Bucket of Blood Half Marathon Race Report

This is the second year that I have ran the Bucket of Blood Half Marathon and it keeps getting better!  This year we had timing chips for the first time, which was a definite improvement, and the field was a little larger. Also, the course was better marked, so less people got lost (it can be a bit tricky at times)

This race is a part of the Wild West Days festival in Holbrook, AZ (about three and a half hours northeast of Phoenix).  Holbrook may be a small town, but it's a very affordable race and provides a great weekend escape from the heat of the Valley with the all the festivities.  My favorite part has to be the barbecue contest held after the race where we restock on the calories  :-)

We arrived in Holbrook Friday night, just in time to go pick up our packets and grab some dinner.  While at dinner, it started to rain and it rained off and on all night long.  With the course being ten miles of trail and three miles of road, this made for an interesting morning-needless to say, I should have packed my trail shoes.

Some of the course flooding/detour

The gun went off at 6AM sharp and the runners took off.  I placed myself at the front of the pack for the first time ever, I think, just based on how much faster I've been getting and how small the field was.  Since I ran the course the year before, I knew that I had to bank as much time as possible in the first 1.25 miles before we hit trails, because the course is brutal and unforgiving on a good day after that.  The humidity was ridiculous and parts of the course were muddy, if not flooded.  I clocked an 8:27 on the first mile and was feeling great before we hit the rolling hills/trails.  After my fall on the trails a couple of weeks ago, I was a lot more tentative than I usually would be, which slowed my pace considerably.  The first portion of trails consisted of two loops, which was where most people got lost last year.  This year, they had people at an aid station at the crossroads holding a gigantic sign on plywood that said "1st loop" with an arrow to the right and "2nd loop" with an arrow to the left-definitely no confusion there!  Somewhere around mile four, I noticed tons of tiny black bugs sticking to my sweaty skin and started to get really grossed out.  That's when a lady stopped me and asked me if there was something in her eye-it was one of those bugs!!!   EWWWWWWWWWWW-I was totally grossed out watching this thing crawl around in her eye, but channeled my inner Big Girl Panties and helped her get the bug out.  After that, it was smooth sailing for a couple of miles with the occasional bug wiping and snot rocket. 


By mile seven, I started regretting the fact that I had forgotten to pack my Espresso Gu shot.  My energy was waning as the elevation and humidity started taking their toll on my asthmatic lungs and for the first time in forever, I had the urge to use my inhaler (that I forgot to pack).  There was definitely a hundred feet or so of walking in there as I tried to regain my bearings and harness some more of the Amanda's Incessant Energy, but I never got my usual second wind.  I'm not sure if it was lack of sleep, the heat/humidity/elevation combo, lack of nutrition or the fact that around mile five and mile eight I got stuck in the mud where my foot came out of my shoe, causing me to feel like I had ten pound weights on my feet until I ran the mud clumps off.  I was EXHAUSTED by the time I finished.  I left it all out there on that course and still only finished with a 2:13.  I was proud of that 2:13 because it was a couple of minutes faster than last year and this is definitely not a PR course!  It's kind of like Whiskey Row in that you can only really judge your time based on years' past of the same course.  After crossing the finish line, all runners were provided with a free pancake breakfast put on by the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as a free beer at the festival...  Of course I took advantage of both!

Am I in for it again next year?  Absolutely!  Where else can you run a half marathon in July in Arizona for only $50 with free pancakes and beer?!  The organizers are fabulous and very open to any feedback and suggestions the runners give (hence the course markings and chip timing)  I would recommend it to anyone and everyone-especially my fellow carnivores that salivate as much as I do at the thought of a Barbecue festival  :-)

The medals this year were dog tags!