Notes
Ran the first couple miles with the eventual winner. They were downhill miles so while we were moving right along it was an easy conversational pace. Then he took off and put a good lead on me.
The second loop was awesome...some nice climbs, a (very little) mud, good single track...I fell once early on the loop. The second half of the loop was downhill and I made contact with Kyle again and cut out most of his lead...but then we left the woods for the fields and I realized how much faster a current division 1 cross country runner is than I am. By the time I was finishing loop 2 he'd already started loop 3 and had a good lead on me.
But, I had a good lead on everybody else, and the third loop had a few areas of nice trails but for the most part was just more boring single track. Not that that's bad, just that I preferred the fun parts of the course.
The finish of this race is awesome...you come to the end of a mowed path and there's a 4 foot drop to a "river"...which didn't have much water this year so it was only ankle deep and not knee deep. Rocks were slippery, though.
I was a little disappointed to be alone after the river crossing, because' there's an awesome 30 yard climb to the finish line that goes straight up. Some people needed to use their hands to climb, but it was (barely) runnable if you wanted to expend a little energy.
I really was hoping to have somebody I could crush on that final uphill stretch; it was short enough to be exhilarating no matter how steep.