Leo knew he was in
trouble when we arrived in Phoenix Friday afternoon for his upcoming trail race
and it was 88 degrees F.
We spent most of the
afternoon in the air-conditioned mall, and ate our carbo-loaded supper in an
air-conditioned restaurant but eventually had to come home to our stifling
trailer.
The trail race was in
White Tank Mountain Regional Park,
and it was a tough
one, even in more moderate weather.
We got up at 5 am on
Saturday and drove out to the park.
Leo looks ready
to race.
And they’re off.
Leo running so fast
he’s out of the frame before I could shoot the picture,
While Leo raced, I
went for a hike in the park where I saw the usual desert birds and
blooming
hedgehog cacti.
Then began the long
wait; it took Leo almost 7 hours to complete the grueling
50 k race, up and
down canyons, scrambling over rocks. At
one point he let two other racers drink from his camelsback when they ran out of
water. He felt fine until he hit the afternoon heat in Ford Canyon, then he was
really struggling.
But he recovered, and
made it to the finish in pretty decent shape and before anyone else remotely in
his age class. (In fact it turned out he was the oldest guy in the race.)
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