Notes
Advertised as 7 plus miles but I really think it was 8+ miles given the times to years past and the shape I am in. 5th overall but should have been 4th as I took a wrong turn in the last 700 meters and tacked on another 3 minutes of running or so.
Anyways this was the most competitive of the trail races I have done. 2 guys that ran fireball last week in 16:49 and 17:01. None of the trail race series guys ran so I gained points although not as much as I would have liked. Took off quick maybe a little to quick to start. About 1200 meters in we hit a tough climb up the ridge. that we did a couple times in the first 2 miles with hands on knees walking happening. I was losing spots on this sections and fell back to 5th. Wasn't in 5th long though before I caught the early leader. After 2 miles I was pretty much on my own for the rest of the race. After the first 2 miles the course was real technical with a lot of twist and turns and small ripples. I opened up my lead on the people behind during this section but was not able to close down any on the top 3. Was 33 seconds back around halfway to 3rd. Got to 50 minutes of racing and realized I was not close to the finish so the legs were a bit shot. Feet were draggin and almost went down several times. Took that wrong turn at the finish which was down hill then turned and had to run back up. Looking at the times I think I would have finised 1:03:50-1:04:05. First place was way out there at 58 minutes. But I think with some more focus on hill running top 3 would have been possible and i think the race was just avg for me as legs were pretty wobbly early.