Here's the rundown.
Very cool marathon. Well organized, beautiful but rugged countryside, tough race, inspiring. Had to get to the White Sands Missile Range at about 5am this morning. At 6am, there was an opening ceremony featuring color guards, reading of names of attending survivors of the WWII BDM (not many left at this point - it was 69 years ago), tribute to Wounded Warriors running the race, and jet flyover, all as the sun rose over the New Mexico desert. Race started at 7am.
The race was tough - not one to shoot for a PR (last year, the fastest time was about 3:30 or 3:40 by a couple of active duty Special Forces guys). About a third of the race is on paved road, but most of that is uphill (there is a long, 6-7 mile hill that rises ~1,000 feet in elevation, between mile 7 and mile 13-14). The rest is dirt road / trail through the backcountry of the Missile Range - some hard pack, some rocky/sandy, including a mile of "deep sand" at mile 20 or 21 (actually not as bad as I feared it would be). The biggest factor that I wasn't expecting was the wind - averaged about 15 MPH with some gusts much higher than that. Wind was in your face the entire time on the long hill.
I finished in just under 4:15 (est. chip-time; took me 15 mins to get to the start line), which I was really happy about given the terrain/conditions (my goal was 4:30 for this one, which would have put me in the top 10-15% last year).
Only casualty was my two big toe nails - both were purple at the end of the race and are sure goners. Could have been a lot worse - there were a lot of folks packed into the medic tents along the race route.
Highly recommend the race if you can get here - definitely should be on OBT's list if he is looking for a New Mexico race to complete his 50 state goal.
I'll be back in the QAG fold next weekend (driving the rest of the way across the country this week, back in CLT on Thursday night).
Thanks again to those of you who contributed to the fundraising. I think my total will hit about $10,000. Still taking donations if you haven't given yet!
Best,
The Colonel
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