JOSHUA TREE HALF MARATHON RACE REPORT

“What did you think of the race?” a local Joshua Tree resident asked me. I replied, “I didn’t like the sand! There was SO much sand!” An odd smile emerged on their face, “Well, you ARE in the desert.”  Point.Taken. 🙂

Last week Stonegate and I went on a road trip. We like to go on these adventure road trips once a year because I believe that everyone should be allowed to escape on a little mini vacation with their friends doing what they love. For us that is exploring, running and laughing.

I am blessed to have a friend who enjoys doing this as much as I do. This year our adventure took us to the desert, the desert of Joshua Tree.

A while back we signed up for one of Vacation Race’s events called The Joshua Tree Half Marathon. It was supposed to be night race which appealed to us and it involved camping which is something Stonegate LOVES to do.

We loaded her car as much as humanely possible with all kinds of camping stuff. I’ll be brutally honest, Stonegate provided 99.99% of all the gear. Like I said, she loves to camp.

As always, I plan to be honest in my race review (it’s coming I swear) but I’ll also share some of the adventures we had while there.

The drive was supposed to take us somewhere between 7.5 and 8.5 hours. We left town early and we made really great time getting there.

Then, we hit the desert. Like REALLY the desert.

The road literally just disappeared from view and became this sandy mess.

We knew when we signed up for this race that the race itself was going to be held, “just outside of Joshua Tree National Park.” That’s true, it was. It was actually held 21 MILES outside the park. The camp ground that was suggested we camp in (and where the race started and ended) was called Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground. Again, not fully researching, reading, understanding, we arrived and were a little taken aback by it. First of all, I think the big word that SHOULD have stood out to us was LAKE. Remember, we were in the desert. What lake?

The camp ground, was more or less a large sandy parking lot. HOWEVER, it was perfect for the race and perfect for what we needed for race day and race night … but we had arrived on THURSDAY and the race was not until Saturday evening so we had lots of time to kill in this parking lot location 21 miles outside of Joshua Tree National Park.

However, I do think the point of these Vacation Race events which I fully support, is that it encourages the participants to go and visit the actual national parks for which these races are named. We have to continue to support our National Parks and this organization does a great job at bringing people to these gems scattered about our country.

Stonegate and I spent the Friday before the race exploring inside of Joshua Tree National Park. We hiked to the top of Ryan Mountain which was 1.5 miles straight up.

As usual, we laughed and had a great time doing what we love best even if we quickly realized while there, that we are NOT desert people.

It is a beyond gorgeous place but I do truly prefer mountains and pine trees but I am happy that we took the time to visit Joshua Tree because otherwise, I don’t think we would have ever made the journey.

Saturday morning it was suggested that we not leave the camp ground because racers would be arriving all day and we might not be able to get our car back to our campsite.

The race expo was also on Saturday and it was pretty neat. Some really neat vendors had set up tents and we shopped and picked up our race bibs and packets … and then, we just sat and waited ….

and waited, and waited and waited. Although, one of the highlights of waiting all day is that we saw our very first (and only) Road Runner!! That little bugger was FAST!

Finally at 5 pm we could wander over towards the race festivities and be part of the pre-race raffle. Just us and 3,000 of our closest friends! Say what? 3,000 runners were doing this half marathon?! Wow.

We had our headlamps ready. We had reflective gear on. We were sporting tank tops because despite being in the evening, it was still pretty darn warm outside.

The sun was setting and the skies were turning their standard desert fire colors. I do admit, the desert does provide some stunning sunsets.

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We made our way to the front of the pack into the second or third wave of runners. We wanted to get out ahead because during the raffle we found out that for many, it was going to be their very first half marathon OR very first “trail” half marathon which, to be honest, “trail” was not and is not an accurate description of this race.

They counted us down and sent us out in timed waves because there were just so many people. Finally when it was our turn to start, we ran. Stonegate took a minute to start her watch and BAM! She had tripped over a railroad tie on the ground that was really out of place and should have had a cone or reflective marking on it.

Seriously, one minute she was beside me and when I turned she was gone. She had full on super-manned at the race start. Luckily she wasn’t seriously injured but that’s a terrible way to start a race.

After she dusted off the sand, we started trying to get a position within the crowd so that we wouldn’t trip over everyone’s feet. We ran about a 1/4 mile on pavement, made a right hand turn onto another road and was met with about 6 to 8 inches of ankle deep loose sand.

Picture running on the beach but without the ocean. That was this race.

We had heard prior to the start that we would be running on sand. The race description when emailed out had said, “hard packed sand.” This was in no way shape or form, hard packed. It was terrible.

Plain and simple. Tire tracks from trucks were on either side of the road and walkers and slower runners were using that hard(er) packed area to walk or run pushing the rest of the sand into the middle like a giant mound.

The only way to pass another runner, was to run through that giant mound of sand. You step into it and your shoes instantly filled with sand.

I kept running. Stonegate said she was right behind me every time I tried to make a move to a clearing or spot where we weren’t on someone’s heels about to face plant again.

We did this probably for the first 6 miles or so it seemed. It was slightly up hill but not enough that we were bothered by it. Apparently the rest of the runners thought this race was entirely uphill. It was not. It had a little over 500 feet of climbing in it, that’s it. The hills didn’t make it tough, the SAND is what made it tough.

There was little talking between Stonegate and I. This was my first long run and race since my hamstring injury. I was focused very much on my footing and form.

Stonegate was suffering from the sand not really being easy to get footing on and just wasting unnecessary energy on trying to stay up and not slide all around.

We stopped to walk a few times. She would stop and use the aid-stations that were frequent on the course however, not where they said they would be. A pet peeve of mine is to say there is an aid-station at mile 10 but have it really show up at 10.5.

This race could not end soon enough for either of us. No one around us seemed to be in good spirits. It was dark (duh, a night race) but there was no moon and you could not see the stars otherwise you’d fall or trip. I am also 95% sure they held this at night because the views were nothing to look at. We were in the middle of no where at night. It was just not fun.

When we crossed the finish line I think we were both beyond relieved. We went back to our tent, took care of post race business and I sat back and watched all the runners and headlamps coming down the road. Our campsite was right along the race course and all I kept hearing was people asking the course marshals, “How much further!?”

I am proud of us though. This was not an easy race at all. We did it and we did it after camping for 2.5 days in a tent on cots prior to starting the race.

My hamstring held up great which made me super happy. I am feeling almost back to normal. ALSO, the medals and shirts we received glow in the dark. That’s kinda cool.

The day after the race, Stonegate and I went back to Joshua Tree National Park to explore a different section. I am so happy that we did as we saw some pretty neat sights and just had a great time. For me, it made up for the terrible 13.1 miles of sand we had to sludge through the night before.

Overall, if you are a desert person, I recommend visiting Joshua Tree. If you are passing through the area, definitely stop and check it out. I know that for Stonegate and myself, we had a great time regardless of the race situation because we can always find the fun and laughter no matter where we go.

That’s what adventure friends do and for that, I am grateful.

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma