The snake encounter was the first time I've laughed out loud at a race report.

Good job!

Great read.  Several from my running club were out there for the race.  That storm was wicked that's for sure.

I headed back down the trail with the added fear that culminated into believing that every crooked line in the sand, or stick on the trail was a snake that had been dispatched to do me harm. 

I'll have you know that I've run the Competitive Loop (the race course) close to 100 times and I've never seen a rattler on that trail.  Elsewhere in The White Tanks, yes, but not on that trail.  And, yes, once a snake is seen any stick or line in the sand is quickly examined for serpent possibilities.  Nick and Jamil always puts on good races.

 

I've run thousands of miles in the AZ desert and that's the first time I've encountered a rattlesnake down there. Like LB said, I was wondering if the storm got them moving, so I was on high alert after that.

We have plenty of rattlers in our deserts. I've probably seen a dozen or so in The White Tanks alone over the 3 ish years I've been running out there.

Wow.  Congrats.  Glad you made it.

It was touch and go for a while, Sandy.

I don't think there is anything that could make me crap my pants, except stepping on a rattlers head. Holy Crap that would get the heart rate up.

In a rush to get through the race report, I failed to mention the string of bizarre utterances that escaped my lips. I wish I had been wearing a GoPro.

Did you really say "Wow did that just happen?". Or did you say holy fu'king sh't did that just happen? ". Are those photos of lightning you took?  What an intense night that began strangely (for you) slow due to heat.

 

Great job and thanks for sharing...you are one of our best English students; always getting your reports in timely. 

Pretty perceptive, Sue. I actually said, "JESUSFUCKSHIT!!!" Then I called the snake an asshole and kicked some sand in his face. I try to keep the blog PG-13.

Somebody else took the lightning photos. I wasn't carrying a camera. There was also some great video shot of the storm that I would like to get my hands on.

 

 Courtesy of Nick Coury

Nick showed me that video but it was taken about an hour after they stopped the race. Things had calmed down by then and as you can see, the storm had moved into the distance. Jamil has better footage on his GoPro. Because he filmed so much of the race, I'm hoping he puts something together of the entire event.