Bair Gutsman aka Something I should have trained a little harder for

Remember that thing I said about Elaina pushing you out of your comfort zone?  Apparently there is no end in sight.

After several years of begin a spectator, babysitter, driver, etc, I finally ran out of excuses and had to participate.

The Bair Gutsman is a race where you trek about 6 miles straight up the face of a mountain to the radio towers at the top of Farmington peak in Utah.  Oh sweet!  You made it to the top!  You are finished?????  No not quite.. you have a 6 or 7 mile run back down a dirt road to the finish line.  A half marathon in all.

In the beginning we were all smiles and joking:

Then we were off.  I think it was about 2 minutes into the race when I saw my last familiar face.  I wouldn’t see any of my friends and family for several hours.  And then I began wondering… are these ominous clouds a sign?

The hike was brutal but beautiful.

 

At one point… a few hours in… you come around a corner and spot your goal.  You can barely see the radio towers at the top of the mountain, but they are in sight…. I must be close! 

 

Starting to get a view of the valley.

 

Walking through a fern forest

Another hour in… those towers aren’t exactly looking much closer.  Little did I know at the time how far away I really was.  What started out as excitement when I first spotted the towers slowly faded away, along with my energy, when the towers seemed almost to be moving away from me.

 

This is about the time I started getting nervous.  You only have 5 hours to complete the race.  If you miss the 5 hour mark you are disqualified, you don’t hear your name announced over the finish line, and you don’t get a shirt.  I worked too hard to not get a shirt.  I was getting that damn shirt.

A view from the top.  I’m pretty sure that’s China or something.

Finally you get to run on a road that has a slight downhill grade.  It seems so luxurious at first. 

The dirt road is long and winding.  There is no reference point to gage our distance from the finish line.  Around each corner you pray to see the finish line….. but the corners keep coming and coming.

I can’t believe I got up early AND paid money to do this….

Finally the magical corner came…. the finish line was in sight.  It was invigorating to see the parking lot (mostly empty because most people were finished).  I let out a huge whoop!  And received a whoop back from all of my friends and family I had started out with.

You might be able to see them in the picture.  They are all lined up on the far side of the road… relaxing, drinking cold drinks, some of them finished for hours…. but they all stuck around which was awesome.

 

I arrived at the finish line about 15 minutes before this picture was taken.  You can see by the clock in the back that I didn’t have much time to spare.

I begrudgingly admit that I’m glad I did it.  I’m glad Elaina made me promise to do it and made me stick to it.  I had such a great time, it was beautiful and it was an accomplishment.  I’ll totally do it again next year……maybe.