Notes
Today's race was a lot of fun, but didn't go quite as well as I had hoped. I ran well, and my time is about what I expected on this course, but that's still a good 20-30 seconds slower than I'd been hoping to run. I led the first half mile or so and have video proving I was still ahead of Pat Tarpy that far into a race (when is THAT ever going to happen again? Apparently, he didn't want to risk turning an ankle on the "rocky" downhill stretch near the start...good thing he didn't try running the Breaker!) Within a mile and a half, I was in 4th place and ran the entire rest of the race as a time trial by myself, basically. Rob Ashby was less than a minute behind me most of the way so now and then I'd catch him out of the corner of my eye and pretended he might be catching up, but at the halfway mark I was only a minute faster than what I'd have needed for an even split to make my goal and I knew that wasn't fast enough. This race course has most of the downhill sections early in the race, with most of the uphill sections in the second half. It was all good fun, though. Also the first time I was really put to the test about whether to run as Dirigo or a Trail Monster, but I saw trail monsters at the race before I saw any Dirigo runners and had registered before I knew any Dirigo runners would be there so I opted to wear the TM singlet.