On Saturday, I ran the Jemez 50 again.  The course had changed this year to be closer to town since Los Alamos is so dry that it’s already been put into stage 2 fire restrictions.  The weather was warm in the morning and I started in a T-shirt.

Joe P was there along with my friend Mike and his friend Grace.

You can see all the dust in the air and this is a paved road; it was ten times worse once we got on the trail.

The first 15 miles are climbs to the ski resort.  It was getting warm, but we made it in 3 hours and 25 minutes, only 5 minutes slower than my goal.

A fresh shirt felt great.

Over the next mile, the course goes up over the double black diamond ski run.  I started to bonk with the sun beating down on me.

I should have been bombing down the big hill on the other side, but I was really slow.  Mike made it in 15 minutes before me to the aid station.

I may look OK, but I wasn’t feeling good – my feet hurt to run and I was cooking in the sun.

Mike was way ahead of me by now and had time to pose for pictures.

By the time I saw Tracy again at mile 30, I was at a crawling pace.  The race always has a choice to switch to the 50k, but normally the choice is made at mile 20 – this year, the choice was here and it was an obvious one since the 50k finish was only 2 miles away.

I’m all smiles as I crossed the finish line.

Everyone seemed happy to see me and I was happier to see them.