Pikes Peak Ascent

I have been looking forward to the 2013 Pikes Peak Ascent since shortly after crossing the finish line last year. Many things were different about this year and I was excited to see how much faster I could make the grueling climb from downtown Manitou Springs at an elevation of 6,300ft to the finish line at 14,050ft on Pikes Peak.

Due to slower trail half marathon qualification times, my brother and I were forced to start in wave two last year. This meant we would be starting one-half hour after the 700+ wave one runners. This year, based off our Ascent times from last year we would be starting in wave one. Last year, when we started in wave two, it allowed us to have the trail to ourselves almost to Barr Camp but we would end up passing ~500 wave one runners before reaching the summit. This made for slow going on parts of the narrow rocky single track trail. I figured this change alone would be worth a good chunk of time this year. Another thing different this year is that I had run almost double the number of miles as last year. I thought for sure I was set up well to shave off a good chunk of time, but the mountain had something else in mind.

Google Earth view of the course

Coming just three weeks after the Speedgoat 50k, I was a little lost in how to approach the last few weeks of training before the Pikes Peak Ascent. I felt surprisingly good after Speedgoat so the following Saturday, I decided to run the La Luz trail round trip. It ended up being my slowest time in the last three years. Obviously, my legs were not fully recovered yet. So I took it easy the next week and decided to hit Santa Fe Badly as my last tune up run before race day. My legs felt really good and I think I set a new personal record on the climb to the 12,622ft Santa Fe Baldy summit, although my watch died so I wasn't sure exactly. Either way, my legs felt good and I thought I was ready for action.

Brother and I just before the start

We arrived at my brother's house in Colorado Springs late Friday night and were quickly off to bed for a few hours of sleep before the early wake up. Little sleep is not ideal for the night before a race, but life always seems to get in the way. It was nice to have a place to stay just a short drive from the start. In the morning I headed outside to take the dog for a walk before the race and noticed a strange car in the driveway. Didn't think much of it until I noticed my mom sit-up from the reclined passengers seat, then my dad slowly popped up from the reclined drivers seat. They decided to make the 12 hour drive from North Dakota to surprise us and watch the race! They had arrived at 4:30 in the morning and decided to catch a bit of sleep in the driveway so they didn't wake us up. It was quite the surprise and it was the first time they would see my brother and I race.

My training buddy waiting for the action to begin

The rest of the morning went smoothly and we arrived at the starting area to pick up my bib with plenty of time to spare. It was then that my wife noticed I forgot my watch! Luckily my nephew was willing to cruise back to the house and grab it for me. (Thanks Alex, you're a lifesaver!) I have become quite attached to my watch while running as it lets me know how far I've gone, my pace, elevation and all that good stuff. I feel lost without it! He arrived back at the starting area just in time to deliver my watch and we made our final warm-up jog down Manitou Ave.

And we're off!

We lined up a few rows from the front and prepared for the mad dash through town. At the gun, a good number of people took off pretty fast but it wasn't quite as bad as I anticipated. We covered the first mile in 7:54 before the serious climbing began. As soon as we hit the trail, the crowd ahead started to slow down and we passed a lot of people in the steep initial climb called the W's. I felt pretty good during this section and we reached the top of the W's in ~34 minutes, right about on pace for a 2:50 ascent. For registration, I predicted a finish time of 2:45 but knew that would be a tough task. I did however think somewhere in the 2:50-2:55 range was pretty realistic.

After the W's, the crowd started to thin out and there were just a few people to pass and play leapfrog with. This section is deceptively hard as it seems less steep than the W's but it is still hard to get into much of a consistent running rhythm. We reached the next aid station at No Name Creek(8,800ft) in 50:33, 4.3 miles from the start.

