Eddie Padilla's Staging Area

I’ll start off by saying it was my first half marathon although I do run rather frequently (street and canyon). The course was difficult as I had issues with my headlamp (I should have trained with it before), and I wasn’t quite prepared for how hard the course would be on my body.

At the beginning was an uphill run which seemed to last almost two miles (although I think it was a mile and a half), glad to get it out of the way in the beginning, but I do wish there was a system in place to make it easier on the runners, such as – if you are going to walk at any time, stay to the right, runners to the left. The uphill trail has a little more packed dirt on the left and right, and a mound of soft sand in the middle, and about three people wide for the most part. As I was trying to pass people who were walking, I had to make the difficult transition from left to right going through the soft sand. The downhill slope towards the end was also hard on my body, very hard dirt surface with little 2-inchish ledges you run down, so I was constantly dropping and could feel it in my lower back if I wasn’t careful. Surprisingly, I was able to maintain my stamina throughout, although at about 10.5 I started to feel fatigued.

Definitely bring a bandanna (one that is already closed and stretchy so you can wear around your neck and bring up when you are near a crowd of people with a lot of sand, or when cars go by, is what I recommend). I had one and I’m sure it made the race a lot more enjoyable.

The staff was great, the aid station placements and items were a Godsend! I’m not sure if those energy gels work, but I was all about the placebo effect in those getting me through after mile 3 and right at the end. I would definitely do a Vacation Race again, although I don’t know if I would return to Joshua Tree. Perhaps after a few more half marathons I will. It was definitely an experience, and a good one as I reflect back.