This was a humdinger of a run. I thought I’d be okay for it — not fast, but at least comfortable. Well, I was neither fast nor comfortable. The distance is listed as 20K, and it may be only that, but it is all of that. Considering the last time I’d run much more than 10K was back at the Pilot Peak Run on 26 June, it was a hell of a long way to me. This race was a loop course on mountain trials in the Medicine Bow Mountains — it circles Brown’s Peak. The elevation at the start/finish is 10,560 feet, with a maximum elevation of 11,040 feet. Although there were no huge elevation changes, the course was continually going up and down, and it was incredibly rough — some scree and lots of rough footing on exclusively single-track trails. As I stumbled along, I noted how difficult or impossible it would be to mountain bike these trails. At one point I did outdistance a biker (a course volunteer/monitor) owing to the un-rideable nature of the terrain. The views are tremendous, but you pretty much have to stop to look at them as the trails are to rough to let your eyes wander.

Not only was the course difficult, but the weather was sort of nasty — there was a brisk wind with cloud cover at times. It was the first time I had run in tights since May. I wore a short-sleeve coolmax shirt, a long sleeve coolmax shirt and a wind shell (but that came off after a few miles). There were about 25 of us hardy souls on the line. We busted off down the road, and entered the trail. Two young studs, one old stud, one young woman, and one guy about my age led me onto the trail. I paced off the guy my age for the first few miles. I had run this race last year and run with this guy for most of it before he pulled away at the end. Like last year, I was better uphill and downhill than this guy, but if the trail was reasonably flat and free of obstacles he would speed-up and pull away. He eventually did this to me again through the middle of the race. We were both passed by some young guy after about 4 miles, and then as he pulled away I was on my own. As I said, I never was really comfortable — I was always fighting to maintain a good rhythm and I started to develop a blister on the instep of my left foot. I carried a water bottle in a waist belt and had to stop when I needed to reholster it. I have this thing about not stopping — a run is really only successful if I don’t walk (YMMV). So, other than the water bottle thing, I tried to keep a "running" gait going at all times, even if it wasn’t significantly faster than walking.

The course was a bit different than last year in that the loop started at a different place. The way it went this year was tougher, the last 5 K was on the roughest, most up-and-down terrain. I never actually hit the ground, but I did stumble a few times and caught myself with my hands. I just tried to keep it going and, low-and-behold, I caught the guy who was my age who had pulled away earlier. The technical terrain and the fact that he was starting to bonk allowed me to catch him. He must have really been losing it, because I put about 3 minutes on him in the last 1.5 miles. I finished off in 2:16:51, about 10 minutes slower than last year, but there was about an extra mile tacked on and the conditions/course were tougher than the previous year. Other runners who had done the race last year noted the same thing: tougher weather, tougher course, about 10 minutes slower. The winning time was 1:49:42. Kelly Schalk was the first woman in, and second over-all, at 1:54:02. I was sixth over-all, almost 18 minutes behind the fifth placed runner. The spread wasn’t so big after me — the race had five fast folks up-front, and some medium speed behind them. It’s the sort of event that you can be proud of just completing.

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