That day I ran up an over a mountain. Bradshaw mountain range.

I wanted to share my experience at running Crown King Scramble 50k. I have split this up into two sections. Part 1- Race Prep/Gear & Nutrition and Part 2- Race Day. Both sections are listed on this page. I share what worked or did not work for me in case it is helpful for you. This race was an Ornery Mule Racing invasion race. We rented an AirBnB as a group to keep our travel cost down. We are coming back to the race next year and welcome anyone in the community interested to join us. Let us know if you are interested. All are truly welcome. Do not be shy about joining us.

Part 1- Race Prep, Gear & Nutrition

I am wearing the women’s rabbit race pace tee and capris. Both have little cut outs in it to make it very breezy and cool. The top is loose fitting which I appreciate. The tights hold me where I need to be held. I am wearing a size large, and measure as a size large by rabbit size chart. We have these in our store website.

Race Start line- the shores of Lake Pleasant, AZ
Course- through the heart of the Sonoran Desert then up and over the Bradshaw Mountain Range
Finish line- in the town of Crown King, AZ at the Crown King Saloon. A fun “screaming 2 mile downhill” to the finish!
Elevation profile- 6528 Feet of Climb / 2841 Feet of Descent

Signing up for this race was WAY out of my comfort zone. I could not imagine what it would be like to climb 6528 ft in a 50k -living and training in the Chicago suburbs I do not find trails with this much climb per mile. I spent the winter months searching out the hilliest routes to train on. I arrived for the race determined, excited, and ready to see what I could do.

**I dropped off my drop bags on Friday. The OMR 10 liter dry bags were easy to spot**

I heard about this race while on a trail run with my friend Chris Worden. He talked about how Crown King Scramble 50k is his favorite Aravaipa event. Chris described the challenging course, stunning views, and changing landscape. Upon finishing, you are greeted by the oldest bar in Arizona, the Crown King Saloon. It sounded like a great destination race for the Ornery Mule Racing team. A big group of us signed up, excited to tackle this beast.

Packet pickup was at Aravaipa Headquarters. I was excited to take a tour at such a cool place. It’s wonderful seeing how far the company has come since I ran my first Javelina 100 in 2008. They have built a great community that always makes me feel welcome. At the Headquarters, we took a photo of all of us that would be running in the morning. We were clean and bright eyed, ready for the adventure!

My race day gear, I did wear a lot of rabbit run gear. I love that it is a women owned company. The owner Monica has been extremely supportive of the trail running community. It makes me happy to support it.

Fitness journey. I have been working on my overall fitness/health. I worked with a Registered Dietitian to find what is best for me in nutrition. A big part of this includes eating gluten free, lots of veggies, lean protein, zero processed food and sugar free. During training I tested food that would be easy to carry and fueled me well.

Testing food during training allowed me to figure out how many calories, and what type of foods best kept my energy up. On one of my training runs I especially struggled. I felt hungry and lacked energy. That was actually helpful to me because I knew what did not work. I would need to make sure to have some food options that felt more like a meal to fill me up.

Nutrition in my drop bags:

Spring energy gels. They cost a little more than other gels because they have all natural ingredients. Other brands add calories with processed sugar to keep the cost down. I find it important to my nutrition to only use high quality nutrients.

Cinnamon raisin ezikial bread with butter. I had pre-buttered slices in individual plastic bags ready for morning breakfast and in my drop bag. I wanted something that would fill my stomach if I started to feel hungry. I used butter because that is something I would use at home, and have done fine on. I considered fresh “only peanut” peanut butter but was worried it would feel too dry in the desert.
Base salt. Lick it when needed.
Lara bars in various flavors.
Aid stations I ate/drank Gnarly Fuel20, bananas, dates, ginger and watermelon.
I ate early and ate often in the race

Race day outfit. I thought hard about how to dress. The beginning of the race is through the Sonoran Desert. The temps only showed a high in low 60s, which is cool for the area. Everyone warned that it would feel hotter than that because of sun and lack of cover. The race finishes above 6,000 feet and the temps were in the 40s there. I personally get more stressed about feeling cold than feeling hot so I decided to go with capri pants. I am glad I did. I felt a little hot in the legs for a short period of time. Once I got higher in the mountains I appreciated the cover. My legs were always warm and ready to run whenever the course opened up with a flat, downhill or runnable uphill….which there was more of than I expected. I also appreciated the feel of the slight compression.

