You know it's a great course when the garmin goes haywire and one of my splits (mile 7) is slower than my 5k time. The website claims the course is 17.5 miles with 9000 ft of elevation loss and gain. My garmin fell short on both but that's probably because the hills were sooooo steep and there were many sharp turns. I think it worked to my advantage that I haven't run this race since 2003 because I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. Those hills seemed to never stop and they just got steeper and steeper. Then once the hills were over I got to risk my life climbing over crags then risk my life again (as Jun (Craig) can attest with his war wounds) descending the back side of the mountain. The race was an adventure to say the least full of tripping, falling, hiking, running, and trying not to let the wheels fall off. I led for the first 4 or 5 miles until I was passed by Evan from Idaho Falls on a really steep hill. Over the next couple of miles he distanced himself enough so that he had about a 2 minute lead at the summit. At that point I didn't think I would see him again because he was obviously stronger on the climbs and he also seemed to have plenty of speed to go with it (come to find out he ran a 15:10 5k in college). However, after descending for a couple of miles out of nowhere Evan rejoined the trail and I was again in the lead. Apparently he took a wrong turn, which probably cost him at least 2 minutes. From the point where he rejoined me up until 1 mile from the finish (probably about 6 miles), the gap between us was never more than 10 ft. I pounded the downhills in an attempt to drop him but he never budged. Then as I suspected he surged with a mile left and my already decimated legs couldn't respond. He finished about 15 seconds ahead of me but really he beat my by about 2 mins because of the detour he took on the descent. Despite losing to him I am glad we were able to run side by side because I am sure I wouldn't have run that fast or hard if I was alone. I hope I helped him push the pace too. At the finish I immediately jumped in the conveniently located creek in Memory Grove. Hopefully the cold water will help the knees I just abused for 2+ hours. To cap off the day I also got to meet Jon and Craig, albeit very briefly. I hope you guys had a good time!
| Time |
Distance |
Split time |
Split pace |
Elev. chg. |
| 0:07:05 |
1 |
7:05 |
7:05 |
220 |
| 0:16:23 |
2 |
9:18 |
9:25 |
555 |
| 0:24:31 |
3 |
8:07 |
8:10 |
323 |
| 0:32:39 |
4 |
8:08 |
8:13 |
332 |
| 0:41:46 |
5 |
9:07 |
9:09 |
361 |
| 0:51:29 |
6 |
9:42 |
9:41 |
458 |
| 1:09:12 |
7 |
17:43 |
17:49 |
1,131 |
| 1:25:02 |
8 |
15:49 |
16:01 |
-82 |
| 1:34:52 |
9 |
9:50 |
9:51 |
-1,280 |
| 1:41:37 |
10 |
6:45 |
6:43 |
-576 |
| 1:46:56 |
11 |
5:19 |
5:22 |
-345 |
| 1:52:36 |
12 |
5:39 |
5:41 |
-222 |
| 1:59:05 |
13 |
6:28 |
6:31 |
-132 |
| 2:05:30 |
14 |
6:24 |
6:26 |
-246 |
| 2:12:10 |
15 |
6:39 |
6:39 |
-204 |
| 2:17:47 |
16 |
5:37 |
5:38 |
-205 |
| 2:20:11 |
16.27 |
2:23 |
7:16 |
-70 |
| 
