Red Hot 50K+ Race Report

A bunch of us went to Moab this past weekend to run the Red Hot 50K+/33K. George, Carl, Joe, Stephanie, Shay and I all ran (ok Shay walked it, but if the truth is known we all walked a bunch) the 50K and Susie and Chelsea ran the 33K. Because of all the snow and bad weather northern Utah’s had this past winter, this race was overdo. When I left Friday afternoon I hoped that a weekend of sunshine, red rocks and scenery might be the antidote I needed to break a bad case of the “shack nasties”.

The race started at 8 AM at the Gemini Bridges parking lot; about 10 miles north of town. We arrived at7 AM to make sure our drop bags were in place when the aid station volunteers left for their posts. Because of the remote nature of the aid stations, they were manned by one of the local Moab 4X4 clubs. It’s amazing the places those “rock hoppers” can go. After a short race briefing, we were off, headed up the Gemini Bridges road. The first four miles or so were a long climb up a dirt road. The field quickly spread out and we settled into our customary place, probably 2/3 of the way back.

At about 4 miles, we changed roads and headed towards the “Metal Masher’s Trailhead.” You’ve got a love the names associated with the 4 wheel and bike trails in this area. Before the day was over, we’d also see the Gold Bar Trail and the Rusty Nail Trail with a short period on the Poison Spider bike trail. The first aid station came at about 5.5 miles. It had started to warm-up so most folks shed clothes and left them in their drop bag. The next 12 miles were a loop over the Metal Masher trail. At about 17 miles, you ended up back at the same aid station, only now it was aid station 3 instead of 1. The highlight of the loop (other than the header I took at eight miles) came at about 10 miles. At this point, you were standing on the top of the butte looking directly down at the parking lot we’d left a couple of hours earlier and probably 2,000 feet below you. The view of the La Sal Mountains to the east was absolutely stunning.

Back at aid station 1 & 3, after the Metal Masher loop, Carl and I followed Kris Lander’s advice and quickly changed into our road shoes. Great advice Kris. With a fresh pair of shoes we headed back down the road about a mile and followed the 33K course to the finish at the Colorado River. When we hit the 33K trail, we almost immediately started climbing the Gold Bar Trail. The next five miles were gruesome. It was mostly a tough climb on slick rock. Who ever named slick rock had a warped sense of humor. While it’s rock, there just weren’t many places you could call slick. Trail markings also were an issue. If you didn’t pay close attention, quickly you’d lose sight of the pretty pink ribbons we were attempting to follow. Losing sight of the pink ribbons wasn’t a good thing. All you could do was backtrack until you found one.

While the climb to aid station four was tough, the view from the top was spectacular. If you looked down over the edge of the butte, you saw Moab. The La Sal’s were to the east, Arches was a little north east (I counted six arches while gulping coca cola) and to the south west you could see into Canyonlands and the winding Colorado river. Absolutely wonderful. When we left aide station 4, we went from the Gold Bar Trail to the Rusty Nail Trail. The next 7 miles to aid station 5 (29 miles) were up and down and mostly on slick rock. This section of the race just seemed like a grind. It wasn’t as tough as the climb up the Gold Bar Trail, but by this point in the race, fatigue had become an issue and you had to pay close attention to the terrain. A header on slick rock wouldn’t be pretty.

Aid station five, the final aid station, came at about 29 miles. Carl and I hit it at about 6 hours and 50 minutes so we thought we had a chance to break eight hours. It was a small chance. When we left the aid station and started down the mountain (most of the last 5 + miles were downhill), we blew right past a pretty pink ribbon on our right and went ½ a mile, or so, before we realized it. By the time we’d back tracked almost to the aid station, we’d wasted almost 15 minutes so it would take a big effort to finish under eight hours. It wasn’t to be. This last section was down hill, mostly on slick rock for the first couple of miles, then dirt road to the finish line. Carl was in good enough shape, he could have busted eight hours, but my quads cramped a couple of times and I had to walk them out.

Carl was gracious enough to stay with me until I could run again. We ended up crossing the finish line in eight hours and ten minutes.

AFTERTHOUGHTS: I’d highly recommend this race to everyone. If you aren’t up to the 50K, do the 33K. This may be the most visually stunning race I’ve ever ran. At one point, I was tempted to stick my finger down my throat just so I could say, “this is the prettiest mountain I ever pucked on.” Seriously, run this race and you’ll come back again. After being cooped up all winter, it was fantastic to be running on dirt and rock again. It’s certainly not an easy race, but like we talked about on the ride home, sometimes a good butt kicking is a good thing.