rabbit UtiliBra- love this sports bra. It has a pouch in the back to hold my phone. I measure as a large by size chart and am comfortable in a large.
rabbit speed capris- love these! I already ordered me a second pair! They have little cut outs in the calve area that helps them still feel cool for racing.
rabbit swish jacket 2.0- This is a pack jacket- super lightweight, water resistant jacket with nice stretch. Very comfortable. I was able to pack it up in the heat and stick in my pack to wear when it got cold again higher up the mountain.
boco Cool & Flashy runner trucker
short sleeve tech shirt- I prefer a short sleeve to give my shoulders protection from the heat. I feel it overall keeps me feeling cooler. My favorite race shirt is the rabbit race pace shirt. It has a looser fit, and the same little cutouts as the capris.
A healthy layer of sunscreen sprayed on entire body and face.
Pack for nutrition and water bottles. I am not a fan of drinking out of bladders. I love these water bottles in my pack. They are streamlined to my body. Hold a good amount of water, and to me, water taste better out of these. UltrAspire Ultra Flask
Darn Tough no show socks- these were amazing with all the water crossings. My feet felt fresh and dry even after slushing through mud.
Ornery Mule Racing bandana- this was perfect for covering my face when jeeps passed on the dusty roads. The material is very light weight and soft. I like that it has many different colors on it. I can fold it to show the color that best matches the outfit I am wearing.
Topo Mountain Racer 2- these have been a great training shoe. I repurchased them already once. I will keep these in my rotation but will be testing out some other brands as well.

Part 2-Race Day!

Race morning

Our group stayed in the closest town that has hotels and rentals, it was a 40 minute drive to the start line. We left for the race at 4:30 am. As we drove out of town I could see we were getting away from civilization. I sent my daughter a text to tell her I love her. I figured I would not have any more cell service before or during the race. As soon as I sent the text I lost all service. I had no idea if she got the text. I found out that she did, and she responded immediately, “Good luck, watch your step.” (if only I had read that text… spoiler alert)

6 am start: We arrived with plenty of time for our 6 am start, parking was easy. After taking a race morning selfie by Lake Pleasant, I chatted with Chris Worden and Andy Jones-Wilkins for some positive vibes. With everyone lined up, the race started. I came prepared with a headlamp, but it was not needed. The sun came up quickly.

Pacing: I figured the most runnable areas would be early in the race. I was careful to start out at my easy long run pace. I wanted to make sure I had enough in the tank for when the big climbs started happening.

Sonoran Desert- The 1st part of the course is on a forest road in the heart of the Sonoran desert. I found the course easy to run here. It was scenic, rolling hills. The light was pretty this early in the morning.

Gradually the course turned into the rugged jeep roads that lead to Crown King. I ran the downhills, the flats, and part of the uphills. I power hiked the climbs; the miles were quickly ticking away.

This is the spot I saw Brett stop and soak in the beauty of where we had come from. You can see Lake Pleasant on the upper left hand side of this photo. That is where we started at. The winding jeep roads is what we ran up and over the Bradshaw mountain range.

The trail winded through the Bradshaw mountain range, constantly moving upwards. At one turn a man named Brett, who was running just in front of me, stopped to look back at where we had come from. I could see the joy in his soul as he soaked up the beauty. I stopped in the same spot, a perfect ridge to see the miles of winding roads we had been running. It was hard to believe we had traveled so far as we looked back and saw Lake Pleasant far in the distance.

I stay super focused on pace. Normally I love chatting with people on the race course, but I mainly stayed to myself at this race. Instead I chose to focus on moving forward at my ideal pace. I did not want to take a chance on talking with others. It could cause me to start running too fast and burn myself out, or slow down my pace during the parts I was capable of running well. I was relaxed and comfortably stayed in front of the cut off all day.

I ran all the flats, downhills, and many of the uphills. If the uphill caused me to catch my breath at all I would start walking. I was very comfortable. I kept seeing miles fly by and I still felt super fresh. We were going up but it did not feel that hard. It certainly was not what I had imagined. I kept thinking, “I better save myself for when the climbing gets really hard.” Well, that never came. I do not think it was because this was an easy course, it is not. I was just ready for it and paced myself well.

You can see the course markings down the stream. This part of trail is probably normally dry.

Once I made it past French Creek Aid (mile 15.3), II was hesitant at the confidence I was feeling. I felt great. Still loving running everything. “Brett”, who was running the same general pace as me, commented on the jeeps on the course. He said, “if we can not run out of here there are no shortages of jeeps to catch a ride with.” I said, “there is no way I am riding out of here on a jeep. I am finishing this race.” He would realize I meant this soon.

