Last year's run up King;s Peak was a bit of a disaster for me. Given how much time I spent lost and wandering, I figured that I would be faster this year no matter what, as long as I could stay on the trail. And I was, but only marginally so. Yeah, I'm out of shape. I met up with Aaron in the parking lot, as well as Trevor, who we met there. It turns out that he had no idea about the race when he came, but he was happy to join our group. We set out together at about 8:20, with me setting what seemed like a reasonable pace. The pace was pretty similar to what I ran over the first ten miles last year, and I was encouraged that it felt much easier than it had last time. But as we neared Gunsight Pass, I found myself hiking the steeper uphill sections. Although I was keeping the same pace as Aaron, I felt like my power was lacking. I finally lost Aaron on the switchbacks to the pass, as he continued running while I settled into a hike. I struggled across the rocky terrain to the summit (I know it's possible to move quickly over the rocks--I just don't know how), and by the time I reached the summit in 2:52 I was twelve minutes down to Aaron. Trevor arrived a minute after me, and he turned right around while I loitered for a few minutes.
The return trip is where things got really bad. I don't think I was much faster descending from the summit than I was climbing (stupid boulders), and I had trouble picking a good line back to the pass. But I finally got there, and I decided to take the shortcut down this year, knowing that although my pace would be slower, the shorter route would save me time. I caught Trevor at the bottom which turned out to be a good thing, because 1) I enjoyed the company, and 2) I was out of water and he had iodine tablets to share. We filled out bottles in the stream, and then we settled into a steady pace for the final ten miles or so to the car. My legs were trashed (can't run that kind of distance on my training mileage), so our pace was a little slower than 10:00 per mile--slower than our pace on the way up. Towards the end I started to walk the short uphills, and Trevor was happy to follow suit. But after a while I decided that I could be done sooner if I ran everything, so I stopped walking the hills and opened a gap on Trevor. I finished in 5:47, and he showed up a few minutes later. Aaron was waiting for us in the parking lot, understandable stoked after beating us by nearly an hour. Anyway, not much of a run for me this year, but I'm still glad I went. I'll be better prepared next year. Third time's the charm, right?
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