Earlier this month, I ran the Sierra Vista Trail 50K in the Organ Mountains National Monument in Las Cruces, NM. I’ve run one of their distances from 30K-100K many times in years past. The race is directed by the Southern New Mexico Trail Alliance, a team of volunteers who build and maintain trails here.
The route skirts the western base of the mountain chain winding through prickly vegetation, numerous rocks and through arroyos and dry washes. The weather was almost perfect; not too hot, but kind of blowy in the afternoon. I was mostly alone on the trail all day and really enjoyed the quiet and solitude.
I wasn’t too fast or anything since I have been recovering from a bout of plantar fasciitis and some achilles pain, not to mention that I’m old and getting slower each year. In spite of that, I finished in 8:30. I didn’t run much last fall, but was able to scrape through the Franklin Mountains Trail half mary in January. I was signed up for the 50K, but had to drop down since I hadn’t been training very much.
Anyway, here are some pictures from the race and I have included some links from past Sierra Vista adventures at the bottom.
