Small Workout (on Trail) - This run is dedicated to Jon (the current FKT holder) on this course. I decided to run Jardine Juniper hard today to see what kind of time I could post. The catch was that I wanted more than the 9.5 miles the course is so I decided to add an extra loop on top. This adds 1.5 miles to make it 11 miles even. Basically I knew I didn't have it in me to go after the FKT so I decided to make up my own course so I could win. Ha! Take that Jon. Anyway, I knew that I could run hard uphill, but my downhill speed is lacking. Mostly it is due to a lingering injury from thanksgiving last year. Its the inside of my right knee (different than the ITB pain I battled all spring on the opposite leg). It is pretty unstable and if I twist it just right, it really hurts for a bit. Bottom line is that the downhill speed is not so great right now. Enough excuses, how did it go? I went out hard and within a half mile thought that my lungs were on fire. I haven't run this hard in almost a year (I think). I made it to the first ridge in 27 mins (same as Jon although I didn't know his splits until just now as I looked them up) but slowed a bit and hit the 4 mile junction in 38 mins (13 seconds behind ghost jon). I hit the intersection again for the first loop at 50 mins (12 min 1.5 mile loop) now 1:17 behind Jon. Here is where I added another loop while Jon headed back so its not really the same anymore. But I did the second loop a tad faster in 11:20. Now all that is left is the brutal downhill. Brutal because I was wearing my MT101's and they stink with regard to rock protection. They are easy to run in uphill as you can pick your foot placements carefully, but trying to run down a rocky trail at 6 min pace is not easy in those things. I hit the ridge in 1:09 and the end of the trail at 1:27 giving me a split of 25:40 for the 4 miles of downhill (way slower than Jon's split of 23:07). So if you count only my second lap and ignore the slower first one, my total time for the 9.5 mile course would be 1:15 under Jon's old record but way off the current record. Maybe I will give it a go again, but not until I can blast the downhills like I used to. Maybe I need some Hokas to do that.... T- 1:27 (7:55) 2150' vert 
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