All bundled up and enjoying the morning at 14,000ft

From No Name creek to Barr Camp, the trail starts to level out a bit and even has a few short downhill sections. Through here I was still feeling pretty good and tried to keep a nice steady effort. I felt like we were moving well and started pulling away from a few of the people we had been running with since the top of the W's. My legs started to feel the burn of the strong running effort as we got closer to Barr Camp, but I felt like it was a sustainable effort. Barr Camp would be my first water refill, so I added a couple servings of Tailwind powder to my bottle as we approached the aid station in order to minimize time spent at the aid station. The refill went smoothly with minimal time lost. I reached Barr Camp slightly behind my brother but we would leave the aid station together. We arrived at Barr Camp(10,200ft), 7.6 miles into the race with 1:27 on the clock. We were still on pace for ~2:50 finish time, but that would soon change.

Leaving Barr Camp I was feeling pretty good, but soon started to slow down. I wasn't feeling particularly bad, but my brother and a few others started slowly pulling away. This was my first indication that I was not moving as well as I thought anymore. It was hard to get into any sort of rhythm with all the boulders and irregular footing on this section. Approaching A-frame I knew 2:50 was long gone and it was going to be tough to break 3:00. I reached A-frame(11,950ft), 10.2 miles into the race in 2:07. My brother put three minutes on me from Barr Camp to A-frame! Last year I hit A-frame in 2:10, so I knew it was not going to be easy to break 3:00 at this point.

Coming up the switchbacks near the Cirque

"16 Golden stairs" come up behind this rock pile

Shortly after A-frame the trail breaks out of treeline. This is my favorite place to run and despite the lack of oxygen, it managed to put me in a little better mood. I could also see that there were a decent number of people just up ahead that I could work on catching. The first mile above timberline I was able to catch and pass 5 or 6 people and even though it felt like it took forever to catch them, I was surprised when I looked behind me to see I was quickly pulling away after passing. After the initial group of people, it became a little more spread out and I found it difficult to get motivated to keep pushing myself.

Entering the home stretch

Finally caught green shirt guy

My legs were still feeling pretty good, but the thin air made it difficult to maintain a run for more than ~100 yards. Approaching the Cirque at 13,300ft elevation I was catching up to a few more people and tried to push the effort once again. There are a few runnable sections through here and I tried to make the most of them, because I knew I would slow to a crawl at the 16 Golden stairs. After this point it is mostly a blur, I could hear the cheers of encouragement from my family, but only caught a quick glimpse of my wife as I went past her. I was in the zone and trying to move as fast as I could for as long as I could. Since my legs still felt pretty strong this consisted of some short sprints followed by out of breath stumbles, until I could surge ahead once again. I know I managed to pass a few people in the final mile, but don't really know how many.

Almost there, one switchback to go!

In this section I heard someone yell "a minute thirty to break three hours"! I could not believe how fast the time past. It seemed like I had only taken a couple steps when he yelled out "one minute to break three hours"! And the same for "thirty seconds"! Before I knew it the time was gone and I didn't break three hours. It was the most surreal time warp I've ever experienced, I couldn't believe the time could disappear so quickly.

Brother crossing the finish line in 2:56

Crossed the finish line in 3:01

I ended up crossing the finish line near the summit of Pikes Peak at 14,050ft after 13.32 miles and 7,815ft of climbing in 3:01:07, about five minutes behind my brother who crossed the line in 2:56. I was a bit disappointed in my finish time, but I shaved 3 minutes off my time from last year. It was a perfect day to run up the peak! Anytime spent in such a place is a good day, so it's hard to be too upset. I was just really expecting to break 3:00, but I guess the Peak had different plans. This just means I will have to go back and try it again. It was great to have my parents there to watch my brother and I race for the first time! Hopefully they will be able to make the journey to watch us more in the future.
 

We survived another Ascent!

With my parents and brother atop Pikes Peak

Gear:
La Sportiva Vertical K shoes
Smartwool PHD Run Light Micro socks
Garmin 405cx GPS watch
REI Fleet running shorts
CEP calf compression sleeves
Amphipod 20oz handheld bottle
Nathan 10oz Quickshot handheld bottle

Nutrition:
~350 calories Tailwind nutrition
~40 ounces water

Speedgoat 50k

Speedgoat! Wow, where to begin...

