I ran this race last year for the first time. It is an extremely challenging uphill grind followed by an extremely technical downhill run. It uses the same trail for up and down. I had somehow forgotten the pain and signed up for the race again. The started the race two minutes early, and I was just coming out of the restroom. I started out at the back of the pack. The first 1.5 miles is paved road. This got the runners spread out a bit. The we hit the trail The next 3.5 is a dirt trail up the mountain. Some stretches of it are very steep. Heading up I saw Matt Williams at about the same place in the race that I saw him last year. Passing him was Deja Vu. I made it up in decent time, but my legs felt dead at the top. There was one aid station at the top. After refueling I felt better and started bombing the downhill. I passed several people on the downhill. Towards the end of the trail I tripped and went down hard. My hand was bleeding and my knees were scratched up. I was able to maintain a stronger pace than last year and finished in 2:53:06. Which is 2:32 faster than last year. Matt Williams also beat his time from last year. It was tons of fun. | 