Second year running Bairgutsman. I got stuck behind a long line of slower runners on the first part of the single track. It took me 14 minutes longer to get up the hill (4800 feet of verticle) than last year. I made up seven minutes of that on miles 5-10.25, so I as happy with that. I had invited quite a few of the neighborhood runners to run the race, three of them took me up on it. We all had a great time. One of them, Lon Stevens, finished in 2:40:23, 33rd overall. This was his first trail race. There were thunder storms all around the area which cleared the air and cooled it down. By the 6:00 AM start, the storms were gone. The wet spring left us with many more short scrub oaks with their skin-tearing branches across the trail. My legs are pretty torn up. The motto of this race is appropriately "Conquer Thyself". It is definately an exercise in determination. | 