This is only my 3rd year of trail running, but I have been dreaming of running the Speedgoat 50k long before I was even a runner. Anyone who knows me well, knows I LOVE the mountains. More specifically, I love to get above timberline where the air is thin and the views are endless. Speedgoat is a 50k mountain race with ~11,500ft of climbing and descending, up and around Snowbird ski area in Utah and is described by many as the toughest 50k in the US. Sounds perfect, sign me up!

After completing my first ultra marathon last November (White Mesa 50k), I was ready to tackle something with a bit more climbing. I convinced my brother that we should run Speedgoat, so as soon as registration opened we were both signed up. Now it was time to train, as the last line of the race information page on the website says "Start training now……cuz’ it’s gonna hurt!"

Great looking elevation profile!

I had big plans for my training, which included long runs with multiple ascents of the La Luz trail and hiking up the Sandia Ski area slopes with my son in the backpack for a little extra weight. Unfortunately all those plans were destroyed when most of the forests in New Mexico were closed down due to the extreme fire danger. So my training was modified to include more flat road running, lower elevation foothills trails and long drives to get in my long run on the weekends. I managed to get in some quality high elevation long runs, but could tell I was not handling the higher altitudes as well as in the past, not being able to get over 7000ft during the week. I noticed that unlike in the past, I felt really solid. No aches and pains like I have usually experienced while increasing the miles before a race. I was feeling pretty confident in my fitness before I started tapering off the miles a couple weeks out from the race. However my taper was terrible, every run was a struggle. Even an easy 3 miler around my neighborhood was a struggle just four days before race day, my legs just felt dead. My confidence was slipping away...

Up bright and early with a smile!

My wife, son and I headed to Snowbird a couple days early to relax and enjoy the mountains. I was excited to get running and climb the mountains surrounding our hotel at Snowbird. But I held back and relaxed in hopes of giving my legs a chance to come back to life. My brother and I both felt like a couple kids on Christmas Eve. After all the planning and training, it was time to see how much suffering Karl Meltzer could dish out on this course!

Taking a nap, waiting for the action!

Race morning went well, my wife and son were a couple troopers getting up and ready at 4 am. We headed to race check in and were all ready to go with plenty of time to spare. We headed out for a nice gentle 10 min jog to get the blood flowing just before the start, as there is not much opportunity to warm up on this course. Lining up at the start amongst some of the best mountain runners in the world was pretty awesome. It was a bit like being out on the field for the start of an NFL game... Not many sports allow average folks to be lined up right next to the pros.

The start/finish at the base of Snowbird

Heading off the start, my plan was to take the first 4000ft climb up to 11,000ft at a comfortable pace. I knew it was going to be a tough race and wanted to make sure I had enough left in the tank for the big climbs towards the end of the race. My legs felt pretty good on the climb, but I noticed immediately on one of the short downhill sections along the way that my ankle was hurting! I hadn't had any ankle pain during training and didn't twist it or anything, so I was baffled by the pain that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was not sure if it would allow me to run all the rocky downhill that was ahead. It continued to hurt on every downhill but didn't seem to get any worse.

And we're off!

Don't waste anytime starting the climb to hidden peak.

Most of the course was run on a mixture of steep rocky service roads and single track, but around mile 6 we got our first taste of the completely off trail sections of the course. It was a blast! Bombing down the mountain through grass, wildflowers, jumping over downed trees and boulders. I was laughing and smiling like a fool, life was good except for my ankle that kept reminding me to keep it under control. It was also in this section where I first witnessed the incredible descending skills of Ruby Muir from New Zealand. I thought I was moving quickly when she came blowing by me like I was standing still, wearing Vibram fivefinger shoes(closer to no shoes...!). Pretty amazing to see!

