Well...
I went into this race feeling about as good or better than I've felt in the last few years so, I was hoping to beat my PR of 2:25:10. I also had a goal of keeping the brothers at Bay. Pretty cool that 3 of my Brohiems were in the race today. The fourth got hammersauced and couldn't make it.
Race..
So the race this year is about .50 mile longer than in years past with the move to the Start/Finish area. No big whoop. Started off great first two-three mile climb up to the saddle felt good right where I wanted them 9:17 10:30 9:05 once we hit the traverse across the top to the climb at lone tree I was with a group that was crusin along 8:06 7:59 the mile up to elephant head aid station 10:28.. This is where it kind'a started falling apart.. I turned around almost to the top of lone tree climb and GDOC was about 15 ft behind me...Seriously!
Not gonna lie - sucked some of the juice out of me, but was happy he was having a great run so far.. We both blew through the Aid station and he took off down the gully 7:07 mile here for me. I took a Gel at the bottom of the swithbacks and a S-Cap.. this was the start of my downfall.. Once we hit the switches G' had gotten in the group in front of me. There were about 10 people in my group - about 6 horses were trying to make their way up the switches so, we played who's gonna stay in front for the next THREE miles... Very annoying! 10:16 12:05 10:41 finally on the last straight away before hitting the Aid station the horses pulled off on some side trail.. They were cutting in between our group, we were running between them all in all it made for a weaksauce climb! And to top if off about a .25 mile from the Aid station I could tell the Gel and Cap weren't gonna stay down..AUGH.
Mile 11 11:00 lost a few minutes here to YAK three times.. Once the stomach was empty I felt a lot better and was able to start moving again, but as some (most) of you know once you YAK you feel pretty wasted and I only had 5.5 miles to go. The worst part was knowing any run at trying to catch G' was over.
Miles 12-16.5 10:10, 11:03, 8:49, 10:10, 9:50, 5:17.. Was able to keep the legs moving which was good, but energy was dropping and I was afraid to take anything so, I need to figure this nutrition thing out!! Great time though!! All props to the Brothers and G' for a studly performance..
Had the vert at 2277 descent 2263
Avg 9:46
PS sorry Lulu... our paths will cross..
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