MMTR 2012

The snow year! Felt great coming into this race. I had trained hard. I had run the course hard. Felt that a 7 hr finish time was a possibility. The last 2 years I had run grindstone 4 weeks prior to the race and by buck mountain felt those miles. Not this year. No grindstone in my legs. Uroc giving me some speed and some experience. I thought this might be the year. I WAS WRONG! My mental goal was to stay positive. I accomplished that. Went out fast but not feeling overly fast. Running good and consistent. Got a little freaked when my bro who was crewing me did not show up to parkway station but went on and like I always tell everyone who runs ultras. "Expect for things to go wrong". No sweat. Just ate from aid stations. Worse thing was snagging a GU from aid station and it was a cap pachinko flavor. Disgusting but o'well. Ran with Brian Schmitt till reservoir and saw my bro. Changed out pack for bottles and got some cliff shots. Ran mostly with some fast hiking and close to where it flattens out I get passed by Brian Rusecki who would later win the whole stinking thing. He passed me like I was standing still. The only words from his mouth were " you guys started out fast huh". Apparently he had his game plan and killed it from that point. I came into every aid station right on my mark. Long mountain wayside by 3:29 and then climbed to buck mountain in 35 min. Flats feeling great and downhills even better. Passed another runner who would later drop near wiggins aid station. I remembered that Jared Hesse and I had run an aid station for grindstone and I honestly never realized the effort and time it took to run an aid station so this race I had a great appreciation for all aid station workers and gave high fives to most and said thanks to each one. I went into loop 12 min behind leaders and honestly felt like I was going to make my move now! WRONG AGAIN! The snow came. I didn't believe all the reports of snow but they were true. I have a very low gait and my feet do not come off the ground very much so I kept feeling like I was dragging my feet and could not get into any rhythm. Gary Robbins passed me coming down from out and back in loop and looked like a gazelle and I was running like a buffalo. Needless to say I knew I was in 4 th place now and the people behind me were closer than I thought. I hiked a whole bunch in the loop and swore that everyone was going to catch me. I got a little frustrated but then looked around and laughed out loud cause this will probably never happen again at mmtr and it was cool to be a part of running this. Done with loop finally and saw my wife and bro. Got 2 bottles cause I knew it was going to take longer than I thought. So I ran every step of that next section cause I knew there was a lot of hiking in store. Reached the old AT section and like I said before I could not run! So I hiked. I kept looking back thinking I was going so slow that someone is bound to catch me. But alas no one did. I kept trying to run in the post holes of the people in front of me but they wait her had really small feet or I have huge feet cause I kept missing their holes. I kept dragging my feet. Finally the last aid station. Saw Matt Day and asked him how much behind I was from 3rd. He told me I was 3rd. I said ohh no someone got lost. So I ran the last section hard and fast. All downhill baby!! The HOKAS felt great here and even better on the road. I came in at 8:07. Good enough for 3rd overall. My beautiful family were all there and friends. As always we waited there for all my friends to come in. This race was especially special cause it was my birthday this day. I turned 36 and remember the first time I ran this race in 2009. My good friends brought me cake and Sang to me. I only benched 28 reps for the ironman comp but I was ok with that. I think the snow and HOKAS made me feel incredible. Almost no soreness and of course the ice baths help! As always thanks to my crew, my wife and kiddos, friends and Clark Zealand and DHO for putting this thing on. As always anything good in life should point us to the creator of that good! Jesus who created us with these passions and desires for acceptance, love, exhilaration, etc can only ultimately be fulfilled in HIM!. I love that. Don't get stuck on a small fix when he promises to fulfill us! Hellgate next. 2nd last year. What's in store this year? Hopefully something really special!!!