Napping at Speedgoat 50K

This is not the post I wanted to write, but it is what's real.  I have been meaning to write something about my life being overbook right now. I was taking flight anyway with passengers sitting in the aisle figuring my plane wouldn't crash.  Well I wouldn't say my life flight crashed, but I hit some major turbulence that left some of my aisle passengers injured.  Okay I'll try to make that make sense.
I've had a lot going on lately.  Let's see if I can get most things listed.  My contract gypsy moth work is going on and I have a large area to work with various deadlines in August and mid-September.  I'm have summer XC practice 2 nights a week for any interested, plus school starts Aug. 8th and I'm the head coach.  I've been working to finish getting our rental property remodeled.  Continental Divide Trail Race is coming up Aug. 25. I'm doing TransRockies in mid-August. I'm helping coordinate the US long distance mountain team and going there to race in early September.  I'll basically stop there, but throw in Speedgoat 50K that was yesterday.
I arrived at race morning dog tired, having missed a lot sleep in the last two weeks.  Plus stressed about work, since I smashed my car a couple of weeks ago and have been fixing it.  But I can deal with anything right?  Wrong.  Speedgoat was a monumental disaster.  My overall exhaustion and stress are the best explanation I can come up with for yesterday.  I may not have been in perfect fitness, but it was good.  The race started well enough, other than forgetting to actually tie my shoes.  I was climbing really well, descending was good.  But the mental struggle started early and hard.  I wasn't even feeling bad, I just didn't care that I was in a race.  I kept myself moving, figuring I'd get through it.  I was trying everything in my bag of mental tricks.  Nothing worked.  I even tried some new things.  Coming into the aid station at 15.5 miles, I was around tenth mixed in with a really good group.  I was just behind Nick Clark, right with Jason Schlarb, only 2-3 minutes behind Anton Krupicka among others.  A top five was a possibility at that point.  Being very competitive I hoped my competitive fire would kick in.  I didn't feel bad physically it was just time to push into the second half which always gets uncomfortable for everyone.  I just didn't care.  All I could think was how much I wanted to lay down.  I took a little extra time at the aid station and hoped I'd get remotivated on the climb.  Climbing is my strength and I like it.  It wasn't happening.  I sat down.  Then ran with guy for a bit.  Then went over into the woods and laid down to take a nap.  I took at least a 20 minute nap and did feel better, but was definitely out of the race.  In running up to the next aid station to drop, I caught Jeremy Duncan.  I told my sad story and that I was dropping.  He talked me into continuing with him.  He had a sprained ankle and was having a rough one.  I felt like a crappy running partner.  I was in a mad kind of funk.  I did snap out for a bit on this really tough climb that went straight up the mountain off trail.  That was the best part of the day.  Jeremy got me looking around and appreciating the views and wildflowers.  Found out we are both mildly colorblind.  But my mind was still mostly in the crapper.  At the end I bypassed the chute.  I just didn't want to be an official finisher.
One thing I really thought would keep me going, pushing through the struggle, was what would I tell friends, the kids that I coach.  Not to sound bad, but I really don't care what anyone else thinks.  It has played over and over since I decided I was done.  All I can tell is the truth.  I blew up mentally.  As strong as I may think, or want, myself to be, I also possess as much weakness as any other person.  Maybe more.  Admitting this is tough, but it is what's real.
My take home from Speedgoat is this: human connection is the real value in life.  Therefore I am blessed beyond measure. The community of trail running is one thing I love most about my sport.  Friends, both at the race and that have contacted me about how it went, have been so encouraging.  We all face struggles.  Those struggles are more easily handled with friend's support. Talking to Alison afterward was good.  One of my high school kids, Megan, texted me about the race.  She just gave more reassurance.
So most important is where do I choose to go from here. I'll share what I wrote in 2008 after my first big ultra failure.  Our failures define us just as much as our successes.

La Sportiva announces their new mountain dancing shoes!

