Notes
Angels Staircase. 10,000+ feet of vert! hot, elevation, epic! Thought I did a really good job on the day esp.given my horrible training, but now my stats look pretty weak. Only 75 finishers? 160 signed up... Well had a good time anyways. Stayed conservative in first 10 miles of climbing up to 8000 feet, or so I thought. Gorgeous top! Joy happiness peace. Ran with Nikki Kimball for a bit until she blasted off at mile 8. I must have done a poor job fueling/hydrating/salting because I started to feel yucky going down Angels and worse when it flattened out and then headed towards gradual pass # 2. Hot, dizzy, weak, alone, I plodded along. But it was pretty and very easy terrain... On the way down after pass 2, a nausea/burp attack hit, but gravity was helpful. Jon Lumb, who I had chatted with in the first few miles ripped past me! Speed! The next aid station had salt which I was grateful for, and a wet sponge... I started to feel a lot better post salting and geling, and got a move on. But, long slow Pass #3 made things tough again, it seemed like the gentle up would never end. I passed Jon at a snail's pace and eventually the beautiful down arrived!
The last 10 miles were fantastic! All downhill, my legs seemed to be working again and I just flew, almost dangerously! Despite my sprinting Jon eventually caught up, he is a very strong downhiller. The 5 trail miles from the last aid station continued to rock, 37 minutes! I pushed the last 3 miles down the fire road (7-ish minute miles??), and surprisingly caught back up with Jon, who had taken a few spills. We ran it in together and high-fived at the finish!
Overall a good day, but disappointing to learn after the fact that it was a bit of a sub-par performance. Ah well, motivation fuel!