Race Report: Vertigo 10K

Stock photo - we're not in there.

Last Saturday, Chris and I ran the Vertigo 10K trail run, located on the Competitive Loop at the White Tank Mountains Regional Park (on the west side of town).  The run was hosted by the fine folks at Aravaipa Running; I’ve run with them several times, notably my first 50K (Elephant Mountain in February 2013) and ignobly, my aborted attempt at my first 50 miler, earlier this year.  This was actually Chris’ first run with Aravaipa, and the event didn’t disappoint. 

Cool dudes, these.

This run was the third in their series of “Insomniac Night Runs” and had the added benefit of being held the Saturday night after record-breaking high temps were recorded in the city (116 on Wednesday.  ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN DEGREES.  Why do we live here, again?).  The longer distances (6 and 3 laps of the 10K course, respectively) started at 7pm and 7:30pm, and we took off at 8pm.  As you can imagine, it was bloody hot, probably around 105-107 at our start.

Here’s a blurry picture of the thermostat in my car

on the way HOME from the race - 

thus, this is about 9:45 at night.

Yes, that does read 100.

Chris and his buddies Matt and Jake (along with Matt’s daughter Kaitlyn and Jake’s wife Keeli) attended a run clinic earlier in the day at Tortoise and Hare, and Chris came home with these stunners, ready to try them out on the trails:

Who wears short shorts?

He and Matt both ran the 10K in their new shorts; sadly, pictures do not exist of the two of them together, as Matt didn’t start modeling his until right before the race began, at which point my phone was safely stashed back in the car.  He may have planned this…hmmmm…

Here's Matt bringing it home.

Chris and I are on the right of the finish, cheering him on.

In addition to Matt, we were able to see some other buddies at the race; Luis and Emily ran the 31K, as well as some of our friends from the Florida Keys Ragnar’s Van 1 (“the fast van”) including Courtney, Josh, and Sarah.  Since we live across town from almost everyone, it was good to catch up with them again.  Matt’s friend Dave also joined us for the 10K, and tore up the track, despite twisting his ankle within the first 10 yards for the second year in a row.

There goes Coach, with his fancy Buff!
Courtney is also in the right of the shot, wearing the orange tank top.

As for the race itself, I was nervous about running the trails at night, but I figured this would be good practice for Ragnar Trail McDowell Mountain, coming up on the schedule in November.  While checking the weather forecast and complaining about the heat, I also noticed that the New Moon fell on race evening, which meant 0% illumination would be coming from the sky.  Okay, then.  Time to change the batteries in the head lamp.

Stay strong, little buddy!

As it turned out, I didn’t really need to worry.  Although parts of the trail were technical, my head lamp provided plenty of light to see about 2 feet in front of me at all times and give me enough space to negotiate my way through the various and sundry dry stream beds and small rises on the course.  Additionally, since the longer racers were looping us, every few minutes, another runner would pass on my left, momentarily lending me extra light.  The course was well marked, and I never felt as if I was wandering off into the darkness on my own, surely to be abducted by coyotes or javelina.

OMG, we’ll raise her as one of our own!

Per the usual for Aravaipa, the aid station volunteers were delightful, and the race itself was well organized.  We planned on staying a bit later after we finished to cheer on the longer racers (and enjoy the beer Matt brought), but both Matt and I were feeling the effects of heat sickness, and we all decided to pack it in and head home.  Overall, it was a good thing we did, as the Director ended up having to cancel the race about an hour later due to extreme storm conditions that blew into the area.  We’re a bit further north of the race course, but both on the west side of town, and here’s what the storm did to the canopy in our backyard that evening:

Yikes!

Dammit, Kaylee, get out of there!

We were sad to hear of the race being cancelled before the completion of the longer distances, but it was absolutely the right call to make.  The storm ended up being really nasty, and had folks still been out on the race course, they would have been around 3 miles away from home at the farthest point on the course; that’s a bit too much on a hot day when flash floods could be a significant problem.

Me, right after crossing the finish line.

Do I look like I smell awesome?

Because I totally do.

Chris, finishing strong!

Overall, everyone did well; due to the heat sickness and neck issues, I had an uncomfortable night, but all was better by the next day.  Chris found out the hard way that he needs to buy new trail shoes, but this also faded pretty rapidly:

The blood blister, not the foot.

Thankfully, he still has both the feet.

We’ll next race with Aravaipa at the Jangover 7K in McDowell (potentially on the Ragnar course) in September, and we’re looking forward to it!

Later!

Amy*

* What?  No footnotes this time?  Well, that can’t happen.  Here’s one.  You’re welcome!