DirtyGirlZ100 Epic Adventure - Into the Desert PART 1

DirtyGirlZ100
Charito, Krista, Kristina, Jen & Maggie

PART 1: Because every good story needs to be told in parts.
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If setting up a tent the size of a hotel with 5 minutes to spare before dark with four other crazy, hungry, car fatigued bitches is any indication of how well this crew would work together and get along, then that challenge alone was a great prediction of ultra success. Seriously. We had that thing up in less than five minutes. Okay. That might be an exaggeration but it was definitely a smooth operation. Or at least it was until some random freak blast of a wind lifted up the entire right side and nearly all of us in it too. Oops. I guess we forgot to stake a few corners. But it was all good.

T minus 15 minutes before dark.

Needless to say, my trip out to Virgin, Utah to crew and pace my friend Maggie in her first 100 miler was nothing short of epic good times. 

Bam! Tent up!

Now let me back up a little because this running adventure was predefined epic even earlier than our tent raising. In fact, I think it was somewhere in the middle of the Nevada desert, just after Walker Lake (300 miles into our trip. I'm totally guessing here. It must have been at LEAST 300 freakin nowhere miles into the desert) that our ultra shenanigans began. Maggie was jonesin' for a run and couldn't keep her running legs in the car. You could tell that girl was going through some serious withdrawals. She had been scouting trail alongside the freeway for who knows how long before we finally picked a spot near a small peak to pull over. I had no idea the desert could be so cold and windy in the middle of the day. It looked hot and dry from inside our toasty car. Mother nature can be quite deceptive that way.

We pull over. Doors fling open. It looks like we are all about to institute a Chinese fire drill. Everybody's putting on jackets, shoes and buffs to cover their ears. Then we're off to explore "public lands." 

But first we gotta get through the gate. Good thing Jen and I have our running minions along to close the technically challenging gate behind us. Really. Why should we do all the work?

Then we were off to run for 20 minutes. Maybe more, but not a minute less. GO!

"Hey Mom! This is where they hide the dead bodies!" This was Charito's joke about this picture. I was totally cracking up. Seriously, Jen looks like she found a dead body.

Is that prehistoric man squatting in the distance?

Nope. Its just a couple crazy bitches licking rocks in the desert.

 

Seriously. WTF? Shouldn't we be running? Or at least driving?

And THIS is where the theme of the weekend began. I dared Maggie to lick a rock or she dared me, I don't remember exactly. The dirt looked like it had a layer of salt or sulfur or something salty or alkaline or toxic or radioactive (the Nevada desert is known for bomb testing) which had crystallized on top and I wanted to find out what it tasted like. Ok. I'll admit that's weird, but you shouldn't be surprised. So... I said...

"LICK IT!"

And we both did.

It tasted like dirt. Go figure.

From then on "Lickit!" became our signature for this adventure. Because every race needs a good cheer and "Lickit!" was just as good as any cheer. And it seemed fun... and stupid... and a little naughty. Afterall, our team name was the DirtyGirlZ. We even had team tees designed by yours truly, Zap. 

Our Team Shirt

"We like our runs Rock Hard and All Night Long"

So we piled back in the car to continue the 12 hour - now 13 hour plus - journey to Utah. Needless to say, we are easily distracted by things like...

Suggestive signage...

 

Old and creepy cemetaries...

 

And even creepier motels...

Seriously? Apparently, it was SOMEONE's dream to open a clown motel someday. I'm all on board with the entrepreneurial spirit, but a clown motel? Someone's pipe dreams... apparently, straight from the pipe. Crazy.

And... 

Pulling over just to... jump?

 

And art relics of Burning Man's Past...

...which we couldn't resist making into our own, personal, DirtyGirlZ album cover entitled Tonopah Station. Jen knows how to strike the awkward rocker pose. She's practiced this look before - complete with gang signs. And we laughed at how much of a vandal Maggie was being trying to be sneaky and break into the van on the right side of the picture while the rest of us were "posing." Endless amounts of laughter with tears ensued after this stop.

 

It was one long ass car trip. No really. My ass complained. In fact, it was so fed up with being stuck in a car for 13 plus hours that it decided to break out of jail just as we pulled into the small town of Beatty before we hit Vegas. So I ended up wearing pants with a big hole in the left ass cheek all weekend. That's right. Cuz ya'll know I like to be classy (and that was my only pair of long pants). Don't worry, I wore a pair of long underwear underneath lest you be blinded by the white flash.

We were feeling pretty cramped and carbound as we crossed the Utah state border and we breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled into camp around 8:30pm or so, just as the sun was setting. The view of Watchman Peak towering close to 2500 ft above our campsite was stunning. We were all instantly in love with Zion.

DirtyGirlZ100 Epic Adventure Post to be continued... 

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Majority of the photos in this post are courtesy of Charito, Jen, Maggie and Kristina.