I felt really good on the first lap. I was keeping my pace and cruising along. I was getting passed a lot but I'm use to that. Not many run at a 10min/mile pace and not many do this sort of thing standing 6'5" and weighing in at 260lb. The difficult part came on the 2nd lap. The long uphill seemed to go on and on with no end in site. I started to experience feelings of futility. My hips started to ache and I would get occassional pangs in my left hamstring and right knee. I began to wonder if the old horse was going to hold up. Once I made it to the 3 mile aid station the second time and began the long downhill I started to regain confidence. Yeah, it hurt... but ain't it suppose to? I kept going and slightly increased my pace to take advantage of the downhill and gravity. Suprisingly my HR was quite low during much of this section and even dropped below 120bpm several times which is really low for me. I was unsure if I was having problems with my Garmin or the readings were accurate. Eventually we came to the end of the long downhill and the course began rolling a bit more. This is where the pain and fatigue really started to set in. I felt bad and just wanted it to end. I think this might have been avoided if I hadn't forgotten my gels. I think the added nutrition midway though would have really helped me here. I'm finding out how important that is for me especially since I'm so damn large! At about mile 13 I started to feel blisters forming in the instep of my left foot. My socks were now wet from sweat so I'm sure that was the cause. Once we passed the last aid station I knew we only had 1 1/2 miles to go and I also knew I could manage that distance no matter how much it sucked. I trudged along and felt like I was going so slow. I wanted to give it a little extra effort but didn't seem to have it in me. My legs were sore and tired and fought me every step of the way. I just tried to think about how heroic so many of the IM RR's are on BT and what a cry baby whimp I was being since this is only a 25k run! One foot in front of the other and low and behold they eventually carried me to the finish. I was suprised to see that I nailed my 10min/mile pace right on the nose! Yay, Me!

Put my gels in my Amphipod pouch before leaving the car.

No warm down. Went back to the start area and got my T-shirt. I didn't see any fruit or other food so I just left.


Gravity and being a Wookie.