What a terrific day! The Prickly Pear 50K was even better than I had expected – and harder than I expected. Each race has a personality of its own, and the Prickly Pear 50K was no exception.

I left Boise Friday morning with snow on the ground – I arrived in San Antonio to 80+ degree temperature and lots of humidity. What a shock to the system! But I wasn’t complaining – I was so happy to be able to run without 3 layers of clothes. I met up with my friend Isabelle (from Ithaca, NY) who was also running the 50K, and we went to check out the course. Even walking the first 3/4 mile of the course, we figured it could be tricky in some spots given the rocks and roots we saw. But the first section was just a tiny snapshot of what was to come.

Ten minutes before the start, the race director gathered the troops for a pre-race briefing. The highlight of his talk for me was his advice: “The rattlesnakes are waking up after winter…just be on the lookout for snakes on the path.” Fun! I wasn’t too concerned though because I figured since I wasn’t going to be in the first half of runners coming through, the snakes would get the heck out of there before I got to that part on the trail.

The course was 3 loops of ~ 10.33 miles each. I still felt pretty good after the first two loops – mainly because I hadn’t fallen down. I must have seen a dozen folks fall on the rocks or roots or stumps, so I was pretty happy that I had remained on two feet for 20 miles. I had lots of rolled ankle close calls, but I had managed to stay upright…that is, until mile 21. As I was coming around a slight downhill turn on the path filled with rocks, I was flying through the air before I even knew it – of course, falling on my left shoulder, arm, and yes, my injured hand. It took me a few minutes to gain my composure and get back up, but after determining that no major damage was done, I was back on the path – wondering who was going to be madder at me: my doc or my friend Lori – both who had said before the race, “Whatever you do, don’t fall on that hand!”

FYI: The mind does not hear a negative.

A little paranoid about falling on the last loop, I slowed it down and was a bit more cautious on the rocks, roots … and the steep cliff we had to climb down around mile 4 of each loop. Very close to the end of the race – probably less than a mile out – I was walking up an incline of rocks and roots when I hear a voice behind me: “I didn’t follow you for 30 miles to beat you across the finish line – get moving!” So I did what he told me to do – I got moving as fast as I could (which I’m sure was still pretty slow).  After the race, I thanked my “motivator” named Richard (in the 60-69 age group) – who came in seconds behind me, but who could have easily smoked me in the last half mile.

Overall, it was such a great day. Every time I run another trail race, I am so grateful that I have these opportunities to go places I’ve never been before, meet new people, and take on new challenges. And, I find that I love trail running even more each time. I thought the course was hard, but I know there were folks out there who did not consider this a difficult race.

Having just started trail running less than a year ago, I’m still new to this amazing adventure. My confidence is building with every trail run I do, and I AM getting better at it. One thing I’ve learned about running trail races is that you can’t compare one race with another even if they are the same distance. There are no two 50K’s alike. In my 50-mile race, I was at the 50K point faster than I did this whole race. But the 50-miler was on roads. So, you have to take each race by itself. And, it’s not so much about the time on the clock as it is about the experience.

I love trail running, and I love challenging myself in races. Now I think that the Prickly Pear was a hard course; but, maybe I’ll look back in a couple of years after I’ve run a few more trail races, and I won’t think that this course was so hard.