was happy to hit 3 mph.  Thankfully, the mudfest ended with about 12 miles to go and at some point (thanks to Jon Brause for catching up to me in his 50K race) was able to run really fast down hill.
The mile or so before the finish we were back on a road but I was so overheated and tired and didn't care about my time that I started walking.  I finished in 30 hours and 2 minutes and was just not happy with the race.  The course was beautiful when it wasn't dark and raining and volunteers were amazing.  It is just a course that I didn't know is usually pretty darn muddy.  I hate mud.