View Benchmark with Jun and Scott. Started out nice and easy, those two had to stop to relieve themselves, but I kept going and tried to keep them back as long as I could. I was feeling pretty good and was surprised that I made it to the switchbacks before Jun caught me. Scott caught up a while later, I was having a really hard time keeping up a good cadence on the crusty hard (but sometimes soft) stuff. It really slows you down! Got to the top and enjoyed a few minutes taking in the view, not a lot of wind today, which was super nice. Really warm out. The way down was super sketchy at first, you just never know what the snow might do with each step. We took it fairly slow, then picked it up a little as we got to the dirt road section. Scott was at the front as we hit the switchbacks, and kept a pretty nice pace going. When we hit the steep downhill, he just flew down! I'd never seen him go down that as fast as he did. He never let up on the pace as we all cruised down Anns. My goal was to pass Scott, but I didn't want to make a move too soon and then blow up, so I waited until the BST splits off from Anns above the tower, and then Scott let us pass amid a muddy mess of a trail. I was pushing hard in the low to mid 6's and it wasn't 10 seconds later that I came a around a slight bend and my plant foot hit a nasty patch of mud and just went flying out from under me! I went down with a squish and just lay there for a minute laughing while Craig snapped a picture of me. I was covered in mud. The best part was it was probably less than a quarter mile from the end! Ha. Gotta have a good fall every now and then. Finished strong and laughing and then we hit up the Chevron for a drink and snagged a Hot'n'Ready for the drive back to the office. See Juns blog for pics.
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