I have been looking forward to this race since I decided not to do the 50 mile version of it back in November, or whenever it was I decided to try for a faster marathon before I did the longer trail races. I was going to do the 50 miler and count it as my 40 for 40, a few weeks early. But not this year. Anyway, I signed up for the race late and was on the waiting list, but fortunately got in. I noticed that the field this year had a lot of the past winner's and top placers in it from previous years, so I figured this would be a good test of where I am. I figured Albert Wint would end up winning, which he has the previous times he has been in the race, and Kevin Tuck (a very fast 56 year old trail runner), who beat me at Timp trail half 2 years ago, and some other people that showed up on the list that I figured would make the race interesting. My main goal was to have fun, run hard and beat Kevin. I figured if I could stay with and beat him I was doing pretty good. This year they moved the start of the race up the hill to the main parking lot, which added almost half a mile to the course, which a nice uphill finish. The course was long to begin with, and this just added some more pain at the end. As the race started we took off down the hill and immediately someone took off out in front, and was dropping the crowd rather quickly, I figured that would be Albert, which was confirmed about a minute later as we went through the fence and immedately all went off course, we all forgot to turn left, and Albert was cruzing up the hill. Kevin yelled at him as we all looped around the aid station set up there in the corner and headed up the hill. I found myself in front of the pack and heading up the 2 mile climb that starts the race. I was expecting Albert to blow by me again but he didn't. I soon lost the sound of pattering feet behind me and about mile 4 as we started to catch the 50kers who started 30 minutes in front of us I finally heard Albert come up behind me. He stayed right behind me until mile 11. After passing the aid station at elephant head the trail narrows to mostly single track until you get back to the aid station, which is about mile 10 or so. I had to continuously ask people to move to the side for miles up the switch backs and through all the trails back to elephant turn off. I had figured that as soon as we hit the bottom of the steep hill and back to the wide trail Albert would take off, and that is what he did. He took off, though not super fast, he had a minute or two lead, apparently he was kind of upset at all the runners we had to go around, which he has not had on the previous years he has run this race due to changing starting times last year. I kept trying to push as best as I could since I had no idea how far behind me Kevin or anyone else was and didn't want to give up my position the last mile or two. So I kept going as fast as I could, hit the last little hill up to the finish and just dragged up that hill. Of course I forgot to stop my watch so I had no idea what my time was until the awards ceremony. I thought I had noticed that it hadn't flipped over to 1:55 yet, which I was pretty happy about. I had hoped I could make it closer to 1:50, which I guess I would have been closer without the extra .4 or so of distance that was added, but still would have been short. I had planned to only take a single 20oz bottle with me for this run, hoping that I had drank enough before hand and that it wouldn't get too hot for it to last the whole way. And it did, barely, I could tell I was feeling dehydrated about mile 13, and started to finish off my water, better to be inside than carrying it around. I ate a honey stinger waffle about an hour before the start, due to hunger, and a half pack of chews before the race. A gold pack at 45 minutes, and half a gold pack at about 1:30. Energy was okay, but could tell I was pretty drained the last few miles. I had hoped with the mileage I have been doing that my stamina would have been higher at the speeds I was going. Maybe for the marathon it would be without all that extra climbing thrown in. My feet got trashed with blisters the last 5 miles. Ran in to Fritz after he finished and won the 50k. He looked hammered, but put in a very strong race. I think he did his first loop a few minutes faster than what we did ours in, which is awesome. Nice work Fritz. It was fun to chat with everyone after the race. Great time, good trails, love the island. Lap Pace HR ele change 1 6:33 168 +121 2 7:41 172 +354 3 6:50 171 +129 4 6:07 171 -69 5 5:58 173 -173 6 7:44 175 +149 7 5:18 175 -464 8 7:53 177 +159 9 8:54 175 +310 10 7:41 173 +69 11 6:53 170 -7 12 6:15 170 -265 13 7:40 172 +111 14 6:31 168 -178 15 6:56 170 -78 16 6:30 169 -167 .47 3:19 174 -10
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