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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