…are in. Here goes:

I finished in 5 hours, 40 minutes and 32 seconds

73rd place

58th in men

18th in men’s 30-39

This was an awesome race, a lot warmer than I expected (I keep overdressing, and by overdressing I mean I’m running my next race in nothing but shorts; if it’s over 75 degrees). I had a really bad time between miles 14-22, looking over at one point and seeing Dean Frigging Karnazes blaze pass me on French Trail (made me laugh out loud actually). Too much walking in that middle section on a trail that I had specifically trained on for weeks leading up to the race.

I felt great running into the Skyline Gate aid station, had my drop bag so I replenished my Gu stash, grabbed some more electrolyte tablets, filled up on icy water, rolled out of there feeling awesome. About a mile later just kinda fell apart. Would have stretches during the next hour of 5 minutes feeling fine, 5 minutes abject misery. Got passed by a ton of fine folks (excluding the Dean Man, can’t stand him- ask me why later) and rolled into the Big Bear AS at mile 17.5-ish just feeling like poopy, wanted to drop. I figured if I could walk, I could run.

Rolled into Bort Meadow AS, took some salt, got a full sponge down with ice water and that somehow woke my legs up. Ran the last 8.3 miles as hard as I could, re-passed a lot of nice folks up that Columbine Trail. Finished strong.

Wish I could have that middle part back, but oh well. You run some, you lose some. Had a great time after the race, talked to a bunch of folks, got advice for my first 50 miler in 2 months.

I’m taking a few more days off to mentally (and physically) re-charge my batteries, going up to Sierra National Forest next week, I plan on doing some epic runs up there at altitude, bag some 13-thousand foot peaks in the process.

Bye for now.