I don't know why I did this race. I don't know why I took a welding class in college. But I don't regret either :)
After I registered I found out that this race is on the nationals circuit, so I figured it would be nice if I could get in the top 50. My objective was to have a lot of fun and beat myself to crap. Acheivement unlocked. The race started at the Park City ski resort. The first 0.4 miles or so was on a nice wide dirt road but after that it was almost all narrow single track in the trees, so I know I would have to get out front at the beginning if I didn't want to spend the entire race looking at someone's butt. But that's not a problem for the king rabbit of the universe, and it certainly wasn't a problem today. The pros were probably thrown a little off kilter as I put some decent distance on them for the first two minutes, just long enough to get past the photographers so I could get some pics for Facebook. The world set itself aright again as the steep section tested my poor hill climbing ability past its limits, and I dropped back.
Once I got to the single track I walked some in the grass on the side and let 25 or 30 guys pass - I knew I wouldn't be seeing their butts ever again. Finally the people that were more my speed started catching up at about the same time I recovered from the fun, and I started the claimb in earnest. To my surprise I was continually passing people on the trail up, ever so gradually, sometimes several times as I would run, then walk a bit, then run some more. I kept seeing the first female about 100 meters back though so I was motivated to keep up the pressure. I knew if I could make it to the top before she did that I would surely get to bottom first as well.
The trail was very nice, not too steep at all, and the forest was shady and cool. We got to the exposed ridge and I was shocked how steep the final ascent looked! But I was still able to pass two people while being passed by one, and the top appeared without warning much more quickly than I thought it would. Downhill monster was ready to go, but I held back a little because there was still a 200 foot climb to the next peak after the first drop and once I get in downhill mode there is no uphill ability left at all. I kept the guy who passed me at the same distance until Tri County Peak, then I just let it out.
Foom! I passed person after person - the marshmellow shoes made the trail feel like road no matter how hard I stomped, and I passed people like they were standing still. There weren't that many people to pass though, and by the time I had gone 6 miles downhill monster was looking a little haggard. There was one last group that was tightly bunched that I wanted to pass but the juice was gone for the last mile so I just squeaked past the 6th masters dude, beating him by 10 seconds. The guy in front of me refused to be caught, even with a sub 5 run on the final stretch, and he beat me by 4 seconds. The 2+ hours of fast breathing at high altitude gave me a pretty beefy asthma attack, which I slept off for an hour. Fun times!
11:07.10:58,9:53,9:57,12:01,11:19 - up
15:49,10:21 - two peaks
6:53,6:25,6:32,6:13,6:58,6:29,5:46 - wheee
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