Sorry I've disappeared for a while again.  Maybe I'll get a blog up about that sometime.  So about the dancing shoes, I'll get there, but a little lead in first.  A couple of weeks ago, I did the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games track meet.  The races are just run one after another, 100, mile, 440, 880, 220, and 2 mile. I was running the last five. I won the 880, mile, and two mile, but didn't get the overall prize as a sprinter took that title, winning the sprints and a field event.  My toughest race of the day was actually the 220, maybe because I haven't run a flat out sprint in many years or trained for it.  I had a hard race pulling ahead of a guy at the end, just enough to get 2nd.  They had us as only .01 apart.  I actually had that about to die feeling.  I'm not talking literally dying, I'm talking about the dying as in falling apart running.  In that last 50 yards or so my chest seemed to stop moving oxygen into my system.  I was losing all feeling in my legs.  I started to strain, but immediately remembered what I tell the high school sprinter that I coach.  Relax, think about how to move your arms and legs, relax.  It does work and was probably the difference in getting second.  Didn't make it any easier, just faster, kind of the point right.  My legs were wasted.  I had also taken one of my high school athlete, Megan.  She was pole vaulting and running 4 events.  Which I really missed not being able to vault there myself because of the arm.  Megan did well placing 2nd or 3rd in her events.

So I mentioned going dancing to Megan and she was all up for it.  We hadn't brought any clothes other than the running clothes and some work clothes.  So we went by the local Goodwill.  Megan got a dress, Alison got a skirt and top, and I got a shirt.  All for less that $20.  The dance was in an old barn and was a contra dance, similar to square dancing.  I wore my La Sportivas for the dance.  They provided great grip on the dance floor.  I never felt any risk of slipping and falling.  I'd give the La Sportiva dancing shoes an A+.  It was a good weekend, too bad several of the other kids pulled out of going.

I guess my next chance to use the La Sportiva dancing shoes is tomorrow.  I'll be dancing down the mountains during the Speedgoat 50K.  The men's race is loaded.  I wasn't aware of hardly anyone coming until a couple of days ago, seriously. I got an email from a friend wishing me well that mentioned the competition. I generally don't spend much time looking at entry list, most of time I never look.  If you're interested you can check out irunfar.com.  Thanks for the well wishes comment from anonymous.

My random note for this post:  I saw some copperheads mating, plus one watching, at Hebron Falls when I took Megan there the day before the track meet.  She was freaked out, I tried to get some closeups on my phone's camera.

Last Stop Rothrock on my La Sportiva Mountain Cup Tour

Friday night found me sleeping on the air mattress in the back of Alison’s Vibe with some kind of bugs eating at me. Alison doesn’t remember an bugs, but she kept smacking or rubbing her face without ever waking up. The prelude to our latest La Sportiva Mountain Cup race. I had commented on how I hadn’t slept the best, but well enough. Alison said she had slept well, what bugs was I talking about. I should have just put up the tent, but it was raining when we arrived. So the car sounded easier. I probably should have left the windows closed, but once I did that about 11:30 to keep more bugs from getting in, I was hot. It must have worked fairly well for me as I ran surprisingly well.

About the race, I'd consider this course pretty technical.  It leaves the stabilizing muscles of my lower legs a little sore afterwards.  The trail is quite rocky, or only rocks in some places.  There is a long boulder climb at about 13 miles.  Lots of steep ups and downs.  I really like the race, except for a few runnable, rolling sections.  Alison would say that there are too many rocks, but some of the rolling sections are nice.  I did my warmup run solo as I found no one to run with me. The RD announced the race would start in 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute. I looked at Bryon Powell and commented, “No Matt?” RothRock is in PA, so not an especially long drive for Matt. Someone counted us down and we were off. I actually led us out and up most of the first climb, which seemed rather odd. Really I am seldom the one leading races out and the past two years here I’ve been more like 10-15 at the start of the first climb about ½ mile in. No fast start today. Near the top of the climb, Jacob Loverich passed, but I stayed close. Jacob had won the race the previous two years. On the ridge, he pulled away a little, but I caught him on the first steep and rocky descent. Once we were on a more flat to rolling, non-technical section that was the last I saw of Jacob. I saw one other guy when I backtracked on the course to confirm that I’d gone the right way at an intersection just after the first aid station. Probably an overreaction to two weeks ago at Jemez. I had felt a bit flat and dull early. I was also a bit flat mentally. I wondered often whether I was running fast or not. One minute I’d think, “Yea I’m moving.” The next, “I don’t think I’m moving well.” Literally hours passed. I ran over technical rocky trails that is Rothrock, streams in the trails created from heavy rain overnight, puddles and muck in the low areas.  Which my C-Lite 2.0s were light, grippy, drained well, and provided great traction.  Time just went by with my random thoughts. I asked myself often how much am I racing?

