I went off at the front and in the first mile a younger guy took off and got a pretty good gap so determined he was for real. I settled in with a group of 4 other guys. One of them was clearly a pretender huffing and puffing so hard in the first 2 miles that I was not sure if he would even finish. The other three looked pretty legit. The trail was mainly singletrack trail and timing passes was critical. I was feeling really good in the early miles..climbing very well and descending quickly. I was running with a gu flask and hoping to utilize the 4 aid stations on the course to wash it down with water but the stations did not make it easy to fly through them. They were a bit off the trail and pretty much had to stop to grab the cup. I think I only took 3 glasses of water the whole run and only 1-1.5 gu's. I needed more.
At about the 5 mile mark the second place guy opened up a good gap on us and I remained right on the heels of the third place guy who looked pretty strong and was keeping a good rythem. Around the 7 mile mark is when I passed the 3rd place guy at an aid station and quickly opened up a pretty good gap on him. I turned up the pace a bit after I passed him to make sure he did not think he could hang around. Within a mile I looked back and that guy and the other guy were not in sight...good! I was in third place and thinking podium! I could also not see the second place guy so I was all alone but feeling pretty good.
Then came the 10 mile mark and the beginning of a long sustained climb where everything changed. My legs began to scream at me from all the residual fatigue of the previous descending/ascending on the trails. The quads were absolutely torched! My thoughts changed from good to bad. I really did not know if I would make it to the finish. I was able to hang tough and about the 11.5 mile mark came a long downhill and I was able to regroup and feel good again. It also about this time that the second place guy came into view. I guess he felt the pain of that climb too. The adrenaline kicked in and I turned the pace up a notch at that point. Once we turned onto the finsh driveway he had about 300 feet on me and was not able to catch him. I felt completely satisfied with my effort and clock read 1:39 which I was satisfied with. The winner was around 1:35. Chatting with him after the race he said his Half Mary PR was 1:19 and he only beat me by 4 minutes...that gives me an idea of where my fitness is at right now. The run mileage and build since October has boosted me quite a bit.

Mile Splits
7:37
8:11
7:02
7:47
7:15
7:46
8:12
7:48
8:03
7:55
8:17
7:15
6:32


I would probably bring either a handheld water bottle or fuel belt so I did not have to worry about aid stations. The stations were 3 miles apart and I did not take in enough nutrition.

I talked with the two guys that finished ahead of me and traded war stories about the course. I got a tech tee for finishing 3rd overall. The race shirts for this event were really nice long sleeve tech shirts and they also had a finishers globe. I waited for Ryan to come around from his first lap of the 50K and he looked fresh as a daisy after 18 miles completed. He congratulated me on the third place finish and took off for his final 13 miles.

I got some good food and hot coffee in the warming hut and chatted with some other racers before taking off for home. I took a nap when I got home..that course beat me up!


Nothing.


This was a very fun local race with 175 total participants and four different distances. The course is difficult but absolutely amazing and so much fun to run on. I cannot say enough about how great the course is. The volunteers did an excellent job as well. I will most likely be back next year