This is always an adventure. The first time I did this (in 2006), I had done it without training and really didn't do well, though I finished. My goal today was to better my previous time of 3:16:04.

Overall, I was very, very happy with my race today. For my general level of fitness, the condition of the trails, and the overall difficultly of the hills and different sections, I could not have asked for a better time.

I ran with my friend Michelle for the first 3 miles, at which point I lost my footing on one of the uphill sections, dropping me back a few seconds -- because of the single-track aspect of the race, that few seconds that early in the race meant I eventually lost sight of her a few minutes later. I dropped into a 9:30 min/mi pace and really ran well until mile mark 11.1 (water station). I mentally defeated myself at that point, because I figured we were at mile 12, and to see that I had another 2 miles left was heartbreaking.

Mile 12-13 went really slow, as I hit the wall.

Finally the end was in sight and I was able to finish fairly strong. I had a cramp that had started in my right quad during mile 11, and when I crossed the finish line and stopped running, it locked up for a few minutes. Looking around at the rest of the runners though, I got off lucky, as we all had scrapes, bruises and a number of people had turned their ankles. I saw a couple people with impacted toes, which might have been broken -- slick course + roots and rocks = fun time for people, not so much for bodies.

The course was listed as 13.1mi, but a number of people's GPS and watches were showing 13.53 mi as the actual distance. If it was truly a half-marathon, I ran a little over 11:40 min/mile, which wasn't bad, all things considered, but if it was the longer 13.53, I was closer to 11:10. This is considerably slower than my usual run, but with the elevation changes and the mud, I can't at all complain.

There's always next year!

Increase my distance base -- I have been doing 7-8 miles for my long runs, and while I was extremely happy with my time.

Trail shoes.

More hill repeats.