The Race Director said it was longer than a true 25K so that's why I put 16.1. Woke up at 5:30 in the morning and survived the drive to Antelope Island. It was pretty cold once I got their but amazingly no snow. I saw my old my Old XC coach, Coach Wade and got to talk to him before the race. He said it was a pretty hard course but that it gets easier after the switchbacks so to hold off until then. He also told me he was happy to see one his runners get into longer distance and trail running and that really boosted my motivation and got rid of some of the nerves before the race.
So I took his advice and used the first mile as my warm up. There were probably around 20 people ahead of me at the start of the second mile. Short after I caught and passed a few eager beavers and pretty soon by the 4th mile I had crawled my way to 5th. I was now content with this position and the guys around me were running a good pace so I stayed 5th until the Aid Station. I got a little to hot for comfort while I was climbing the the first hill so I decided at the Aid Station to shed off a layer. It took longer than I thought and I ended up wasting about 5 minutes at the Aid station I saw a few people pass me but I'm not sure how many. Once I got back on the trail, Their were two guys a ways ahead. It was downhill for this stretch so I took advantage of that and I guess I also got a second wind here. My pace really picked up here and I caught one guy on the flat stretch and another towards the start of the switchbacks. I felt great during the switchbacks and from there till I got back to the Aid Station. I took a much shorter stop this time for some water and started to loose my fire the next couple of miles. It was really cold for this part and some of the hair on my head froze. The wind didn't help either. For this stretch my pace had gone down and I was getting lazy. The last miles of the race I had someone on closing in on me, later found out his name was Cody, and so I stopped cruising and picked up my pace. On the downhill to the finish my feet seemed like they were about ready to give out, especially my arch. I got a little worried but the end was close so I just finished the race. I finished strong and Cody was only 20 seconds behind me.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this race. This was probably the first race where I actually enjoyed the actual race and not just suffer through it. I really enjoyed the views of the lake and the few Buffalo on the course. There were parts where I was alone and it didn't even feel like I was racing, it was quite relaxing on the contrary. I don't think I can ever run another track race after doing a race like this. I was told I had broke 2 hours at the finish but on the official results it looks like I just missed it. Oh well, looks like I'll just have to do it again next year to redeem myself. I met some great people at the race and it was just a blast.
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