Desert Rats!
The first “real” race of the season and the only really runnable race planned. That meant a double whammy of having to blow out the cobwebs of not racing in months and having to focus on being able to run hard for 5+ hours. No power hiking - just running. Times were fast last year and I wasn’t feeling like I was capable of running those kind of paces. Add in Sasha’s recent dental work and that she wasn’t really eating much yet and I wasn’t very focused going into the race. I definitely had some imposture syndrome going on - as well as a decent bit of self doubt. I hadn’t run that fast in many months. It was also my first time doing a big race in years. Or at least a big race that didn’t have wave starts! Running into the unknown - not sure of what the miles ahead would bring Photo: Eszter H I’d done plenty of recon on the course, running most of it over the course a few long runs. That didn’t mean I was confident in my ability to actually run fast. On my first run, I’d taken about an