At the bottom of a tough boulder climb I heard Jacob was a little over 5 minutes up. I hadn't looked at any splits from the previous two years. Was I running well? I hadn’t even remembered my time from last year. At the last aid station I was told Jacob wasn’t too far ahead. How far is not too far? Turns out it was too far. I finished second. I was pretty sure I was faster than last year. I knew I was closer to Jacob than either of the previous two years. Ian looked up my time from last year on his fancy phone. I was 3 minutes faster than last year. I was also only 3:31 behind Jacob. I am quite surprised by my day. The course was sloppy, but is challenging even when dry. It's always hard to say how conditions affect a course. Jacob was a couple of minutes slower than last year. For my races maybe I should blank out more often. I never felt distressed or like I was forcing anything. After the race, I did call Matt to check on him. Rothrock was just not his best choice at that point. I was glad to hear nothing was really wrong for him.

Furthermore for myself, I had a shockingly good run last Saturday out at Longbottom. I was absurdly fast up and down the super steep Bluff Mountain trail, 16% average for 2.8 miles one way. I was a couple seconds faster on the climb run/hiking easy versus my previous best run steady. I was 2 minutes faster for the descent without trying to run fast at all. I was just blanking out again. I did another, more gentle climb up and down the mountain for 16 total. I’m feeling pretty optimistic about Mt. Washington in two weeks. Time to rest and get fresh legged. Plus I’m feeling good about Speedgoat 50K in July. Maybe I should blank out on those too, or not.

Disclaimer:  No turtles were harmed in the running of this race, but a few humans were.

Results:

Men -

1. Jacob Loverich  2:39.03

2. Jason Bryant  2:42.34

3. Stephen Hennigar  2:52.48

Women - 

1. Megan Kimmel  3:01.18

2. Ashley Moyer  3:19.54

3. Gina Lucrezi  3:2?

4. Alison Bryant 3:25.32

Results courtesy of PA Runners at www.parunners.com

The Legend Among the Turtles of Yates Creek

A few days ago my work as a gypsy moth hunter took me back into some remote woods.  It is a mountainous area with very limited access and just a few woods roads or atv trails.  So a good bit of my day was spent traversing up and down the mountain ridges and hollows cross country style.  Of course to make better time, I aim north, south, east, or west and just run through the woods.  This day I was running down a hillside and I jumped over a log.  As I cleared the log, there was a box turtle working up the mountain just where my foot was heading for landing.  In that brief moment of danger for the turtle, I looked in his face, just before he jerked his head in to hope for the best.  It seemed a shocked and fearful expression.  I was able to readjust at the last moment and just barely missed landing right on top of the box turtle.  With my high speed on this steep downhill I was suddenly gone from our brief encounter.  Considering where I was, I imagine that box turtle had never seen a human before.  I'm not sure what a box turtle would actually name me, human is our term.  I imagine that turtle saying what the hell was that.  He sees his friends and tells them how he was nearly crushed by this strange creature bounding speedily through the woods.  They all laugh and tell him that he's confused or afraid of everything.  He had probably jerked his head in so quickly that he had mistaken some deer or even bear for a strange bigfoot creature.  The box turtle reaffirms to them that this was no deer or bear, he doesn't know what it was.  But they had better be careful as they roam those woods.  And that is how I became the Legend among the Turtle of Yates Creek.


