Land of the Sun Endurance Ride

Well it's been a week of nerves and excitement, busy getting ready, and then on Friday off I went to Wickenburg for my first endurance ride - 25 miles, including a mandatory hour stop in the middle to rest the horses, which started at 8 a.m. and had to be completed by 2 p.m. to get a finish.

This is the view I saw most of the ride:



It was awesome. Beautiful place to ride, great trail, wonderful friends, friendly folks volunteering to see everything run smoothly, really nice campground, tasty food, lots of laughter and excitement - and yes, it was HARD! I wasn't sure I would make it, I was totally beat by the time we got back... and I was worried about Katie too, this is twice as much as she's ever had to do, and in a time limit... but she did great at her lunchtime vet check and although her pulse was high when we finished, she pulsed down quickly as she should and we passed at 1:57 - less than 3 minutes to spare! I am still glowing with accomplishment and yes achy too!

The fun part, for me, is that I was the LAST finisher... which would have garnered me the coveted "Turtle Award" except for some reason they didn't have one this year. However I ws excited to call my mom and share that she was no longer the only turtle in the family. (When she used to run 10K races, she got that a lot!)

Am I going to do it again? Well I'm going to return my borrowed endurance saddle, because I found one just like it to purchase. The next ride is Sonoita in about 3 weeks... and I'm already planning :)