Cold morning, the whole running store was there along with Brandon and a new guy from Portland. About 45 overall runners. I brought my black knight knitted cap, the one that scares the children and makes the teenagers queasy. It kind of looks like a knitted Where the Wild Things Are cap at the same time. Very toasty. We started a little up the road from the Orem gun club, headed around to Dry Canyon, up the canyon, over to Trail 51, then into some fifth dimension bypass through Narnia, then across some frozen meadows, then backwards in time, then back to the BST, then to the gun club for the finish. Seriously this race was almost more trailcraft than race but it was pretty well marked so I am thinking that no more than two or three racers will take more than the 12 hours allotted. The run itself was way fun, mostly due to the course. I started off in front for the first mile as usual, breaking briefly into the threes as I passed Derek. Him, Caleb, and Portland dude were able to return the favor on the first decent climb though and were well ahead once we reached Dry Canyon. The murderous half mile allowed 3 more people including Brandon to pass. I really need to work on my hill climbing. Serious calf work is coming my way this winter. Once we reached the trail 51 cutoff at mile 2.5 I was able to stop the bleeding and maintain distance. A short 3/4 mile later we were at the top and starting to go down, and I passed all three of them immediately. Unfortunately I didn't know about the fifth dimension thing and another 200 feet of climb. I was passed again :). But I passed yet again on what HAD to be the final hill and really opened it up, limited only by the sharpness of the turns on the trail. I almost missed the turn by the rockpile, but the rest of the whoop-de-doos and twisties were no problem. Another climb almost let the crowd catch up but that was a short one and then it was truly downhill to the road, and again to the finish. Last mile was a 5:10 pace and even at that speed Brandon was closing the gap, almost slipped to fifth.
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