Approaching the top of Hidden Peak, 11,000ft (mile 8.3)

My brother stayed a couple minutes ahead on the climb, but I could see him most of the way and noticed he was not gaining any ground. I hit the first aid station on Hidden Peak(8.3 miles) at ~1:45, about 20 min behind the leaders. Those boys can fly! At the first aid station I was able to see that despite the cold wind and rain my wife and son were doing great. I dropped off my handheld bottle and grabbed my hydration pack which was filled with ~700 calories worth or tailwind nutrition and off I went.

The descent down Mineral Basin to Larry's Hole aid station(10.2 miles), was relatively uneventful. A nice cruiser section of service road and single track through a wildflower filled high alpine basin. I reached this aid station in about 2:02 and kept moving through since I had a full hydration pack filled with everything I needed.

Shortly after Larry's Hole was a short steep grunt up over Sinner's Pass which lead us to a nasty bowling ball sized rock filled jeep road down Mary Ellen Gulch to the Pacific Mine aid station. On this climb I continued my game of leap frog with both Ruby Muir(3rd place woman) and Stephanie Howe, who would go on to be the women's overall winner. I would usually pass them on the climbs only to be passed shortly after on the descents. This descent was relentless and felt like it would never end, and once again Ruby made me look silly as she flew by right through the loose rocks! We rolled into the Pacific Mine aid station(14.8 miles) around 2:47 into the race.

I checked in and quickly left the aid station after rinsing my head off with a sponge full of cool water. It felt great and for the first time in the race I was ahead of my brother, as he had to stop and fill his bottles. That didn't last long though and we ran the long uphill back up to Larry's Hole mostly together. This climb was rough as it was just a little too steep to run in most parts, but not quite steep enough to feel like hiking was the only way although we climbed ~2400ft in the 3 miles to the top of the climb. Towards the top of the climb, we hit a steep off trail section that really slowed me down. I could tell the legs were starting to tire from all the climbing and the fact I was getting behind on calories. A short steep downhill and a short climb put us back at Larry's Hole aid station(19.4 miles) with about 4:03 on the watch.

We were now to the toughest part of the course as we climbed the mostly off trail route up Mt Baldy to 11,051ft. I ran right through Larry's hole as I still didn't need to refill my pack, this wasn't good because I knew it meant I still wasn't drinking enough or getting enough calories. I was really thirsty but just couldn't seem to drink enough for some reason. The grunt up Baldy was ridiculous, in an awesome way... Just straight up the mountain through the grass, rock and wildflowers. With grades approaching 40% near the top, it was a struggle just to keep putting one foot in front of the other and I watched as my brother slowly pulled away up the mountain.

Coming into Tunnel aid station (mile 22.3)

Once to the top of Mt Baldy it was a fun little rocky descent back down to the Tunnel aid station(22.3miles), which I reached in 4:54. This was a fun stretch as I could now hear my wife and the others cheering us on as we cruised the last switchbacks to the tunnel. That is always good for a little energy boost. I took a big swig of water and grabbed my trekking poles. I gave my son a big zerbert on the cheek, smooched my wife and headed off through the tunnel with my brother who I once again caught at the aid station.

Grinding up Hidden peak. Photo: Derrick Lytle

After getting through the tunnel it was about a 2 mile 1000ft descent down a service road before beginning the final 1500ft climb back up to the summit of Hidden Peak. The poles helped with the steep climb but since I hadn't used them all year in training, my arms quickly tired. It was in this section where Stephanie Howe dropped the hammer and pulled away from us for the final time. It was impressive how quickly she dropped us and was able to hunt down the leader on the final descent. At mile 26 we reached the final aid station on top of the 11,000ft high Hidden Peak, with about 5:42 elapsed. I could only think about water at this point so had my wife dump out the Tailwind she had mixed up for me and filled the bottle with water, after chugging a bit of coke. I ditched my pack and poles and headed out for the final descent.

