Moab's Red Hot 50K+

I'm back!!!
It was a very awesome vacation. As Paul G. puts it: It exceeded expectations.

We were gone eight days, drove 2573 miles, and spent less than $500 total (both of us combined for all expenses, personal, race registrations, gas, food, etc.).
The weather was a mixed-bag, but considering everything, we lucked-out very much with that too.
I'll work my way through the week one post at a time.

First was the Moab Red Hot 50K+ (33.5 miles)...











The Twilight Zone above the startline

Paul G and I left Friday afternoon and slept on the slickrock near the starting line.
Two days before, I gave blood, so I was lacking oxygen-carrying red blood cells. I performed as expected - I gasped for breath on the uphills (walking!) as if born, lived, and trained at sea-level - but on the downhills, where technique counts for everything, I was full-speed.
Still, I'd hoped to prove I was Superman and do the impossible. I wanted to finish in the top 20%. That was SILLY! I even barely missed the top 50%!
80th place out of 155 finishers and a half-dozen DNFs.
Still, comparing myself to otheres my age, and comparing my pace to other similar races, and considering the lack of red blood cells, I'm quite satisfied how I did.
I had a total blast! There were a few sections where the scenery was absolutely breath-taking. Dark blue skies, red buttes, white snow, green trees, tan sand, tan, brown, gray, red, black rocks,... The cliffs, the gorges, the arroyos, the mountains,... I love this area - and I still haven't set foot into Arches National Park!
I highly recommend this race! A couple of the aid stations were extremely difficult to get to. They had highly-modified Jeeps - stock bodies were gone and replaced by cages. These were some radical machines. All aid stations were well stocked with goodies, but mostly I was moving too fast, even at my slower speed, to take advantage of most of the loot. The sport-drink was mixed fairly consistently at full strength, so I didn't need any gels or anything else but a couple of pieces of banana.
Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the post-race party, which I'm certain was probably the best. Paul and I had to get to Death Valley as soon as possible.

We hit the road and drove through the night, arriving at Death Valley Junction at 2am. Just beyond that, we stopped for two hours of sleep - which should have been three but we both forgot we gained an hour by passing to a new time-zone.