Draper Trail Challenge

 On the Saturday of the Memorial Day Weekend, Audrey and I traveled down to Draper Utah to run in a trail race. The Draper Trail Challenge had a choice of a 4 mile, 6.3 mile, 10 mile, or 15 mile option. It is my goal to run a 50 mile race this September; the Grand Teton 50 Mile Race. So I chose the 15 mile race to start some of my training towards the 50 miler this fall. Audrey chose the 6.3 mile race because she has been coming back from a small but nagging injury, not letting her get in all the miles that she would like.
All the races started together so you really didn't have any idea who was running what race until much later on. But the good thing was that Audrey and I got to run together for the first 4 miles or so. The course was really really pretty and also really tough. Lots of up and down. 3,000 ft of total elevation gain and loss throughout the entire 15 mile race. I know by some ultra standards that's not much, but it was enough for me.
The weather started to warm up, and I think eventually it got to around 60 degrees. I felt pretty decent the entire run. At about the 11 mile mark there were 4 of us all kind of running together. I was made a few calculated moves on some hills and passed everyone hoping to put some distance between me and them.
Unfortunately I started to hit the wall about mile 13, which was all uphill. Got passed by 2 guys, and then I just settled into a nice steady pace to finish. I rolled across the line in 2 hours and 22 minutes. I felt good about the whole day, finished 6th overall and 4th in my age division. My Brooks gave me one blister on my right big toe. After the awards (Audrey got 2nd place by the way) I put on my recovery tights, and we went to eat lunch at Chili's. I totally believe in recovery tights in helping with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). They totally helped because we ran a race only 2 days later on Memorial Day in Park City.... but that is for another post. Here are some pictures.

Running up the trail towards the start of the race.

Felt pretty good at this point in the race.

It was a beautiful race course.

Coming into the finish.

Just a little bit farther.

I was pretty sore by this point.

As soon as I stopped running my legs started to cramp.

Scanning my bib number for my time.