First of all - I have not trained for this race for many reasons, so I was prepared that it may go really bad and that I should take it very easy, run and walk.

I decided to start with the last (slowest group) and it was the best idea ever - I am planning to do that in future races too. Because most of the race was singletrack, including the first several miles, we were like a line of ducks or goose just walking uphill. It was great, because I was not forcing myself to start hard and run. I got the warm up, and started easy. The elevation hot me - we started over 8K high, and even though I was walking (uphill), I had a hard time brathing. I was well acclimated, as I've been hiking a lot and completed two 13ers a week later. But the initial go was taking my lungs out of me...
Eventually, the pack spread out and I even had some moments when I thought I was lost or went off the trail... I figured going uphill was my big strength - I had no problem climbing, and passed tons of people while ascending. They would pass me going down or on a plat terrain, but i would catch them again on the uphill ;) So we had a group that we would sort of run together - passing each other eaither up or down, supporting one another, laughing and joking, and enjoying the views. Oh the views were incredible! That's the biggest reasons to run the trail - the views!!!

I walked everything that was uphill, and run everything down and flat. That strategy worked really well. Around mile 9 I started to feel some pain in my right groin, which is something that has started two years ago during my 50K. I took some ibuprofen, as I knew I still had 4 miles to go. At mile 11 my legs started to feel jelly. I took the hammer gel, so that I would finish. Mile 12 was brutal! So steep! Cherry on the top.... Last mile was a long downhill, and knowing it was the very end I found lots of strength (or maybe the hammer gel kicked in...) I finished strong and happy :)

Overall, that race had a lot of uphill, which means lots of walking... considering how much I walked, I consider myself a very fast walker/hiker ;)

I would've (and should've!) train - even a little bit more. I do not care about the time, I just want to feel well while running. I felt good, especially considering lack of training, but I could've felt better :)

Walked to get some beer and snacks :)


Again, not enough preparation.