Death Valley Trail Marathon

The alarm went off at 5:30AM at the Furnace Creek Ranch "Resort" in Death Valley, Francisco, Andy and I rolled out of the rack and began getting dressed for the 26.2 mile trail run through canyons of Death Valley. Francisco, checked his email and an hour earlier a message had been sent out by Environ Sports the event organizer canceling the race......not cool. This event is open to the 1st 300 racers that enter. The average trail runner doesn't usually run this race, but instead it is made up of some pretty hard core dudes. So canceling this event due to the "weather" was going to make for an interesting conversation at race command at the 6:15AM meeting. The weather on this Saturday December 3, 2011 was about 48F, sunny with a good breeze. Earlier in the week California and parts of Nevada had experienced the Santa Ana winds that got up to over 120MPH. On this morning we were told that the wind gusts were up to at least 70MPH at the summit of the climb on the run and throughout the canyons were going to be challenging, with sand and dust blowing...neither of which are good for the lungs or eyes. It was official the race was canceled, there were a lot of very unhappy people that had traveled from all around the world to race. We collected our race tee's and gear and grabbed some breakfast, at which point in time Team Honey Badger began to organize the 2011 Death Valley Bandit Run. After all, Honey Badger don't give a shit he just does what he wants and today the Team HB was going to race DV dammit! Approximately 50 racers gathered at the entrance of Titus Canyon. Nancy and Ken, previous finishers of the DVTRM knew the course and had mapped a 13.1 mile out and back, which took us to the summit of just past Titus canyon at about 5,500 feet of elevation. We were warned about the high winds so we bundled up. We also all grabbed water bottles to drop along the course. So with warm gear, plenty of water and nutrition we began the 12 mile hike to the summit.

The weather was actually looking like to be a picture perfect day as we began our hike up through the canyon. It was sunny and about 50F, however, very windy. As we made our way up through the canyon the wind began to pick up and at about mile 5 it began to howl. With our heads down we pushed forward till the wind chill factor got the better of me and I decided to break from the group and run up the mountain. My strategy was to run the shady parts and walk fast in the sunny parts. This walk run strategy worked actually quite well. At about mile 9 I was hit by a gust of wind that ripped off my underarmor stocking hat, my visor and sun glasses off of my face. The wind gust hit with such force as I was running that it stood me up straight and pushed me back 4 or 5 steps from a RUN! It was at this point I thought, uh oh...this is why the race was canceled and we haven't even made it to the summit and the more wind exposed areas of the course. Fortunately, this was the only time that the wind gusts were that strong. Average wind speeds for the day I'm guessing were 35-40MPH. It was a punishing run, but thank God for the sun, otherwise the day could've ended short for us. I made it to the summit before the rest of the group and ran down the back side of the mountain to get in a full 13.1 miles on the out so that I could log exactly 26.2 miles. Met up with the rest of the group at the summit and snapped a few pics before the 12 mile descent back to the finish.

It took us about 5.5 hours to complete the run, however, there was a lot of stopping and it was a run that was "enjoyable" as opposed to a "race" per se. We were able to get our finishers medals at race HQ earlier that and today we earned it. We made it back to our vehicles and then sped off back to Vegas to get registered for the Vegas Rock n Roll Marathon tonight....the last race of the year. Brian and Timmy made it into Vegas and were awaiting our arrival so that we could go out and grab some dinner, which we did at Red Square at Mandalay Bay. Going to chill out today, watch some football at the sports book and bet a few bucks to keep the day interesting. Cheers!