Yes, yes I know the world has been waiting for this blog so ....stop the press, here it is!!!
Between holiday lake and terrapin I put some good training in. Ran hard and fast, but I never made it up to the mountains. I thought running on incline for 5 miles on treadmill would be sufficient training along with some faster trail stuff. I did not runa stupid 5k in between these races and have to admit that I felt the best I have felt in a while going into it. Confident, fresh, no pain of any kind. Again I was seeded with the ol number one seed and knew that there was some real good competition. Jeremy told me to watch out for the number 3 seed who I had met at MMTR 2012 but had dropped out a little past half. Rewind back to training. I had been training with my boy Sam Dangk for a while now. Every time we ran we raced. He has shaped up to be an excellent runner and told him we would try to run this one together, and together we did!!
So saturday morning comes around. I slept incredibly sound the night before and really had no nerves whatsoever. Goal was to beat time from 2 years ago. Secret goal was to beat it by 5 min. More secret goal was to beat it by 10 min. Most secretest goal was to run a 4:10. That's what I thought would win it. So off we go. I started off well. Felt incredible on the first hill. Like too incredible. I wanted to keep
David in sight but not run right behind him. Unfortunately he had other plans. He left us all and then I had small gap on Sam. We get to first aid. I see Sam come up about 30 seconds behind me and stay that way till aid number two. At that point legs got heavy. So by the time we reached the left turn unto horsetrail Sam was right on me. I tried to hold a good pace for him but then I hear him say...you want me to pull for a little while? Little did he know a little while would be the next 20 miles. He literally pulled me behind him. I was not 3 inches from his heel all day. On the road back up to camping gap he pulled me. At one point he said " are you ok" I answered back "yeah, I think so" he said "you are breathing real hard." Then I tried to say something else and he looked and me and sushed me and said " no more talking" . He looked strong and fresh. He was climbing like a champ. Everything in me was struggling but I stayed right on him. His strength pulled me. I forgot I was racing at times and just said to stay with him. No walking at all, but I sure wish he did. The loop was nothing spectacular and we knew first place guy was out of range. Like 8 min or so. So back to camping gap and Sam and I ran like it was a training run. Up to the top of terrapin I lead but I got the feeling Sam was chilling back there. I hiked up as best as I could. Then we punch and downhill we go. We blasted the downhill. At that point Sam fell and I took over and led to the rock garden. I was eating gels the whole way down cause I knew what was coming, but at the bottom I dropped. Running back up to turn was super hard. We saw 4th place Patrick mcglade and he looked fresh and on a mission. I think that freaked sammy out and he stepped on the gas. I dropped. Sam moving further and further away. Was getting a little dizzy again and though ohh no here comes a bonk. So what do you do in times like this? You pray! I asked God what it would look like to glorify him in this? Finish strong. Run hard. Lean into the pain. No matter the outcome. So like a switch I started to race again. By this time Sam was out of sight, but with every little in and out of the final 5 miles I can see him getting closer and closer. I was flat out sprinting. We got to final creek and I saw him turn. I ran as hard as I could down. Saw him on road. He was right there but just couldn't close fast enough and he came in about 30 seconds faster than me and we both came in about 3- 4 min behind first. I have never been so happy getting beat by someone. Sam deserved it. He raced hard. He was strong and he beat me fair and square!! Ofcourse so did David but he's just too fast for me!!!
