(No official times or anything at this point since results have not been posted yet. Time/distance all per my garmin.Will update later.)
All 4 of us that went up together stayed together for the first leg. Then we kinda paired off and ran our races. Mason and I run an almost identical pace during training runs so we planned to keep each other company the whole day as we weren't in any contention for winning anything anyways. The idea was to just to enjoy the day and survive the distance.
Miles 1-22 went by very fast and i was feeling great. We were maintaining between 8-8:30 min/miles from aid station to aid station. At the aid stations we would take our time, say hi to Dean , grab any nutrition/hydration then take off to the next one. There was a long climb around mile 22.5 or so that was kind of draining but i still felt ok. Then came a nice long downhill that let us recover some. During this time the weather had started to head south. The wind was picking up alot and it had started to rain pretty hard at this point. Checked my mary split at 26.2 just out of curiosity and we were at 4hr 15mins and i was still feeling good despite the crappy weather. Rain had switched over to a snow/ice mixture for a while then back to rain. Around mile 29 or so(can't remember) there was a boat you could ride to cross a small river. Very muddy but very cool, i liked this diversion from the run. Thanked the firefighters manning the boats and off to the next aid station. Had a slight hammy cramp thing but strethced it out, popped some more endurolytes(which i took all day long:)) and grabbed some chips. After that i did not have any more issues with my hamstring, or even cramping for that matter. Leg 9(mile 34) was a tough leg, wind was going pretty hard and it was nonstop up and down hills. Around mile 35/36 i started to really notice how fried my quads were becoming. Kinda bummed me out knowing i still had several miles left but i was determined to finish it, just started walking the uphills and running the downhills and any flats. That seemed to help my spirits some knowing i was going to walk the hills, lol. Leg 10(mile 38.5) was the worst leg by a long shot and it wasn't even because it was the last one. This leg ran on a levee with huge open fields around you and the wind was blowing so hard, 30 mph sustained winds with 40 mph gusts is what i was hearing after the race and i believe every bit of it. The first half mile we had a tailwind(awesome), then we turned slighly and had a sidewind for a short bit before we fully turned headon into the wind. Totally miserable. I was walking more than ever at this point. I was doing something like run 5mins walk 2mins. The wind was insane! Seeing that finish line was the greatest thing ever :) So happy to finish it.

I would like to have trained more than 3 months for this and maybe did a couple of 30 mile runs during my training plan. Then, maybe I wouldn't have started feeling bad at mile 35. Having said that though, the run went down as expected, I knew the end would be difficult at my current running level.

Dean, the lifesaver, was waiting for us to finish, along with Ryan's parents. Went over to the Jeep and threw on a new top and jacket since I was freezing my butt off. Hung out at the finish line with the group, waiting for Patti and Ryan to finish. They kicked butt as usual and finished strong. So proud that they fought through the tough conditions to run 43 miles. Amazing.
Headed to the community center to clean up and soak in a hot shower for a bit. Then we headed to Liberty Hall for some gumbo, fruit and beer. Didn't really care for the gumbo personally.


Rain.Wind.Snow. The weather definatley didn't do us any favors and maybe a little more run training would have helped me finish strong.


The weather stunk but I have no complaints on this race. It was fun and I was able to do it with friends. Thanked as many volunteers as I could, their day was a tough one too.