My Wife's MUDDY 50K Race!

My rockstar wife finished the "Surf the Murph" 50K trail race on Saturday! (A 50K is about 31 miles for those readers from imperial countries.) I'm so proud of her! I stopped by to cheer her on after she was about 3 hours into the race. Here are a few photos:

POURING rain on my windshield as I got to the park in the south metro.

Yeah, that's not a day you want to be running a TRAIL race. Pharmie said it was lightning after the 50 mile group started at 6. It let up a bit before the 25K and 50K started at 7 a.m., but it still rained quite a bit after that too. That photo above was when I pulled into the park around 9:40.

Chipper Pharmie about 13 miles in! Along with her training/race buddy Megan!


First things first.


The racer's bags were under a tarp, so here's my wife digging through
her bag as Megan changed socks (which then stayed dry for 3 seconds).


The aid stations were STOCKED. She ate a lot of PB&Js throughout the race.


Running off around mile 13.


The aid station they were just at is to the far left.


This is where I stopped.

On my way out of the park, I crossed the race path again, and I realized that it was a point where I'd be seeing Megan and Pharmie again shortly. So I got out to cheer a bit.

A bride and her 4 bridesmaid's did the 50K in costume!
That's commitment to a bride!


Views as I headed backwards down the trail towards the beaver dam.


Megan and Pharmie coming!




Up a quick, steep, muddy little hill.

I left them there and headed home to get some stuff done and to dry off. They ended up being out there running for about 9 hours (as opposed to the 7.5 hours that she did this race in back in 2009 on a BEAUTIFUL day) because every step was full of slippage. Someone described it well when they said it was like running in grease. They both covered over 33 miles on those trails!

She came home in good spirits and moving quite well! She asked me to clean her shoes:

Yikes. This was AFTER she banged off as much mud as she could.


Still not pretty, but looking MUCH better as they dry by the dehumidifier in the basement.

Here's my wife's words along with 6 photos that she posted yesterday:

With Megan at the finish! My wife pulled away with about an
hour left because she "just wanted to be done running!"


Megan coming to the finish.


Megan about to cross the line.


Post-race legs!


Muddy leg in her car.


They watched a young boy "brand" their finisher plaques right in front of them.

Congrats Hunnie! And Megan!!

If you want to see a TOTALLY different, bright, sunny, beautiful race at Surf the Murph, check out this blog post from 2009. It includes non-muddy photos like this:

Wowza. SOOO different.

Now excuse me... I have to go massage my wife's legs. #ShesEarnedIt #PlusILikeHerLegs