Story
I had taken a shot at this course earlier in the year but it didn’t go well. It was quite hot that day and I just couldn’t seem to pick up the pace on the flat sections like I wanted to. So I returned today to pick up a few more points.
I warmed with an easy jog/hike on the first part of the course to remind myself of the turns. As I was running back to the sign I saw Chris Petroff gliding over the trail toward me at what looked like sub 6:00 mile pace. Those of you who have been following the leaderboard know the significance of this.
When I got back to start I scanned the sign, threw my phone in my car, lapped my watch, tapped the sign, and sprinted off. I was a bit sore from yesterday’s Fall Creek Trails effort but I still felt some spring in my step so I powered on.
The climbs seemed a lot less intense than they did last time (maybe because I’ve run Abbott Ascent since then) but they still tired my legs out. Once I made it to the access road it took a little bit of time for them to recover before I could start seriously pushing the pace.
Instead of a gate slap I did a bit of a gate push off, kind of like a swimmer turning around at the wall of a pool. I kept my foot on the gas until the turn down the hill. There were some loose rocks on the trail leading back down, so in the interest of avoiding any accidents I didn’t go full speed until I was back on level ground.
Knowing that Chris had probably just set the course record I did my best to find a few extra seconds on the way to the finish. I made it in 17:25. That’s 56 seconds slower than Chris, but 1:15 faster than my previous best effort. Will it be enough?