Race Report: Javelina Jangover

The first Saturday evening in September saw us heading to McDowell Mountain Regional Park with our friends Jake and Keeli to race in Aravaipa Running’s Javelina Jangover* night trail run. 


“Shut your face!  This race is named after me!”

This was the fifth and final race in the Insomniac Trail Run series for Aravaipa, the same series in which we ran the Vertigo 10K (blogged about here), the run now known as the one cancelled due to crazy extreme weather that occurred on the night the canopy in our backyard collapsed.**  If you’ll allow me to indulge in a bit of foreshadowing, it seems like Aravaipa might need to burn some sage or something, as their recent night races seem to keep offending the weather gods…but more on that later.

We drove up to meet Jake and Keeli at their house, just off the I-17 near Carefree Highway.  They knew of a super-secret back way to drive to McDowell, so we hopped into their XTerra and headed out.  For the few days before the race, we’d been keeping an eye on the increasingly worrying weather reports, and as we drove to the Park (40 minutes or so), we encountered lightning, rains of varying strength, and smaller wind gusts; suffice it to say we were pleased to be in the vehicle with the highest ground clearance owned by any of us.

When we arrived at the start of the race, the weather had calmed somewhat and although it was still drizzling a small amount, the temperature dipped down quite nicely into the lower 80’s.  Although it was humid due to the moisture, the cooler temps made up for it, and I ended up ditching my Fuel Belt in the car, as I would no longer need it for the run (Jake, Chris, and I ran the 7K distance, just over 4.5 miles).  After picking up packets and a short warm-up jog, the race began and we were off!

The course itself was fun to run; the first mile was mostly flat with a few rolling hills, but when we hit Mile 1, we started climbing up a decently steep ridge that allowed us to look out over the rest of the Park, including the loops being run by the longer distances.  It was pretty cool to look out and see a line of headlamps bobbing along in the darkness around the Park.  After we made it onto the ridge, we started back downhill for another mile or so, then we finished out heading back to the start/finish line through some sand and flatter sections. 

All of us had great runs overall; although many of the expected runners probably bailed due to the poor weather***, Chris ended up 7th overall (and 7th male), Jake was 12th (11th male), and I was 20th (the 5th female)!****

Finishing pictures!  In order of arrival!



From the top, Chris, Jake, and I


We are the sweatiest people in the world right now.

After the race, we cleaned up a bit, changed into drier/hopefully less smelly clothes, then hopped back in the XTerra to head back to Jake and Keeli’s, then home.  To come back full circle to my remarks about Aravaipa and sage from earlier, we had to ford a few decent size puddles and streams of flowing water on the way home from the race, but the real whopper hit Sunday night/early Monday morning:


That was a lot of rain

Thankfully, we fared well despite the storms; since our house is on the northern reaches of Phoenix proper, we’re a bit higher in elevation than the rest of the city, so the heavy rain flowed past us.  Still, about half of the folks on my team at work couldn’t make it in to work on Monday due to road closures and flooding.  Although we enjoyed the Insomniac series, I think the residents of our desert might be glad they’re over for this year.

Later!

Amy

* Javelina is pronounced with the Spanish “h” sound, so it’s phonetically the “Havelina Hangover.”  Clever, no?

** The same night a microburst was spotted about 10 miles away from our house.

*** Or were signed up for the longer distances, potentially.

**** Out of a total field of 92 people.  Not too shabby!

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