Santa Fe to Buffalo Thunder Half Marathon
Finishers: 736
September 12, 2014
So, funny story about this trip. As always, I had planned this race about a year in advance because my dad and step mom live in Santa Fe for a large chunk of the summer and fall and I though it would work out perfect to go and visit them and check New Mexico off the list. Well, turns out they were going on a cruise during this time so I was riding solo. When I told my mom about this mix up and how I had already registered, she decided to volunteer to tag along from Saint Louis so it all worked out quite well.
So, I met mom at the Albuquerque, NM airport on Friday and we rented a car to head up to Santa Fe. The drive isn't too bad, maybe about an hour. We decided to get settled and checked into the hotel early. The lady at the front desk said she had a surprise for me which brought about a bit of confusion. She left for a second and came back with a rolled up posterboard that read:
He is not a journalist or an artist so just about every fact on that poster is wrong BUT it is the thought that counts. He was so bummed out about having to miss the race and I love how he was able to be there in spirit to cheer. After we got our room and sat for a few minutes, we decided to start the long process of Mom Race Rehearsals. This is mom's second race of the year and third race overall BUT it is funny every time we do it. Because she came along to cheer, she wants to know and practice exactly where she needs to be, at what time, how to get from point to point, what side of the road to stand, and then we get to practice. Practice a LOT. So I pull out a course map and road map and start creating her race plan. (Thank you God for giving me patience). We started at where she would drop me off in the morning and then drove the full course route once and then redrove it to figure out 2-3 places she could wait for me. I will save you all the reading, but this process literally took the entire afternoon. We almost crashed several times and probably drove a total of 12 half marathons. I wish I was exaggerating but I least I knew what to expect on the course, right?
We stopped at a few places that had some gorgeous views (okay, the entire city is a gorgeous view) and took some pictures. The ones below are at Camel Rock (right around the 10 mile mark on the course) - I sort of think it looks like ET. After dress rehearsal and mom and I getting back on speaking terms after I had cooled down, we cleaned up and went for dinner at the Pink Adobe in downtown Santa Fe. The nice thing about dad living there part of the year is I didn't have to do any planning of meals - he just told us where to go! I had the best Chili Rellenos and I'm sure mom had some sort of smothered steak - that lady loves her steak. We decided the next day to take a little drive so we called it a night after dinner.
September 13, 2014
After grabbing a quick Panera breakfast, we plotted out our day and headed into the mountains. We decided to take the scenic drive to Taos, NM which is a ski resort in New Mexico in the winter about an hour and a half north of Santa Fe. I typically hate driving but this was gorgeous. From the different rock formations to the wild desert flowers, the colors were all incredible. We stopped a few times to take some pictures of everything. We drove through a few tiny little villages and thank goodness for good signage or I would have been forever lost.
We grabbed lunch at a place called Doc Martin's which had a big patio and I randomly ordered blueberry pancakes. We shopped around for a while and then decided we probably needed to hit the road so we could get to the packet pick up back in Santa Fe. We took a faster route and I got to see all the fun things I could come back and do like rafting and horseback riding. We got to the race tent and picked up my race bib and real cool Nike shirt. We had had a long day so we went back to hang out before our dinner reservation. I realized I needed a headband so I made a quick trip to Sport Authority which turned into me buying a ton of cool Nike gear for Gregg for his birthday since they were having a huge sale. I got back to the hotel way later than expected but picked up mom and went to Osteria D'assisi for Italian and it was awesome. We got to sleep early that night so I could get ready for the race in the morning!
September 14, 2014
Race Morning! It is nice being able to wake up, stress out, but then have someone drop you off right at the start line. Mom and I went over the checkpoints and then we head down to the park where the race would start. It was not the biggest race in the world and there were no frills or pump up music - just a crowd of runners and some scenery to get us ready.
The gun when off and so did we. The first 2 miles of the race was a long, steady uphill climb of about 300 feet. Normally this would be okay, but what I had forgotten was that this race was at 7000 ft!! So I was barely into the first mile and gasping for air like a fish out of water. I wish I could say I got used to it over time but no, I didn't. The second mile was along a highway, but there was a sound wall so you couldn't see much - however, all of a sudden at Mile 2, the hill finally settled to a peak and the wall was over and the view literally took whatever breathe I had left away.
It is moments like that when I am looking out over the plateaus and desert of Santa Fe and realize how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to travel the country like I do and see the sights on foot. This would also be one of those moments where I get really emotional and start tearing up for no real reason but I just feel moved. I will never forgot the panoramic sight of what would be the background to the next 11 miles of my run.
The race continued on the left side of the highway and then passed back under towards the Tesuque Village where I knew mom's first spot would be. I started heading down the hill past the fire station and there she was all bundled up chit chatting with some other lady which she told me while I ran past, that they were going to stick together. It was fun seeing her! The race continued through the town for a few miles and then cut back under the highway at Mile 7. By this point I was already super tired and my arms...of all things, my arms...kept cramping up. I started to slow but by no means was giving up.
I knew mom would be at Mile 10 and that was right near Camel Rock where we had taken pictures on Day 1 of our trip. The rough part about this straight line of a race, is that I could SEE the rock but it felt like light years away. I just did my best to stay focused and hunt down that next checkpoint. When I got to Mile 10, mom was standing right where she expected. I was slowly dying at this point and seeing your mom is encouraging but sort of makes you want to just stop. She cheered and I made the notion that I was having a hard time and I continued towards the finish.
Those last 3 miles were brutal - I was basically doing the "Struggle City Shuffle" just making sure to put one foot in front of the other. My arms were all cramped up too. Basically my body was under altitude attack and I just needed to be done. I could see the Buffalo Casino up ahead (the Casino that would later be on Chris's season of the Bachelor where the girls stay when that crazy girl drives all the way there from Colorado for a second chance? - anyone?). As always, when you are struggling the race ends up having an uphill finish. I was close to tears and just wanted to get done and the one thing I told my mom not to do was call me after the race because chances were I hadn't finished yet if she hadn't seen or heard from me. Not more than 800m from the finish she calls multiple times and I was not very happy about this.
I thankfully finished and just needed to walk around alone for a little bit to catch my breath and let my body chill out. They didn't have a ton of snacks but they did have coconut water --- which is disgusting. I finally let mom come near me and told her about the race and then we started walking back to the car so we could go get brunch. Randomly, two women stopped us and asked for a ride back to Santa Fe and of course we said yes and chauffeured them back downtown swapping running stories and telling them about my travels. We dropped them at the start and then basically drove back to towards the finish to get my race picture.
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| OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 31 states down, 19 more to go! |
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| So happy mom could tag along for her 3rd half marathon! |
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| Panorama of Dad's backyard |
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| Just breaking in. |
We had out fair share of excitement for the day so we decided to drive down to Albuquerque where we were staying for the night before having early flights in the morning. We were so lazy I think we just ordered room service and ate in bed like 2 little fat peas in pod. Later when I checked Instagram, I saw that my picture had been featured on the City of Santa Fe instagram page which was pretty cool!
Regardless of the pain and altitude, the weekend with mom was a lot of fun and I can successfully check New Mexico off my list of states!
31 down - 19 to go!
#DREAMBIG
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