Yee haw. Another whiskey in the books, number 3 for me.

I had a public goal this year of hitting 4:30 for a finishing time, and I was pretty damn close. Final time came in at 4:32. It was good for an 8th place SS finish, which in a field of 21 ain’t half bad.

I also had a private goal of trying not to cramp on the climb out of skull valley. I did my best to hit this goal, and came within 1/4 mile of the singletrack cutoff at the top of 12 miles and 3000+ feet of climbing.

The bike ran smoothly, I stayed hydrated and fed, and overall felt good about my race, which is a huge accomplishment in itself.

As usual, I felt like I went out too hard, but I think I’ve resolved myself to the fact that any race which starts out with a climb up the road behind a bunch of insanely-fast racers (including a couple big names), you’re going to ‘go out too fast’. I just tried to recover well, and keep the impending climb out of skull valley in perspective.

I felt good rolling through the first aid station and as I descended into skull valley set about preparing my body with whatever I could for the climb. I ate shot blocks, had a gel, downed almost a full bottle of cytomax, and popped a couple enduralytes. After a quick banana and fluid refill at the bottom, I thought to myself “alright, it’s cooler this year, you’re in better shape, and you’re well-fed and hydrated, if you’re going to do this without cramping, this is the year”.

Like I said, 1/4 mile. Almost made it.

As usual, Todd put on a great race, and I’m happy to see that he’s getting a lot of bigger names down for the race. Results are up here if you care to take a look at the full spread.

I also want to congratulate Chris Latham, who pulled out a second place finish in singlespeed. Dude is fast. Rumor has it he was running a 32×17 on a 29er, which (for once) means that somebody was pushing a bigger gear than me. I’m curious as to what the SS winner (Mike Hileman, for the 3rd year in a row) was rolling.

Chris said that his reasoning for the gear choice: too lazy to change it. I can relate. I just wish I could relate to his time. Maybe next year. . .

p.s. Chris’ son Erowynn was the youngest competitor, completing the 15 miler. The kid is 9. Bad-ass.