Well, if I sound like a kid in a candy store, that’s how I feel. Two weekends ago in Auburn CA and this weekend in Palo Duro Canyon TX I got to run races in spectacular new terrain for me.

For those of you who haven't been, Palo Duro Canyon is about 25 miles south of Amarillo TX, in the far northern part of the state. From the canyon’s website: “The Canyon is 120 miles long, as much as 20 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of more than 800 feet. Its elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. It is often claimed that Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep.”

http://www.palodurocanyon.com/ (check out the “Photos” section of this site)

I flew to Amarillo Friday afternoon with Doise and Janet. The race dinner was at West Texas A&M Friday night. Red Spicer, the RD, is a character. He gave flowers to two women, including Doise, whose birthdays were race day, and generally livened up the race dinner.

We were up early Saturday for the drive to the canyon and a 7:00 a.m. start. I was thankful that there was a campfire to take the chill out of the air, upper 40 degrees at race start.

We needed flashlights for about the first 1⁄2 hour, a lot of which was single file on narrow single-track. When the trail opened up the speedsters flew off and I settled into a pace slightly faster than my normal pace.

My goal at PD was to test how far I could run at about a 13 mpm pace. My normal sustainable pace for long runs is closer to 15 mpm. There was a specific reason for this “test” of my base fitness and speed: I wanted to assess how far off I am from a 13 mpm pace for 50 miles, which I’d need to qualify for the WS100 lottery.

As the sun came up those of us who were in the canyon for the first time saw what enormous natural beauty was in store for us.

After a 6.2 mile loop we returned to the start/finish area and I dropped off my flashlight and a vest I had worn at the start for warmth. My time for the 6.2 mile loop was 1:20 or 12:54 mpm, right around what I had targeted. Now off for two 12.5 mile loops for the balance of the race.

I won’t try to describe the beauty of the cliffs and the canyon, the photos on the site above say it all. I did remember though to not just stare at my feet all day long, and to step off the trail and stop occasionally to drink in the scenery.

One really nice feature of this race was that the three distances (50M, 50K which I did, and 20K with a one hour later start) meant that there were often other runners around, either passing me or – gasp ! – being passed by me. In many of these races with single distances the field sorts out by speed fairly quickly and you can go a long time not seeing anyone.

First full 12.5 mile loop was 3:00 even – 14:24 mpm. I didn’t time any interim mile markers but I’m guessing I slowed down in a fairly straight line from my early 13 mpm to my more normal 15 mpm to average the 14:24 above.

The last loop was a lot more walking and less running, 3:34 for the loop or 17:07 mpm, as I paid for my early “speed”.

I finished in 7:54 or an average of 15:12 mpm, so my “fast” and “slow” loops about balanced out close to my usual average speed.

After a desperately needed shower and a nap, 11 of us went to the Big Texan for dinner. There are two unique features of this quaint restaurant. They picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off again after dinner in limousines – with huge longhorns mounted on the hood! And the restaurant promised a free 72 ounce steak to anyone who could finish it, and the side dishes, in one hour. Prudently, none of us attempted the feat. http://www.bigtexan.com/index2.html

A final soak in the hotel’s hot tub with some of the gang, the hard core of late night partiers (ok, ok, including one more beer) and off to a sleep-of-the dead.

I guess I was a bit hungry the next morning. I had a breakfast of waffles in our hotel when they opened up their free breakfast buffet at 6:00 a.m., and then ate another very hearty breakfast of ham, toast, and eggs at about 8:30 with the gang. One more sightseeing “must” for the area after breakfast: we drove to the Cadillac Ranch – ten old Cadillac carcasses buried nose first in the middle of some eccentric farmer’s field, and vigorously graffiti’d over their base pink color. Fun and whimsical. http://www.libertysoftware.be/cml/cadillacranch/crmain.htm

At the airport heading back to Austin I got a reminder that these runs really do zone me out a bit. At the security checkpoint I stepped off to one side to take metal objects out of my pockets, remove my shoes and belt, etc. You know how you can just “go through the motions” of some actions, on autopilot, when you’re not paying attention? Well, after taking my belt off I realized that I had also just unbuttoned my jeans and unzipped my fly when I snapped back to the moment and realized that NO, the fact that I had just taken my belt off did NOT mean that I had to next take my pants off !! I‘m pretty sure no one saw this.

All in all, I had a great time. A beautiful location, a well-organized and executed race, a big crew of fun friends to run and party with. I’ll put this on my “do again next year” list for sure.