Arriving at Hidden Peak for the final time (mile 26)

It was here where I finally realized breaking 6:30 was very possible. My original thought was that 7:00 was a realistic finish time, with 6:30 possible and maybe 6:00 if all the stars aligned and I grew wings somewhere along the course. With 5 miles and 3000ft of descent to go, I dropped the hammer down from the peak until I hit the super rocky switchbacks where my ankle once again forced me to slow down. I could see my brother a ways ahead and realized I was catching him pretty quickly. As I came up behind him, I yelled "we can break 6:30 if we keep cranking!" His response was something like "I'm about to go into a bilateral cramp, my legs are toast!" I went past and figured he would hang on for the ride as he seems to have mastered the the ability to push through the pain. I was surprised when I looked back to find I was pulling away at a pretty quick rate, I knew he must have been hurting.

Shortly after that Andy, a local from Salt lake caught me and we chatted for a bit. He was moving well at this point and helped pull me along at a nice pace. I tried to hang on, but couldn't quite keep up and he ended up pulling away from me to finish about two minutes ahead. So after about 32 miles and 11,500 ft of climbing and descending I crossed the finish in 6:22:13, good enough for 22nd overall. My brother finished about four minutes later in 6:28, good enough for 25th overall.

Run details on Strava
 

Coming across the finish line!

Brother coming into the finish

I was pretty happy with my time and ranking, considering the crazy level of talent that was at the front of the pack. Sage Canaday took first in ~5:08 with Anton Krupicka chasing him down in the final descent to finish ~90 seconds behind. They both broke the previous course record set last year by mountain running legend Killian Jornet. It was an amazing day in the Wasatch mountains. Thanks to my amazing wife and son for continuing to support me through these crazy adventures, couldn't ask for a better crew! Also thank you to the Speedgoat, Karl Meltzer for putting on such a great event and laying out an awesome course!

Survived the Speedgoat!

Coolest trophies ever

Women's podium

Men's podium

Gear:
Pearl Izumi Trail N2 shoes
Injinji 2.0 Mid-weight socks
Patagonia Strider Pro shorts
CEP calf compression sleeves
Black Diamond ultra distance z-poles
Ultraspire Surge hydration pack
Amphipod 20oz handheld bottle

Nutrition:
~800 calories Tailwind nutrition - planned for ~1600, so I was way behind
~70 ounces water - way behind on this also
~5oz coke

Exploring Mt Taylor

With all the forest closures in New Mexico this summer, I have been forced to travel a bit to get in some of my long runs on new trails. Probably a blessing in disguise, because I've found there are many awesome areas for trail running in NM!

On June 29th I headed out to Mt Taylor, just outside of Grants, NM to check out some of the trails used for the Mt Taylor 50k. I was surprised at the rugged terrain and high altitude available. The trails were mostly empty of people, but wildlife was everywhere. I saw elk, deer, turkeys and lots of evidence of a healthy bear population as well.

Mt Taylor run details on Strava

Here are some pictures from my run.

Near the start of Gooseberry Trail

First views of the Mt Taylor along Gooseberry trail

The final big switchbacks along Gooseberry trail

Summit shot

Heading north off the summit, towards La Mosca fire lookout

Heading down the jeep road into Water Canyon

Looking up at La Mosca lookout from Water Canyon

End of jeep road, start of Water Canyon trail

View down into Water Canyon during climb to La Mosca saddle

Looking across saddle to Mt Taylor from La Mosca lookout

Lots of flowers along ridgeline road, east of La Mosca lookout

View down Water Canyon during climb back up to Mt Taylor

Cedro Peak 45k race report

On Saturday April 13, 2013 I ran the Cedro Peak 45K trail ultra marathon. I decided to run this race since it was close to Albuquerque, relatively inexpensive and fit well into my schedule. This would be my 6^th trail race at what is the start of my 3^rd year running. I have always been pretty active but only started running regularly 2 years ago after discovering how awesome the trails were around my new home of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Nice looking elevation profile! Not much flat running here...

