Out of the cold and into the desert. Our months of preparation, thawing each other's eyes out, and gnawing on frozen energy gels was over!!
So off to Death Valley, an amazing place that like Vegas is hard to encapsulate in any one image. Here, I've borrowed photos liberally from the web to try and give some sense of the place; I apologize for any transgressions on copyrights!
The highest peaks were dusted with snow but the temperatures were in the 50s when we pulled into camp in the early evening - the only green in a valley of salt flats and multi-hued sands.
It was up before 6a.m to get our numbers and instructions from a very charismatic race director who fired us all up with news that the race would indeed be in Titus Canyon (the last 3 years had been cancelled as a result of floods, snow, and rock fall!). We even got to sing America the Beautiful...I think it was that particular song, but will remember to learn the words before next year. We were then driven up to the start, about 45 minutes drive away, out of Death Valley and into Nevada.
The start is at the edge of pavement where a gravel road leads gradually uphill through the desert toward the ridge in the background which we'll cross into Death Valley. It was a pleasant 68 degrees to get the race going - definitely warm for us Alaska types but nothing to complain about. You can see the road (if you click on the image to enlarge it) running out over the low point in the ridge on the left of the photo - still 2400 feet (that's 800 m for you metric-types) of elevation gain from the start. The start was signaled by a flash of break lights from the race director's Jeep speeding away down the course - and we were off.
Here's a picture from the race's high point, Red Pass (mile 12) looking into Death Valley with our route winding down below (click the photo again for a better image). It was a brutal 500 feet of switchbacks immediately before the pass but well worth it when we saw this view. The other reward...from here, it was downhill for every bit of the last 14 miles.
This is an aerial view of the canyon which we navigated on our descent into Death Valley. You can see the ridge we crossed in the background.
Much of the lower part of the course was meandering along the one-lane Jeep trail that runs through the canyon. The rock walls were impressive to view but there was always a need to be mindful of your feet as rocks were always there to trip you.
Finally we emerged from the canyon together with the finish only a mile away, the windows of the waiting buses glinting in the sun...it was a welcome site! We cruised down the last piece of road and were re-energized with the site of Captain and Jonny (Tawna's brothers) cheering just up from the finish. It was a real treat to have our own cheering squad in the middle of the wilderness! A scratch in the sand marked the transition between running and no more running. We bent over to remove our timing chips, but were quickly scolded by the coarse volunteers who said they had had too many people bend down and keep going! They removed them for us.
We recovered with some casual bouldering in a nearby canyon - several new ascents here!
And the evening was spent with our very own "Little Miss Sunshine" on an original Taylor Baby Guitar, making full use of her 3 and a half chords!
