The race started and everyone ran down hill to the trailhead which you could only go through one at a time. Then it was single file for maybe a mile. After that the trail became more of an old forest service road for a couple of miles (mostly uphill)then it was a paved path for a couple more miles again mostly uphill. It was at this point I'm thinking what did I get myself into I had not trained for this kind of abuse the little trail me and Roni have been running on was nothing compared for these grueling hills I was now climbing. The first aid station was about 6 miles in I was still feeling strong and just kept going. The next section was fairly flat with a steep hill about 6.5 miles in which was were the next aid station was at the top. It was here that I realized that I had not done any nutrition so as I go by the aid station I grab my pretzel and dried fruit and eat a handful drank some of my water and just kept going. This section started off going down hill for about 5 miles at the bottom I sarted to see the returning runners and they were still running hard and i'm thinking I want to just lay down and take a nap. This is also were my legs started to cramp up a bit so I stopped for a couple of minutes drank more water ate more fruit and walked for a bit, my stomach started to not feel good and my body flt like shit. When I got back to the hill to start my climb out my legs refused to run so ended up walking all they up to the aid station 5 miles away, I was totaly out of it and just wanted to be done and go home I remember thinking I had 20 bucks on and wonderd if that was enough for a cab ride back to the car. Well it seemed like an eternity but I made the aid station and just stopped drank a bunch of water refiled my pods ate candy and chated with the other runners that came up the hill. It was only 12:45 pm so I figured I would go to the next aid station figuring I could walk all the way back and still make the cut off. On a side note some of the trail makings were a little ify for instance halfway down this hiil is a paved road the markers say turn right and if I had not just seen someone running down hill on the other side of the road I would have missed my turn (When we came out this way earlyer ther was some standing there pointing you the right way)because I would not have seen the little ribbons on the ground telling me to turn left. Unforechantly Roni did miss this turn along with a couple of other folks and they ran down this road off course for several miles. I made the last aid station and they had more goodies so I stopped and had a couple glasses of coke and some m&m's they told me it was only 5 miles to the finish line and more treats and it was almost all down hill. They were right it was almost all down hill except for that huge climb just before the finish line but I walked up it and ran to the finish line. I have never been more happy to be done running in all my life. I also thought this was it i'm never running again, but i've said that before and I know I will.

Maybe some actual trail runs with real hills, but I think my biggest problem is I don't fuel right I totaly crashed on that run from lack of fuel.

It was realy cold out so when I got done I headed to my car for warm dry clothes then went back to wait for Roni to come in.


Lack of training and fuel.


I waited a few days before doing this report because I was not happy with my performance in this race and for some of the thing's the people did that put on the race. Like not having someone sweep the trail to make sure they had everyone, do a head count at the aid stations, maybe someone at the confusing turns so no one gets lost ( like my DW Roni and a couple of other people that ran for miles in the wrong direction ) But I guess this is how this group does thing's very limited. I'm also going to have to learn to take in more fuel while running so I don't crash again, that made the whole experience not pleasant at all but I'll figure it out soon.