I must give credit for the Legend title to Cory since he came up with it on our run the other day as I told about my encounter.  Other side notes, Alison said the snapping turtle that lives in our pond is Bob.  I also drove on dirt roads for about 8 hours straight while working the last week.  There was a Highway 90 I was on, a one lane dirt road.

I got thrown off this Mountain Cup ride; Jemez Half Marathon

Driving through southern Colorado

Rio Grande Gorge

For being overall tired from working like a manic lately, Jemez Half-Marathon was going fairly well.  The top three guys had gone out fast and left me on the section over to the climb up the mountain.  Once on the climb, it looked like I was gaining on all three.  As I neared the top, I could see that Ryan Woods was pretty close.  I tried to throw myself forward and let gravity yank me down the mountain.  A few minutes after starting the descent I caught Ryan and passed him.  I could tell he was having a rough one and told him to hang in there.  But I was glad to have the opportunity to beat him and get one of the pottery prizes.  Then I got thrown of the Jemez ride.  I missed a turn as I bombed down the mountain.  Since there had been few marking on many sections, I didn’t realize that I was off course until I was probably a mile down the mountain in the wrong direction.  I knew my race was screwed and decided I was not interested in a climb back up the mountain.  I just kept going down until I found a guy loading some post on his truck and caught a ride.  I won’t pretend that I just took an “oh well” attitude.  I was a bit pissed at the situation.  Sorry, I’m not the “it’s a beautiful day to be lost on the trails” kind of guy.  To sound like that wouldn’t be an accurate portrayal of myself.  I like being out on trails, but I travel to races to compete at whatever level I’m capable of, not to roam around off course.  I don't want to pretend I some super nice, love everything type of guy.  Some things stink, get over it, and move on.  Gina Lucrezi stayed on the same fireroad and realized it at the same place I did.  She also went from racing in 3^rd to out for a run in New Mexico.  Alison actually missed the same turn, but fortunately a guy was close enough behind her and noticed the turn.  I thought Ryan was pretty cool as he told me that I had beaten him today.  He knows I’m competitive.  He knows as well as I do that I don’t get a chance to beat those top guys unless they are having an off day.  I told Ryan that I did not beat him.  Ryan said I did, but it just wouldn’t be in the results.  I just thought that was kind of Ryan to encourage and support me when he was having a rough day himself.

Me, Jason Taylor, Nate Bosey

So enough with that, here are the salvaging parts of my weekend.  I got to visit with Nate Bosey and some of his friends.  I meet Nate in 2007 when I went to Albuquerque to run the La Luz trail race.  I found Nate on MySpace (does MySpace still exist?) and that he was a local guy running La Luz.  I contacted him to see if I could camp in his backyard.  He agreed and I slept in a playhouse in Nate’s backyard before La Luz.  I've since learned there's always some random place to camp, no need for planning.  Nate and I have stayed in touch some and I had met one of his friends, Jason Taylor, at a race in Taos a couple of years ago.  Another friend of theirs, David, was with them and was running the Half.  Nate ran the 50K which was his 2^nd ultra.  Jason ran the 50 Mile and finished 2^nd, less than 2 minutes out of first.  It was cool to visit with Nate and Jason again, plus be around to see them finish their races.  Another friend Jeremy Duncan was also running the 50 Mile and finished 3^rd.  Jason Schlarb won the 50K with a new course record and I got hear what is going on with him some afterwards.  Yea, races are definitely a somewhat social thing for me.  In fact it's get hard to have time to see everyone when I travel to these races.

