Started out rolling and I was starting to think that 2000 feet of climbing really wasn't going to be bad at all! And then we hit Blue Suck Trail and yes, it did suck, it started with ladder like steps that went straight up and then it just kept climbing and climbing for about 3 miles. There were 4 of us that were together and we just fast walked up the hill, it was a very technical course, only one person could get by at a time and there were sections where if you took a bad step you could potentially fall down a pretty steep cliff, kinda scary. We reached the top, checked in at the checkpoint, and then headed back down. Left on Stoney Run trail which was yes, you guessed it, very stoney. I ended up being in the lead so I was pushing the pace so that I wouldn't feel like I was holding anyone up. After about 30 minutes of cruising at a pretty good pace, no one was really right behind me, I went to drink from my camelback and I tripped over a rock and went skidding down the trail, head first, it was as if I was going in slow motion, I remember sliding and sliding. All in this same slow motion moment I was trying to understand if I was in pain, if I could keep running, if I needed to stop, all these questions!?!? I didn't feel like figuring it out, I just needed to run. So I got up, let a couple people by, and kept going. 20 more minutes later we get to a stream and I stop to wash off what I had envisioned was blood all over my leg. Turned out it was berely bleeding at all. Since I had fallen on my hand, my shoulder, my hip, and my knee, pretty much all at the same time, I had made it out injury free! My knee was in pain but it was something that I could live with for a while. In the meantime though I had lost the people I was running with and I started to freak out about potentially getting off course without others around me so I sped up to try to catch them. I caught the one woman that I was running with earlier so we did the last small climb and sprint into the finish together.

I gave this run my all, I had very little left at the end. I was happy with my performance, and glad that I was able to shake off the fall and not let it affect me negatively. I had a lot of incentive to go pretty fast, my goal was to try to stay with a group so that I wouldn't have to worry about navigation, the course had a ton of twists and turns, in fact a bunch of guys who normally would have finished the course pretty quickly went 20 minutes off course so they berely finished in front of me. And to think that most of the iron distance competitors started the run portion of the iron after dark, I can't imagine doing this course in the dark! Jeff did the same run course during the half iron duathlon and he almost stepped on a rattlesnake! Yikes!

Not push the downhills quite so much! I should have let people go in front of me so I could watch their steps.

Food and shower and then race volunteering! They sent me and another volunteer to mile 13 of the bike course where we had to check in each biker as they came through. At that point it was only the iron participants who were still coming through (it was 4:00 PM). And some of them were not looking great. One of them came in and layed down right next to us and took a nap. I hope he finished, he was worried about missing the 24 hour cut off time. A lot of people DNFed the half and full iron races, the bike course is supposedly brutal, 7500 feet of climbing. In fact Jeff almost DNFed, he was doing the half iron duathlon and he came in from the bike looking really rough and not sure if he was going to be able to do the "run". But he decided to finish it anyway, I'm glad he did b/c I know he would have regretted it later if he had quit.


I am definitely going to do this race again next year, though I'll probably do the half iron tri or duathlon. I need to work on my technical trail running, especially under rocky conditions - this will be good for my foot placement and hopefully help with the mental stress of worrying about where to place each foot for each step - that took a TON of energy.


I loved the people at this race, it mainly adventure racers and there were a lot of ultra endurance athletes there. They are semi insane but a lot of fun!!! Everyone on the Odyssey staff is super cool, I had a great time volunteering! I would recommend Odyssey races for anyone who is looking for a really fun and challenging race!!