Elephant Mountain 50K (Race Recap)

Cave Creek, AZ

Saturday, February 5

Ultra Marathon #38

Weather - Chilly at the start, sunny and warm

With my scary 2022 racing season looming, I was on the hunt for a "short" race to ease into all the trail running. I landed on Arizona after checking out possibilities in Texas and a few other "warmer" states. After the cold snap we had recently had in Denver we were both looking forward to dry trails - recognizing that this would be good prep for our upcoming events.

Race Day

I had not slept well the night before. With all the hotel drama we hadn't picked up anything for breakfast. We were staying in a resort type place that didn't have anything for us. We got out the door as planned, but we still needed to get breakfast somewhere. I was NOT optimistic as we were driving to the start as we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. "Luckily" there was a Starbucks that was open and we got some breakfast sandwiches and coffee. 

Thankfully, we found the start without any issues. I'm always a bit worried when there is no physical address for a start. Since we were using a tiny car, we were able to squeeze into a spot in the main lot. We used the extra time to cycle through the bathroom line, pick up our bib, and get everything ready to go for the 7 am start.

Announcements started with a few minutes to go. We were reminded about the flagging and signage we needed to look for, and we lined up to go. We started right on time, with Ben going out with a front group and me taking my place in the back where I am comfortable. After taking a full week off from running because of my foot pain, I was pretty anxious with how this was going to go. 

The first mile went ok. It was a gradual uphill and not overly technical. I ran some of the less steep grades and hiked the rest. My hands were pretty cold in that first mile and I was mildly regretting that I had left my gloves in the back of my back. They warmed up pretty quick, so it ended up not being a problem. 

We headed up some switchbacks to the top and then we had some really nice rolling hills. However, my foot was acting up. It was definitely more painful than I would have hoped and I spent a LOT of the early miles wondering how stupid it was of me to be out there.

I passed some people in this section, until we got to a weird intersection where I had to look at the map because it was confusing. First aid station I just grabbed some fruit snacks and headed right out. We had to cross a dried out river bed a few times and then we had a short section of pavement before running on some pretty tame single track. I actually really liked this section, except this is about the time that the faster 35K people started to catch up and it was/is kind of annoying moving out of the way of people. Hit the next aid station and grabbed a cup of Mountain Dew and a pickle. Found out it was 5 miles to the next aid station. Foot hurts.

Kept going, a decent amount of hiking in this section. It was really pretty rocky here and between trying to not land weird on my foot and trying to not roll my ankle (which I have been doing a LOT of lately), things were slow-going and not a lot of fun. I saw Ben earlier (?) than I thought I would and let him know that if things didn't improve that I would have to entertain dropping. He talked me into taking some ibuprofen. I got to the aid station, grabbed more Mountain Dew and a small piece of potato, but nothing else sounded good. Headed back out for a lonely 5 miles. I put in one ear bud when I was about 3 hours in. That helped take my mind off things for a bit. 

Photo Cred: Let's Wander Photography

Considering how much my foot was hurting I was actually moving pretty well. I managed to keep my arm sleeves on through the next aid station - definitely longer than I thought I would. It was getting hot out and I was not looking forward to being out on the course. Even though this whole part was an out and back I didn't remember a lot of it. I actually passed a couple people in this section before the next aid station - the second to last one. I got there and there wasn't a ton of food options, but I had expected that. I filled up my bottles and begrudgingly head out for the approximately 5 miles back to the start/finish - but not to actually finish! We would have to use the finish line as an aid station and then head out after that for a 7 mile loop. 

For some reason I thought that I had already done most of the climbing, so in my mind, I thought it was going to just be a lot of downhill to the finish. Sadly, I was wrong. Once I turned onto the Go John Trail it seemed like it went up and up and up. It was still pretty rocky, and fairly steep in some areas. Being later in the day there were also lots of people out - both on bikes and hiking in groups. FINALLY, there was a fairly non-technical downhill for maybe the last few miles. It was going to be nice to actually have a downhill finish. I was not happy having to come through the finish line and not be done. At least Ben hadn't lapped me.

Filled up my bottles and grabbed a (disgusting) peanut butter & jelly since that was the only "real" food left. I only managed a few bites before I just couldn't eat more. I really really really wish aid stations would find something else to feed runners besides pb&j. At least for the last part of the route I knew what I had coming up - and that was a big climb to the top, some runnable parts, the big climb after the aid station (that we would not be hitting, since it wasn't on the loop) and then downhill to the finish.

While my foot was actually feeling ok by this point, now the bottoms of my feet and my big toes were in excruciating pain any time I tried to run. So that was really frustrating since my legs actually were ok, and my foot finally didn't hurt. It was HOT by this point, and there were a LOT of people on the trail - including a group doing trail work? I was pretty frustrating that it was more gain than I had expected, and it seemed like I was not going to be able to hit my goal of a sub 8 race. 

I ran what I could, actually passed a few more people, and finally finished. 

I have NEVER been in such pain after crossing a finish line. I barely hobbled over to the table to fill up one of my bottles since I had run out, and then sat down at a picnic table. My feet were THROBBING. If you know me at all, you know that I am basically dead inside, and this pain actually had me in tears. I could not believe how bad my feet hurt! Ben went to the car and got my flip flops while I took my shoes off. I seriously expected my feet to be bloody stumps based on the pain and was shocked to see that I had zero black toenails and not a single blister. I think it was just all the loose rocks on the trail that messed me up. Had a beer in the shade before getting a picture on our way out.

Official Time - 8:06:39

Overall Place - 60/74

Gender Place - 18/25

Garmin Time - 8:06:25

Garmin Distance - 31.78 miles

Garmin Pace - 15:18

Elevation Gain - 4,305'

Miles 1-5 - 15:11, 13:10, 13:16, 14:00, 15:18

Miles 6-10 - 14:14, 16:00, 14:58, 13:11, 14:56

Miles 11-15 - 15:39, 15:44, 13:53, 15:46, 16:47

Miles 16-20 - 14:17, 17:04, 13:28, 14:01, 19:50

Miles 21-25 - 17:42, 14:26, 13:08, 14:06, 18:42

Miles 26-30 - 17:27, 13:26, 18:25, 17:35, 15:52

Miles 31-31.78 - 13:30, 14:43

Thoughts:

• Very convenient to Phoenix if you fly in. We stayed in Scottsdale the night before and it was about 25 minutes to the start line. Nothing really close to the race start - be sure you get food/water prior to heading out as the race starts very early and the only food we were able to get on the drive was Starbucks.
• This was a pretty decent course. I didn't love having the last 7 miles be without water. I'd prefer to do the loop FIRST, then do the out and back so as not to have longest aid station gap be at the end, personally.
• Volunteers were great, but aid stations were pretty unimpressive. Outside of pb&j, the only "food" was bean roll-ups - fancy wording for refried beans on a tortilla. I survived since I was only doing 50k, but there was also a 50 miler, and that would NOT have been enough for me. Lots of snack stuff that doesn't really have any calories or substance. 
• Shirt is cute - gender specific and RED - which is my favorite color.
• Same medal no matter the distance, which I do not like - I mean there was a 5k there, and they got the same thing as the 50k?? Maybe the 50 miler was different, but I didn't see what they looked like.
• Saw multiple photographers on the course, yet AGAIN there was only one small sequence of pics of me on course and not at the section where there were cacti - which is pretty much the prettiest part of the course. Pics were $9, which is competitive, but again, only fast people seemed to get really good ones. I complain about this a lot.
• I wouldn't run this again, but it was a good experience to learn what Arizona trails are like in training for Cocodona.