I was glad for Alison to run well, finishing 2^nd for the women in the Half.  We flew into Denver and drove down so we got to see a different part of Colorado.  We always seem to enjoy traveling together, she's still laughing at my stupidity.  Maybe I’ll keep her around for now.  Speaking of stupidity, on the drive back to Denver we saw the La Sportiva van at a gas station.  I got Alison to stop so I could show Ian my glutes as he came out of the store.  For some reason he said that he didn’t need to see that.  I thought the team manager was supposed help the athletes in any way.  I just wanted to see if Ian might know what was causing my glute pain.  Anyway, his reaction really cracked Alison up.  Finally, we stopped by Manitou Springs to visit with Peter and Nora that evening after the race.  It sounds like they’re popular people who get a lot of visitors.  In some ways, I wish we lived somewhere that friends, runners, or people in general had reason to travel to.  But if any of you friends or temporary strangers have reason to be in northwest NC, you’ve got an open invite to stay with us as long as you’re willing to feed the chipmunk.

Jemez Half Marathon:

We'll give free hugs if you stay with us as well.

Men

1.  Rob Krar 1:32:??  Course Record

2.  Chris H.

3.  Ryan Woods

Women

1.  Megan Kimmel

2.  Alison Bryant

3.  Petra McDowell

4.  Christina Bauer

Jemez 50K

1.  Jason Schlarb  -  Course Record

Nate Bosey

Jemez 50 Mile:

1.  

2.  Jason Taylor

3.  Jeremy Duncan

Random Thoughts

I wrote most of this two days ago, but my car was suddenly ready so I was back to work.  I figured that I'd better get it posted or it'd never happen.  So there may be some typos that Alison can correct tomorrow or sometime or never.  I'll try to post a Jemez race report tomorrow evening or Sunday.

Where to begin? I’ve had several ideas for blogs, but no time to write a blog up. That problem was solved today as my car began to die repeatedly on me while out working. I made it to a dealership who had openings to check it out and then fix it. So I was left with about 4 hours to kill; write up a blog for La Sportiva that I’ve been meaning to get to, do a run I wasn’t sure I’d get in today, do some emails I’ve been putting off, and now write this.

So I’ll rewind to a few random thoughts from several weeks ago. I was out working over the weekend, meaning I was working until dark, running, sleeping in the car, and up to work again the next day. As darkness fell that Saturday, I found myself hanging a trap at large golf course in the Greensboro area. A great place for a night run in the rain without a headlamp. I cruised along the golf course, drifting around, wondering if I’d be able to find my way back to the car within the distance I had planned on running. I began to think about the last time I was at that golf course. That was with the previous girlfriend before Alison. We were playing golf with her parents. She was crazy, like bad crazy. She had liked the stories of my foolishness and adventures when we were first getting to know one another. But that soon became “time for me to act more mature.” I believe she was confused about who she was talking to. The final straw as they say was when we got into an argument over what I wore to a wedding rehearsal for a friend of mine. It wasn’t overly outrageous, but a little loud. I was just having some fun; my friends there appreciated it. This girlfriend said I was seeking attention. I argued that what difference did it make to her, she wasn’t even there. She said that it made her look bad for dating a psycho like me.  The tie from that evening is the same tie that I wore to my and Alison’s wedding. I roamed the course thinking how good Alison is for me. She rolls with my foolishness and still sees the humor. It just fun to do things together and laugh.  Alison said early on in our dating, "I like dorks."  Some people point out that she was calling me a dork.  I point out to them that that was and is accurate.  I like that she saw who I was, not who she could make me into.  Plus Alison isn’t too concerned with what everyone else thinks might be wrong with her for being married to crazy, goat bearded Jason.

Then I thought about the previous time I was at this golf course. It was when cross country nationals were there. Adam Goucher won. I was there with Coach Mitchell and Amiean who ran at the high school. I helped Amiean procure a souvenir later in the day. Something I seem to be good at.  The best memory from that day was while we were roaming the course between races. We walked by a guy and after we passed, I looked at Coach and said, “That’s Billy Mills.” I'm not even sure how I knew that it was Mr. Mills as I had only seen photos from his running days.  I had read about Billy Mills in high school and seen a movie about him. Billy Mills is the only American to win the 10,000 at the Olympics, in 1964. In high school I had decided to be 10,000 runner and try to make the Olympics in the event. Oh well, just another failure from my delusional mind. I had to go speak to Mr. Mills. He was friendly and kept trying to introduce me to his author friend, Nicholas Sparks. I was not interested as I was talking with Billy Mills. As a young person there was only two athletes that I thought would be neat to meet someday, Billy Mills and Terry Bradshaw.  That was a fun day.  Though Terry Bradshaw was not there and I haven't met him.

