The Lost Dutchman Marathon Report

Apache Junction, Arizona

After a week of heavy rains that had threatened to change the route of the course, we woke up on Sunday morning to beautiful clear skies. An early start to the day 4am and then off to the rodeo grounds to catch the buses. That was when we learned that the start would be at the originally planned location, and was it ever worth it. We arrived in the dark to "Don's Base Camp" in the Superstition Mountains, where the organizers had set up many small camp fires of burning mesquite. My clothes still smell of it. Gradually the sun started to come up and that was when we realized that we were surrounded by "mountains". The 7am start went off without a hitch and we followed red dirt (mud at times) packed roads for the first 6.5 miles mostly downhill and through a few large "puddles". Once we hit Hwy 60 the sun was up, but not at all hot. Ran through some beautiful neighbourhoods with huge Cactii everywhere. Here was where started to make up for all the early downhill. At mile 23 was the Lost Dutchmans revenge, a 100 yard hill straight up. Most people walked up it, including yours truly. Eventualy arriving back to the rodeo grounds to a suprisingly large crowd. A good event that I would recommend to everyone. The only complaint I had was the egg burritos as the post race food. So I went for steak and Guiness.