I hit a small brewery in Las Cruces, NM for some chos and peach beer. Pretty good! This was their Xsmall plate. Perfect for just me.
I made it down to the Golden Horseshoe that Mom and I hit a few years earlier. Kind of a gross place, but you can find great deals. Also helps if you speak Spanish. The only thing I could remember from my recent trip to Tulum, MX was asking how much; however, everything was appropriately marked and I just did a bit of nodding to get through it all.
I later hit a little dive called Taps down that direction as well. The chos were even better.
I probably shouldn't have drank all the beer but I considered it carbo loading. I headed back to my hotel and prepped for the run the next morning.
Parking was a bit of a mess because half the roads were shut down. You had to drive around the barricades to park which wasn't exactly intuitive.
The morning wasn't terribly chilly. The first mile or so was relatively flat. Heading into mile 2 my running partner slipped on some rocks and almost ate it. He tweaked his ankle a bit but managed to keep running. We maintained a 2:1 run/walk interval for most of it until we got to the crazy steep parts of the hill. It was about 6 miles of uphill. I wanted to die. The breeze was chilly, especially after you work up a sweat. My hamstrings (what I've always thought to be ischial bursitis is actually torn hamstrings after 3 years of misdiagnosis) were killing me with the uphill! I was actually walking faster with less energy than running so we skipped a few intervals and reversed them for a bit. The scenery was pretty though.
Down hill was AWESOME! It felt good to work different muscles. We even managed to make up for some of our lost time from the hill.
On our descent, this pack of runners ran by us when we were on a walk interval. They shouted something about not giving up trying to be encouraging. It really was just annoying. If I stop, encourage me. If I'm walking, keep your mouth closed. We dusted them on our next run interval and never saw them again.
About mile 10-11 is when my posterior tibial tendonitis started to kick in. I slowed way down. We still managed to finish in roughly 2:37 which given the hill really isn't that bad! I should also mention we dressed as foxes....what does a fox say by the way?
I managed to get back to the hotel before checkout so I could get in a quick shower. I hopped in the car and headed straight back to Tucson.
For a final race, I'd say it felt pretty good and deem it a success.
