I had zero expectations for this race and was really casual about it obviously. I started out in the pack running along with Shannon. I kept chit chatting!!! She is so nice she never told me to shut up although I could tell it was messin with her breathing. Heh. I kept forgetting it was a race... just runnin on a trail. la la-la. However, I quickly discovered I had to pee. hmmmm, not a huge turn out of people but there were some and we were not the last people in the pack. I looked around at all the leaves that were falling off the trees and bushes and realized the sparse foilage would NOT be enough to hide me. Oh well. Found an evergreen and hoped off the trail. All better.

Started running again and decided I could start counting the people I pass now, since I was in catch-up mode. I passed the three girls quickly and caught up with Shannon. She wasn't sure about her injuries she was still nursing from her marathon, so she told me to go ahead. mmmkay. The trail started going up. Not a fan, but I went with it. Passed another chick. It didn't hurt all that much but I didn't know what 10 miles felt like so I tried to be a little conservative early so they would't have to send in Search and Rescue later. The trail was open to other users and there were a few groups of mt bikers along the way. Oh how I wished I was riding instead of running. I longed for their bikes everytime I passed them, and said "nice bike" or "can I borrow that?" At one point on the climb I swore that if I saw another bike before I reached the top, I was going to force them off and commandeer it.

That big climb was fairly steep and for some reason it never really dawned on me that I could walk up the hill. It was a RUN race, so my head decided that I had to RUN the whole time. As I came up on two more girls I saw them walking up the steeper sections. Oh hey, good idea! I passed them in the middle of the climb and spotted another one up ahead. I finally reached her and passed her near the top.

So... I had never run downhill before. Seriously. So I figured, what the hell, I ride my bike down this stuff all the time I know how to pick a line, why not? So I let myself go. That was FUN! I totally lost the chick that was behind me. Heh.

After that is was rolling hills. I got kinda tired but I had NO clue how far I had gone or how much further it was so I just enjoyed the trail and focused on not tripping. Didn't really see anyone else for quite some time. Then I saw DIME! Holy shitballs! He was flying down the trail, and I mean FLYING. Except that he wasn't breathing very hard and looked extremely comfortable. He gave me a five as he passed and I didn't see another racer behind him for quite awhile. Then I saw 2nd place and knew Richard had the race in the bag. @nd place was FOAMING at the mouth! I have never seen that before! Crazy runners. I saw Mark running smooth and natural with a couple of other guys, his fro bouncing along. Saw Julia puttin the hurt on the women. Cool. So that meant I was getting close to the turn around. I passed one more girl heading up to the aid station, did a little dance around the turn-around cone and headed back. There was a boy up ahead that had these sweat marks down his back that started looking to me like it was in a shape of a carrot. Perfect. I would get close sometimes and then he would pull away... I kept calling things out to him. This may not be appropriate race behavior, but it was entertaining to me so I said things like.. "I'm coming for you!" or "I see you up there!" :) FINALLY caught him at the top of the backside climb. Of course I was all happy at this point and as I passed him I said "Wow! I've never run this far before! And never on a trail! Isn't this fun??" Why he didn't trip me right then and there I will never know...

After that I let my legs fly down the rest of the way to the final flat to the finish. Everyone was there at the finish for me (of course they were, I was SO FAR BEHIND THEM) and they cheered and made me feel good. How nice is it to get encouragement from such a great group of people. This was a new experience for me and they were sweet to be so complimentary.

Pee first.

Stood around and talked to everyone, took pics, watched Dime and Julia get their pretty "best pig" fair ribbons and headed off to brunch with the group!