Ghost Town 38

Ghost Town 38.5

Friday-   We arrived in Kingston on Friday around 4pm.  I met up with my pal to run with and a friend of his in Ruidoso on Thursday night.  I was wound up when I got into Ruidoso and talked until 2 am.  I don’t get out much in Lubbock so I make up for the silence when I go to races….this drives most people nuts.    I bet they were wondering if I was going to blab all weekend but I did settle down.  Kingston, NM is in the middle of no where.  We did not have cell phone service or internet so we were truly in a Ghost Town.  I see now why the race has this title. Kingston is out in the mountains and is really pretty.  We stayed in a little lodge and were in a house that ended up with 8 people in it.  It was really a nice house and it was perfect for us to get to know other runners.   We had the house between the 3 of us the first night but on Saturday we had others join us.  I really did like everyone I met.  I was going nuts for a run and did one as soon as I pulled into town on Saturday.  It was in the forest and I felt like I could of run forever but we were eating dinner at the race directors house so I did not get much running in but it was enough to enjoy some of the forest around me.  We had some buffalo roast for dinner.

Saturday-  I slept like hell for some odd reason but we were all up early and eating breakfast together.  We had a neat Canadian staying with us named Jim.  Jim was a real character and could make anyone smile.  He walked 18 miles on Friday so he is pretty out there like the rest of us.  We did a nice run after breakfast and I got on the mountain bike to check the course out.  Once again I could of gone forever but it was still in the 30’s so I was cold and there were also cows out. I am very scared of cows so I did not get to see the whole the trail.  The race director talked about all the wild animals that were on the course the night before so I was worried about being in the woods alone…killed by a cow.  The mountain lions were not a worry.  That evening we had the pasta dinner and I got to meet lots of very neat athletes. 

Ghost Town 38.5-  This started at 6:00am on Sunday.  It was under 20 degrees and had  a wind chill of 12.  I don’t think I would have started the race if I had known this at the start.  My butt was cold and it hurt.  I thought fat was supposed to stay warm?  I kept my hands warm but really wanted to keep moving.  My buddy had the plan of walking 2.5 minutes and running 15 minutes.  We were on pavement for the first 6.3 miles and his walks were on some gradual down hills. This was his race that he had tapered for so I walked with him.  I did let him know that the terrain would determine his correct walk breaks.  His plan of attack was gone after the first hour.  I found out the temp at the first aid station and about died.  I really hate cold weather but it was not so bad once the sun started shining.  The trail goes uphill and all that we really knew about was the dirt road.  I did not think there was going to be some technical trails ahead and neither did my running buddy. We hit the technical stuff and it was trails that I really suck on.  This was when my buddy started having fun.  I am a clumsy girl and take it  easy on down hills but my buddy was bouncing around like a little boy.  He quit looking at his watch and started having fun.  It was really nice to watch him relax.  I got to test my power walking out on some really technical stuff and this is where I would go ahead but as soon as we had a long technical down hill my buddy would come bouncing by so it worked out. There were some times I would get ahead and one time I thought it was safe to pee. Oops..I got busted.  The running buddy was staying pretty close.  I fell a couple of time on some down hills but it was not that bad.  I had a good time and was enjoying the scenery myself.  After we got done with the technical stuff and were back on the road we had a cold head wind.  My buddy picked it up and we were running a nice pace with some little walks in it.  We actually passed some people in the end.  We tied for 11th and did the run in 7 hours and 40 minutes.  I got second among the women and was very happy.  I am not sure what the lead women did but she was pretty far ahead.  I had a really good day and met some really COOL runners.  The more people I meet in the ultra world the more I like it.  I am not sure if I will ever go back to short distances again.  I met some really neat people at the race!