This race would mark the first time I have been able to actually stick to and follow a training plan leading up to a race. Previous races were run on minimal training mostly due to a long battle with IT band issues in my knee. I knew my training was going well, setting personal bests on trails I run regularly in training and new mileage milestones. My highest mileage week in training was ~60 miles with several weeks over 50 miles. This was a big step up from my previous normal mileage of 20-30 miles a week and I was feeling great! I was a bit more limited though in my trail time, since my wife and I had our first baby in January. I logged a higher percentage of my miles close to home on the flatter desert trails and pushing my son in his stroller on the paved bike path.

Leading up to race day I started to have pretty severe tightness and discomfort in my right calf. My calves have been tight and sore before, but this was getting to the point of making me limp while running. I started to get pretty nervous that my chances of a good performance were slipping away. The last two weeks I was stretching like crazy, rolling my calf and massaging daily. I was able to loosen it up, but the pain was still there. My last couple taper runs were almost painful. As a last ditch effort for anything that might help I ordered a pair of CEP calf compression sleeves to wear.

Ready to go cheer on Dad! The back of his shirt says "Try & keep up!" :)

Race day morning was hectic as normal, trying to get out the door bright and early with our 3 month old son added to the preparation. Arriving at the start area, I decided the 35 deg weather was warm enough to ditch the long sleeve T-shirt and change to short sleeve. I had my wife switch my bib over to a different shirt, after getting our son all bundled up to watch his dad race for the first time. I headed out for a quick jog around the picnic area to warm up my calf, so I could stretch it out good before the start. To my surprise my calf was feeling better than it had all week!

We headed to the start line minutes before the start. Nobody seemed to want to get right up to the starting line, so I jumped right up there. At the start I lead the pack down the chute and onto the trail. I was surprised at how relaxed the pace seemed to be, with nobody jumping out in front of me. I tried to keep the effort easy, but glancing at my watch showed we were running a bit faster than I maybe should have been at the start of a 45k. I decided to roll with it since I felt great and it seemed like some others behind me were maybe breathing quite a bit harder than me. There were probably about 4-6 people in the lead pack, but not really sure since I didn’t take my eyes off the rocky trail long enough the get a good count. We covered the first 4 miles at around an 8:00 min/mile pace and I was feeling great!

Just after the start, heading for the trails!

At the first aid station about 5 miles in, the group behind me stopped while I kept rolling. Five miles into the race I was running alone in the lead. I had never been in this position before and wasn’t quite sure how I should handle the situation. Do I slow up and wait for the pack, keep up my own pace, maybe try to kick it down and drop them? I really had no idea what to do. I decided that I was feeling good so I would just continue to run my own pace and see what happens. I was having a blast tearing up the super rocky descents! In training I typically take it a bit easier through these sections, so it was awesome to just let it rip! Flying up and over big rocks, off drop offs and swinging around tight corners. This is what trail running is all about! If the beer glass we received as swag that says “I Love Rocks” wasn’t clear enough. By now it should have been clear, this course is rocky!

Just after 1st aid station

Good thing I love rocks!

More loose rock!

After about 10 miles of mostly downhill running, the course started its climb towards the second aid station and ultimately the top of Cedro Peak. I was excited to get to the second aid station since I would get to see my wife and son. I wasn’t sure how they were doing beings it was a pretty chilly morning and the first time taking our son out in the cold for an extended period of time.

Fun to fly down, slow to crawl up

Nice stretch of "trail"

Entering the single track to Cedro Peak aid station

I ran all alone until around the 11 mile mark where I started to pass a few of the folks who were running the 45 mile distance of the race. They started an hour before the 45k runners, which helped ease congestion on the narrow single track. This was a mental boost to start seeing and passing some people, and I knew I was getting close to the second aid station.

Coming into the second aid station, mile 12

At the aid station I found my “crew” there waiting and they were doing great! I got my bottle filled up and headed out. Aid stations are always such an adrenaline boost. A few hundred yards up the trail I had to back off the effort as I was starting to hyperventilate. Oops, I guess adrenaline doesn’t give you more oxygen! The climb up to Cedro peak was a bit draining but was a pretty run able grade since it was mostly on a dirt service road. I was starting to pass more 45 mile runners now and the encouragement I received was appreciated and gave me another little boost.

