I was going to race on the 4th but my friend Craig made a post
about running Timp in the dark and I knew that it would up the fun
factor by at least 10x. I was up Wednesday for work at 3am, worked until
5pm, went home, ate, took a 30 minute power nap and met the gang at
9pm. I knew it would be a tougher night but it was too good to pass up.
A group of 18 were on the trail at just before 10. It was my first
long tech trail run in the dark so I was quite cautious but it was so
much fun. I followed Dan out and ran the first couple until Craig caught us and Dan turned around. Craig and I were soon alone and just enjoyed
the trip up. Both of us were feeling low energy so we hiked a good
portion but I still had a PR on the climb which is funny. I need to go
back and push in the day and see what happens. We hit the summit just
before midnight in 1:45, Craig is an ultra beast and crushed me on the
scramble to the top.
We waited on the summit enjoying the views until almost everyone was
up and then I was freezing so I started down. I had to change a headlamp
battery so most everyone got ahead but as soon as we hit the saddle it
was on and I made it down very quickly for the dark. I wanted to give
Craig a rabbit to chase and I made sure he didn't catch me. Such a fun
night.
Made some new friends and got to see some old ones I haven't seen in a while. It was great to see Dan at the start and have him lead us all out the first couple miles. Hopefully this run will become a tradition. I made it home at
3:30am and was finally in bed at 4. Exhausted and happy. Enjoy your
holiday everyone!