There were a lot of cold water crossings. I did not mind them at all. The water was clear, and it was fun, adventurous.

Race course photo. I was walking along the edge so a jeep could pass. They rolled down the window and said, “be careful, that is a long way down if you trip”.

The course was rugged but I could always find a line to run the down hill, flats and a portion of the uphill. I was cruising along feeling strong. It was a rugged steep downhill when my toe caught a rock, and I went down and I had a hard faceplant. The rocky ground was not forgiving. I knew instantly that I had broken my nose- this was not my first broken nose. Brett came to me to make sure I was okay. The Medics were there fast in their 4 x 4. It was so quick that I felt like they must have seen the fall. Brett said, “You are in good hands” and continued on. The two medics got the bleeding stopped in my nose. They asked me questions to make sure I had my head together. I was sharp, and clear. They gave me an ice pack to put on my nose and were very thoughtful in helping me clean up. One of them mentioned I should clean out my mouth, now full of dirt. At this point I was anxious to move on, I felt good and did not want to bother with cleaning up any more. I said, “I would like to keep going. I only have 10 miles left.” They agreed but let me know they would be checking on me at each upcoming aid station.

I was refreshed and happy to keep going. I started to walk to be cautious but that felt very slow. So I ran while holding the ice pack on my nose. My pace slowed down after the fall, not wanting to take a chance of falling again. I ran with more caution than I had been. I felt great, well…. maybe a bit annoyed I broke my nose, but I was so happy to continue towards the finish line.

The miles continued to tick by fast. I almost did not like it when yet another mile was done. The finish line was coming so fast, and I was having so much fun running the course. Every aid station the volunteers made sure Medics knew I was there, and I was checked on. The Medics asked me questions about the day, my birthday, and stuff like that just to make sure I was still doing well. I was. If anything, I was sharper than ever.

I enjoyed seeing the jeeps and 4x4’s on the course. It was interesting to see another sport enjoying the mountain. It was an incredibly hard course for them. I imagine only the most experienced 4 wheel drivers could drive this trail. There were memorials along the course to those that tried and did not make it. I continued to run the flats, downhills and some uphills: Remembering to take care of my nutrition needs during climbs.

After passing through the next couple of aid stations I decided to wipe the inside of my mouth out on a climb. Afterall, the Medics had said I had dirt in there. I laughed when I realized the dirt also had a healthy amount of blood in it from the fall. I must have been a scary sight going in and out of aid stations. No wonder the volunteers always knew right away I was the one that fell.

All day I kept thinking that I needed to make sure I did not cash my legs because I wanted to run the “Screaming 2 mile downhill” to the finish line. I had watched videos online and knew exactly what it looked like. Fun. Just before I got to the top of the mountain I met up with a young man I had ran with for a bit (before I fell). He had been a road runner, and this was his first 50k. He shared that he doubted he would go back to road marathons and enjoyed the ultra distance and trail. When I caught him he said, “Oh good, you are not the one that fell and broke your nose.” I let him know that it was in fact me. He shared that the trail buddies I had been running around were all concerned and would be so happy I got to finish. While hiking this final climb together, we arrived at a downhill. I looked at my watch and realized we were two miles from the finish. I turned to my young friend and said, “Let's crush this final 2 miles.” He said, “let’s do it!” and we took off. I felt fresh and I was cruising along at a good pace. I am sure I would have been more aggressive if I had not fallen, but it still felt good to feel strong running to the finish line. It was amazing!

The town of Crown King is charming. I loved the finish line and energy. I got my “I survived Crown King Scramble 50k sticker, finisher glass, and headed to the Medical tent. I had promised the race course medics that I would do that when I got there. I went to get my finish line food and my trail run buddy Brett was there. He was so happy to see me and hear that I finished and gave me a hug; An excellent example of why I love the trail running community. I am so glad I tried something that I had no idea if I could finish. I knew all day long that I would be back for this race. I am looking forward to the next Ornery Mule Racing invasion race. Big thank you to Chris Worden for the invite, and the Aravaipa community for taking such good care of us Midwestern runners.

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Check out these articles for my preparation for Crown King Scramble 50k and More!

“FOOD HAUL, TRAVELING AND MENTAL PREP- RACE WEEK”

“BHAG 2023-SETTING AND ACCOMPLISHING GOALS”