A really nice thing about this race is that it starts really close to my house, so even with the 6 o'clock start time, I didn't have to leave until around 5:30. Just before the start I said hi to a few people from my neighborhood that were running, then found Twinkies and said hi to him just as the countdown was starting. The course has a little less than a mile of pavement to start, so I wanted to try and use the road to get some separation, cuz I knew that the course turned into bottlenecking singletrack. I think I got into a decent spot as the trail started to narrow, I had a few people pass, and passed a few myself, and then for a while felt like the pace was pretty balanced. This course starts steep and just gets steeper the further up you go. My legs felt tired for most of it, but my goal was to just keep moving without stopping. A little before the last big & steep climb to the top, Twinkies passed me looking really strong and moving well. I figured he would catch me, I was just hoping it would be a little later :). The steep part just goes straight up the face of the mountain, where some visible swithcbacks used to be, but are no longer used. It was just at the base of this that I saw the first runner (Corbin Talley) blasting his way down. I passed a few more people on this section, and for a while could still see Twinkies, again, moving really well up the steep, steep trail. I was starting to feel a little bonky, but knew the top was close, so I just kept pushing. For a bit I chatted with the guy behind me that had just done Speedgoat last week - that's quite the 1-2 punch! Got to the top aid station almost exactly at two hours, which was right where I wanted to be. I did take a minute here to drink a couple gatorades and grab a cup of swedish fish, which I just dumped in my mouth and slowly worked on them as I made my way down. Going down was a lot fun, but a little tricky at first, with so many people coming up the same trail, and trying to get around the people in front of me heading down. There was one spot where I knew the trail went one way, but the group was going another, so I figured that they were following a marked path (they had made a couple changes to the course in spots) so I followed them for a minute and then realized they didn't know where they were going, so I had to cut across a rocky hillside to get back to the trail. When I hit the trail I was running fast and came up to a guy that was blocking the trail tying his shoe, he looked up and saw me coming, and rather than just moving over to finish, he just hurried and tied his shoe and turned around and started trying to run ahead of me, so then I had to wait for an open spot to squeeze around him...kinda weird. I passed a few more people and then spent a lot of time alone, just blasting down the trail, I caught a few people that had been a good ways ahead of me going up - some of them looked as though they were just taking their time being careful coming down, while others just looked completely worked over, just trying to get themselves to the bottom. Once the really steep, quad crushing stuff was out the the way, it was lots of fun to cruise the less steep downhills. I passed the (I think) second place female, and then caught a glimpse of a few more guys as I hit the road. At this point I really tried to pick up the pace as I could see they were really hurting, walking parts of the flat road. I may not be the speediest, but I do try to just keep moving. As I passed one guy walking DOWNhill, I tried to urge him on and he just said "I got nothing man, I am completely spent" - this course can certainly do that to you! I passed one more guy and then rounded the bend where the finish line came into sight, probably a quarter mile down the road. Pushed the pace a little more, and sprinted out the last block or so in front of the 'crowd' - happy to see my wife and son there cheering me on - I didn't know if they were going to try and make it. I didn't catch my exact time, and I (like usual) didn't stop my watch until a little while after, but I think my time was about 3:04. I took a couple minutes to catch up with Twinkies and a couple others, then I had to just grab my stuff and take off - had a 10 hour drive to San Diego ahead of me. I didn't get to hang around for any results to post, so I'll have to update when I see the official results. (28th overall, 16 30-39 AG) This is definitely not a fast running course, but if you want a good test of your climbing/descending skills on some steep, nasty, overgrown trails - this is a well organized, punishing, super fun race. I had a great time and will likely make this a yearly race. I really hope they keep the course they had this year.
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