This was only ever meant to be a catered training run for me to prep for Wildflower long course in 5 weeks. I pushed harder than I intended to, though. But what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?

I have not been training in these kind of hills, so that part was tough. Being off-road also made it tougher becuse the ground was mostly uneven. Doing it the day after bike commuting to work almost 50 miles round-trip made it tougher. But other than not coming in last, I didn't have a lot of performance goals for this race.

I'm a good descender, even on foot and off-road, so that part helped me. I passed a handful of people who stayed passed, and one woman who ended up being tougher than me and passing me back up who I could never catch. Another guy I was leapfrogging with because he was a better climber than me and I was a better descender than him, I eventually passed him and came in a few minutes ahead of him. Seems that no matter how slow you are, there is always competitive drama to find.

The first few miles really sucked. Maybe because of the previous day's workout, or because I didn't warm up, or whatever. But about mile 4 or 5, I started feeling good and passed a few people. I kept that good feeling through most of the rest of the run.

At mile 11, after finally making it up the terrible climb, I was pretty broken, but powered through to the end. I was surprised I didn't get passed back up, but no one passed me since about 1/2 mile before that climb.

At that point the field had thinned out quite a bit so I crossed the finish line alone, which was nice because the announcer had time to catch my number and say my name over the loudspeaker. That's always nice.

I carried one 24oz bottle, with 1 1/2 scoops of Cyto, to start with. I drank it in about 1 hr, then had the volunteers fill it with water. I had 2 gels for the rest of the run. I probably could have done with more fluid and energy. One thing I learned about my gels is that they are very thick compared to some other brands (I had a different brand from the course), which makes them very difficult to take while running. I should probably switch to a runnier brand... for running... huh-huh, get it?

If I was going to be more competitive at this race, I would have to do more hill training, preferably off-road. These trails are actually not that far from my house, so as long as I didn't get lost out there, I could do them myself.

My nutrition was a little better than the 1/2 mary 2 weeks ago, but still needs to be dialed in. I should have drank the bottle of Cyto faster, and if so, should have put less drink mix into it (like, 1 heaping scoop). Then I should have had a gel every 30 minutes or less. So that's probably 8oz of fluid every 15 minutes at this temperature.

Sat down and had a drink, got some of the mediocre food and ate, chatted a little bit with a couple guys I knew, drank some more, then changed my clothes and did some stretching before heading home.


Lack of hill and off-road training. Overweight. Average genes.


The course is fantastic. Very challenging and beautiful. You must train hills, preferrably off-road, to do well at this race. The volunteers were great, and the aid stations were plenty. For the most part, the course was marked well. But TBF is TBF. I'm not a big fan. The food was pretty bad, at least by the time I got there and there was no energy drink at the end (sorry, vitamin water doesn't cut it). But if you don't mind racing with TBF, this is a great race to do, and a great prep race for Wildflower long course (that's my plan, anyway).