Throughout my running on this evening, I had never checked my pace on my garmin. I was just roaming the golf course in the rain and thinking. When I looked at the end, I had been fairly quick. It was nice to just drift away on a run, unconcerned with how I was running. I found a puddle to bath in post-run, then a place to park and sleep in the back of the car.

As for my recent racing, I’ve run a few local races. I did a local 5K to work on my speed. The 5K mainly showed that I needed to work on my speed as I only ran 17.37. Most fitness was back from my break in the winter, but not all of it. I was second in the 5K as a fast guy from Texas who was in town for work and a co-worker told him about the race. The next weekend, I ran a friend's crazy trail race at Stone Mountain Park near home called the Drool Deer. I finally got my second win of the year. The following Thursday, I did the Critter Crawl 5K at Grandfather Mountain, as I was doing some work in the area. It started at MacRae Meadow and ran through the animal area on the way up Grandfather Mountain. I felt pretty good climbing on the both the more gradual sections and the steep sections. When I finished in 21.30, I assumed the course was short. But I spoke with someone who said it was wheeled and was actually closer to 3.2 miles. That would have put my average pace around 6.45. I was a little surprised, though I’d recently had a really good mountain workout at Pilot Mountain. Next I did the Shelton Vineyard Running of the Vines 10K. The race finishes 2.8 miles from my house. Most of the course is my 10 mile night time loop. I went hoping to run it at the fast end of my tempo pace, 5.45 pace. I was pretty steady around that pace, getting just a little under through 4 miles. Then there is a fairly big 1+ mile climb. I lost a little time there finishing in 35.52 with a 5.46 average pace. Plus I got another win to make it three in a row. The 10K time was actually a PR as I’ve never done a flat out 10K when fit or focused on a 10K. My previous 10K PR was on a trail course from 2009.

Now it is back to the more competitive races. Up this weekend is Jemez ½ Marathon in New Mexico. It is the sixth race on the La Sportiva Mountain Cup.

Latest Stop on my La Sportiva Mountain Cup Merry-Go-Round: Hells Hills

How to prepare for a fast race: Number one, pick your parents well. Secure yourself some good genetics for speed, or not. Then blah, blah; other stuff like train hard, train smart, eat well, sleep, blah, blah. Skip to the week before the race, do masonry work laying rock around the foundation of a house most of the week. Since I had gotten a good report from my doctor on the broken arm two weeks ago, he upped my left arm carrying capacity to 20 lbs. So I laid rock this week leading up the race. A task I was supposed to do this past November. Staying bent over or kneeling constantly while working a trowel and holding somewhat heavy rocks will leave you perfectly refresh. Better yet, take 5 months off any real manual labor, then lay rock like you never missed a beat. You are probably getting the idea. I was so busy trying to get the job done that running just didn’t happen. I decided to call it a hard taper. In all truth, I actually enjoyed doing some real manual work again. I worked the skin off my fingers in places on my now wimpy, soft hands. My abs were sore, my back was sore, my arms were sore, and my hands were not only sore, but the right hand was swollen from returning to real work. Again, this actually felt good to be sore from tough physical work. Maybe that’s a genetic gift I got, or it was pounded into me throughout my childhood. I’m sure some of you understand. Plus it was nice to step back and see something accomplished. Oh yea, several of my personal bests or best races have come after a week of hard physical work. So I did go into Hells Hills feeling pretty good about my race potential. One other prerace preparation, a 6 mile run inside the Atlanta airport. I ran down by the “plane train” for the various concourses. Yea, I got a few looks and comments, but not too many. I thought it was a good use of a long layover and a chance to add to my list of unique run locations.

