Charles Felsher and I went to the 20th running of the Palo Duro 50K October 16th in Amarillo TX. Palo Duro is Spanish for "hard wood", and  Texan for "hard course".  There was also a 20K and a 50 miler.

We were the only Mississippians preregistered. But as we were driving over to the packet pickup/prerace meal we were shocked to see Poison Ivy (Iva Lightsey) driving away! Apparently she had decided to sneak into the race to see if there was any hope to compete with her nemesis, Running Bear.

Nice little expo, Charles bought some hard to find shorts and gel. The only person I knew was the famous Chrissy Ferguson (Western States finisher and RD of several ultras in AR). The briefing was already over when we got there at 6, as it was at the beginning rather than the end of the 5-7 meal! We prevailed on the briefer to give it again at 7 and made our support plans. Ann and Laura (Charles's wife) decided to watch the start and then position themselves at a cross path the race went thru every 6 miles.

The brief, and famous Chrissy with the equally famous RD - Red Spicer

Surprisingly (based on past performances?), Running Bear was seeded #1 in the 50K (see below). Apparently word gets around?

 

The race started in the dark, and in a very congested manner. Charles and I had started in the back so it took a while to get up to speed. My groin started hurting right away and never got better, first time that ever happened?!! Maybe from driving two days or maybe from all the ups and downs? I kept dropping back looking for PI so as to race her head to head but never found her and figured she had dropped out. Nobody seemed unduly intimated when they realized they were passing the #1 seed. I ran across someone hurting worse than me and tried to help her; she had a bad knee so we kept having to walk. Then at 18 she dropped out! Muttered something confusing about harassment (spectators? I hadn't noticed) and eternally grateful (anyway eternal something or other)?

 

At that point I had no good reason to do the last loop, but was too far gone to DNF. As soon as I started the loop I caught up with three 50 milers who were stopped by a mean looking head sticking out a hole in the side of the canyon wall. This was at a point where the path was a very narrow single track with a 25 foot drop on one side and a vertical wall on the other side. The sun had come up and warmed up the wall we were running alongside. One guy got by and then the rattler (4-5') proceeded to come out of his hole and try to eat us. Snakes are so dumb! Cant they back up? The 2 guys left started looking for rocks to kill it with, but I begged for mercy and went to get a stick. The stick I got was a darn thorn bush but it was long enough to move the snake. Now I had puncture wounds bleeding in both hands to go along with my other hurts. Another 1/4 mile and I saw where someone had killed another rattler, but this was a pygmy about 12" long? Was that necessary?

 

Started enjoying my nature run/hike. The cactus fruit was ripe as were the pinon nuts. I got a real good look at a road runner, and while I was watching it a walker came along. Said he was thru running and it sounded like a good idea to me. We walked the remainder except he reneged and sprinted the last 200 yards!

 

Finally finished and the memento was a nice red cap so it was good that I persevered after all. 

Turned out PI had already finished so all my waiting for her was for naught. She had run herself silly trying to catch up with me thinking I was surely ahead of her. She was so embarrassed that she didn't stay for the post race burgers and left immediately.

I had a slow run as the splits show. Charles had finished, eaten dinner, drunk too much, and written his memoirs before I came thru. But I did finish 12 spots or so ahead of Chrissy, not too shabby?