overtaking haynes

I just got back from iceland yesterday and so i can say some stuff about the trip. I have never had a more enjoyable week in my life. Iceland is a great place. I didn't sleep well since it never got dark and i did a bunch of camping, but it is simply awesome.

The only running i did was the previous saturday i ran 13. On tuesday i hiked up the highest peak in iceland with a guide. I was on the largest glacier in europe. it was pretty spectacular. It was a 6700 ft ascent and total distance was 15 miles total. The trip took just over 12 hours. The day after I did another long 5.5 hour hike/tiny bit of running for 13 miles up a mountain with 3300 foot of vertical. Legs were a bit tired on thursday. On friday I walked around reykjavik that day and on sat was the race. The bus left at 4:30am and we didn't get to the race start until 8:40 or so and the race started at 9. Our bus was the last one in line so i barely checked in and got to the toilet in time. I didn't have time to discard my jacket or body glide in my pocket which was annoying. there was simply no time. I didn't feel all that well for the first 1.5hrs. i had some problems with my stomach and a woman was in front of me by a tiny bit as well as people who don't look fast. Then I farted a ton of times and felt much better. I picked it up and just kept getting faster. By the end I couldn't seem to get tired no matter how fast i went. I passed about 15 people in the last 20km and a satisfying last person in the last km that i couldn't even see. I just felt inspired and amazing. it was weird. The first 15km was quite difficult, and gained 1500ft. There was sulfur and boiling mud and snow fields. The weather was rainy, windy and a little cold. The last part of the race was sandy and very flat except for a final hill. There were several fun river crossings with ropes. After about 30km my legs were hurting a bit but as i slowly gained distance on the people in front of me i felt stronger and stronger. is running all mental? Physiologically how can i keep feeling like i have more energy and less tired and no pain anymore? Anyway i won my 18-29 age group (only 18 people) and came in 7th out of 242 people that started.