Here's the problem. I've been working for it. I even did a 14 miler yesterday. It turns out I'll be in Vegas with Sara. I'd like to run in Seely, but I'm much rather be running in Vegas. Good Luck. Bill

jacob, good luck tomorrow!

Hm... gory details eh? well, the worst that it gets is the blister on the back of my heel... that's going to be fun to run with... But, I suppose you want more than that. Ok, so the registration started at around 8:45, and I got there at 9:15 or so. It's a good thing that I go there early, because soon after I got mine done, a bunch of people lined up, and I would have had to stand in line for a half hour or more. My cousin from bigfork decided to come with me, so she was with me too. At around 10:45, we went out and ran a very slow mile or so to warm up. I figured it wasn't quite as important to warm up for this race because it's so long, and the whole first 13 miles will be the warm up for the sprint at the end. I should have seen the signs that this wasn't any ordinary race. First of all, was the tee shirts... They have cheetahs on them (the race is sponsored by the Cheetah Herders). The race officials look like they have never run a step in their lives, and they are all a bit odd... Not that it's bad to be odd, but it catches your attention. When we finally got to the starting line, i found out that our starter was not going to use one of those stupid little starter pistols that shot blanks... the kind that they use at most track meets. Instead, they had a guy dressed up as a mountain man, who started the race by firing a 12 guage shot gun into the air. they didn't shoot blanks, either. (I don't think it's dangerous to fire a shotgun into the air like it is to fire any other kind of gun... since it's just a bunch of little bb's inside). Anyway, the race itself was quite nice. We started out in seeley lake, and headed north on the highway out of town. The first five miles are on the highway, and most of it is rolling hills. Although some of the hills were really long, they didn't really bother me since it was at the beginning of the race. I started out wanting to run the race with my average mile below 7 minutes, but I didn't really know how fast that was. Just by chance, I ended up going past the first mile marker at exactly 7, and then i heard some runners talking about how they were just on pace. Since I figured they were trying for 7 minute miles also, i decided to stick with them. That worked well for he next two miles, with the second split at exactly 7 minutes, and the third split at a little below seven. (I don't know what the splits were since my watch seems to forget all splits after the first ten... and I wasn't too vigilant about remembering them). After that, I felt like I was going too slow, and I saw a few people about my age pass me. One of them was a guy, and the other a girl... I recognized her from cross country, but I don't remember where she was from. (really damn fast though). I dropped my old pace person, and started running with the other two who had just past me. A little way past the five mile mark, we turned off the highway onto a gravel road. Up until that point, the road was dry and easy to run on, but it soon became covered with snow. It wasn't icy, but the snow wasn't packed very hard, so it was kind of like running on sand. With every step I took I would move back a little. I was still with the other two people that I had been pacing with, and I was consistently getting splits between 6:40 - 6:50. Most of the road was rolling hills, but there were no hills that were very steep. I was still feeling good around mile 8, and that's when the girl started to drop back and the guy took off ahead. He did it on a hill, and I wasn't able to keep up with him, but I kept him in sight for the next couple of miles. From mile 8 - mile 11 I kept the pace going around 6:45, and started to pass a few people. Some of them were running with their dogs, and the dogs would pull them along as they went... At the 11 mile marker, one of the dog/person teams passed me, and we went up a slight hill. It was on the 12th mile that I started to slow down. I remember that at the 12 mile marker my split was 7:06, and I was still slowing down. After that, the girl that had dropped back earlier in the race caught up to me, and the guy that I had been following finally pulled away. There was a long stretch during the 12th mile that was slightly up hill, with a short steep hill at the end. At that point, we turned back onto the highway to do the last half mile or so to the end. Going up the hill, I slowed down to a pace that I could have probibaly done faster if I was walking, but I kept going. When I got onto the flat highway, I tried to speed up, but my legs felt like rubber... It's not like they hurt or anything, but they just didn't really work. I didn't get my split at the end of the 12th mile, but I can't imagine it was much better than 7:30 or 8:00. I was able to have a little kick for the last .1 mile, but it didn't really do anything. The girl that passed me ended up finishing around 5 - 10 seconds before me, and the guy probably a minute ahead of me. At the end, they announced the awards. The first place in the age groups, and the first place over all got awards - which weren't much. They got a cheetah spotted sash with a medal on it... and they had to take the cheetah ranger oath (which I don't remember, but was quite ridiculous). And that pretty much sums up the experience. It was actually really fun... except for the last 2 miles or so... everyone else should have come too. I thought that Chief was going to come, but I didn't see him there. I talked to him last week, and he said he was going to go.... I wonder why he didn't. Gory (and detailed) enough for you?