I hit the descent to the turn around pretty hard, as I was excited to turn around and start heading back to the finish. My watch was right about 2 hrs when I hit the turn around. I made mental note because I knew I would soon find out how much of a lead I had. After only a minute I passed the second place runner, this meant I only had about a 2 minute lead. And there were 4-5 other runners within about 5 minutes of me at the turn around. This was not as much of a lead as I was hoping for and was the first of many mental blows I would experience on my journey to the finish 14 miles away.

The climb back up the peak went pretty smoothly and the descent back to the aid station just flew by. I was probably running the downhills much harder than I should have been, and my legs were starting to feel the beating they were getting. I ran into the aid station, got my water bottle topped off and diluted my bottle of EFS liquid shot as it was starting to taste a bit too sweet at this point. The adrenaline rush of the aid station and seeing my crew once again pushed me to a pace that induced hyperventilation as I headed down the trail.

Leaving Cedro Peak aid station, mile 16

Shortly after leaving the aid station, the number of runners coming the other way was dwindling. The fatigue in my legs and the feeling of running alone was once again starting to wear on me. I was finding it hard to keep my effort up and was starting to worry about the other runners that were chasing me not too far behind. I was starting to realize that running alone in the lead is stressful with a constant feeling of being hunted down!

Start of the toughest climb, nice smooth rock

A few miles of downhill after the aid station lead to the start of the last 10 miles of the race, which were mostly uphill. A steep climb around the 21 mile mark was followed by a bit more gentle rolling climb to the finish. I figured if I could get the top of the big climb with nobody catching me, I would have a good chance of holding on to my lead. I could tell my pace was slowing as I approached the climb and decided to hike most of the climb, even though I had previously run most of it in my training runs. Around ¾ of the way up the climb I noticed the second place runner was only a few switchbacks behind and catching up fast. I tried to up the effort, but my legs were feeling pretty beat down after hammering all the downhills. Hitting the top of the climb I was still in the lead and hoped I could hold it. I knew I would need to stop at the last aid station for some water and hopefully a glass of coke for a final boost, as I had taken in very few calories since leaving the last aid station due to an uneasy stomach.

Trail shot with my running partner(from training run)

Not a welcome site at mile 21(from training run)

I hadn’t seen the other runner since the top of the climb, but knew he was now in full on chase mode after catching me on the climb. I hit the aid station, which took a bit longer than I hoped. As I was at the aid station the other runner came flying through at a pretty solid pace. I figured it was a strategic move on his part to come past at such a strong pace, as it would surely be a big mental blow to me. I got out of the aid station as quick as I could and for the first time in the race it was my time to chase down the leader.

With 5 miles to go I figured I could hang on for the ride. I had him in sight for maybe a mile before losing him. I was doing some serious negotiations in my head trying to get my legs to push through the pain and not let him get away. Nothing seemed to work… “a free pair of shoes for the winner!”, “gotta win this one for my son!”, “only a 5k left, crank it out!”, “this is what all the training is for!” and I’m sure many others. Didn’t matter, my legs were toast and had nothing left to give over the last few miles of climbing. To top it off the last mile or so of the course was rerouted through some brutal rocky, short steep pitches. I was beat down and just hoping I wouldn’t get passed again.

Coming down the chute to the finish

I crossed the finish in 4:00:36 after 28 miles of rough rocky single track with 4100ft of elevation gain and descent. About 3 minutes behind the winner and good enough for second place overall. I’m sure there are some things I could have done differently, but overall I am happy with the result and ended up doing better than expected. It was a great race and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging ultra. Thank you to the race director and all the volunteers who made this such a great event. Also, all the other runners were super friendly and the endless encouragement along the trail is a boost that can not be gotten from energy gels or sports drinks! Maybe I’ll be back next year to try again…

Sweet beer glass, perfect with a Happy Camper IPA for recovery