I did miss out a very important detail of my prerace preparation, that whole genetics thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much true endurance speed from my parents. And yes, I understand speed is all relative, but relatively I am not fast. Yet I did end up leading the race early on for about a mile. Ryan and Jared were at the front laying down a very pedestrian pace. I moved by them, giving them a hard time about the slow pace. I commented that I don’t do tactical. Tactical generally doesn’t work for me, unless you consider an even, steady pace tactical. Ryan, Jared, Rob Krar, and Chris McWatters settled right in behind me and joked about waiting for a final sprint finish. That'd probably be more enjoyable, right up to point were a whole train of folks fly by me in that last mile. Maybe I do have a tactic, wear guys out and don't slow down. Some mile PRs were tossed about. These guys are lowish 4 minutes, at least 4:10-20. I commented that my 4:55 PR speed would not fare well in that race. Soon Ryan’s GPS watch beeped, somehow that seemed to be the signal for Jared to start the race. So by me he went, then Ryan, then Rob. Later I found out that Jared pushed the pace for a couple of miles, then backed off and those three were together through about 10 miles. Around 3 miles I broke away from Chris a little, learning after the race that he tweaked a groin muscle a bit. So I spent most of the race alone chasing ghosts. As I passed 50K runners, I kept hearing the group was a couple of minutes up or a few hundred yards. Piecing things together afterwards, I think I was staying relatively close through 10 miles. At this point the winding, up and down, trail course changed to an open access road. The three began their race in earnest and my ghosts disappeared. Ryan said his GPS watch reported some 5:20 miles here. Again my genetic shortcomings, as that is my 5K PR pace. I won’t ever be running that pace 10 miles into a race, unless I’m falling off a cliff. Yet in that case, I could actually go faster than that since objects fall at roughly 10 meters/second or something under 3 minute pace. Your science lesson for the day, but I digress. Those three stayed fairly close with Ryan breaking away once back on the tight, twisting trails for last 1.5 miles.

It was a rather enjoyable Mountain Cup weekend again. This was a 25K personal best, so I guess hard work just before a race still works for me. I feel pretty good about my race performance. I’d consider the course a fast one for the most part. The main thing to slow it down was all the twists and turns of the trail with some sharp up and down dips. I had chosen this La Sportiva Mountain Cup race mainly because of friends in this part of Texas to visit. Plus RDs Joe and Joyce Prusaitis are good friends and put on a great event. Also this race fit into my schedule. It was a good race for Alison as she won the women’s race, passing Christina Bauer at about 11 miles. I believe Christina was sick and another competitive woman slept through the start of the race in her car a hundred yards or so from the start line. But I thought it was a good showing for Alison since she had just started back after her most recent winter stress fracture. As I say, just get on the starting line and you never know what might happen. That has never been more true than in the Mountain Cup as examples of points altering insanity include sickness, overcome with sleep, wrong turns, missed flights, moose attacks, trails blocked by closed signage, lost shoes, car trouble, missing aid stations, an overabundance of rocks, poor tactics, genetic shortcomings, old age. Maybe that’s a whole different blog. I think I’ve taken a crack at everyone with that list, I'll let you guess who's associated with each.

My next few races should start shift toward my genetic abilities; tough, suffering, delusions? Matt Byrne described me as a “mutter.” Is that a compliment? Another friend once described me as a grinder. I like either. But my mom has found my blog now, so she may take offense to your comment Matt. See you at RothRock, Matt, and let the trash talk begin.

Top Men:

1. Ryan Woods 1:35.22

2. Jared Scott 1:35.42

3. Rob Krar 1: 35.53

4. Jason Bryant 1:43.31

5. Chris McWatters 1:46.39

Women:

1. Alison Bryant 2:02.16

2. Christina Bauer 2:08.45

This is after my run in the airport. If I get some other photos from someone, I'll add them later. I tend to socialize too much and forget to take photos at the races.