Day 2 came with a 11mi final stage. Oh yeah, and a lot of pain to start the day. I was not prepared to be as sore as I was when I woke up this morning. Took a strong cup of coffee to even think about moving anywhere. But as I started to get ready for the day the legs started to loosen up.
The stage started with some rolling open dirt roads. I was running mug better than I anticipated, but knew we’d be paying for this sooner or latter. Bill and I teamed up and started to pace each other. Then we hit some harder rolling hills at this point we were about 2mi in and I was getting worried. I knew that these easy miles would be paired with something much much harder later on. Then it happened. Hit me like a ton of bricks. The trail turned up, and up HARD. Bill and I continues to stick together. At the top of the first big climb or two we were rewarded with some really nice trails along the ridge line that was some beautiful running.
As we hit mile 5 the trails started to leave their mark on my legs and my energy stores. The trails got more technical, steeper both up and down, and muddier. Bill and I stayed together and worked really well together through these sections. Somewhere along the line I looked at my watch to see the latest mile split: 15:45, and that was as fast as I could possibly go. Gives you an idea of the terrain we were running.
Then it happened. As we came thru 8.5mi Jenn caught us. Bill and I were fading fast and she was looking strong. We heckled each other a bit and then she dropped us.
Shortly after Jenn passed us we hit the top of Devil’s Bathtub, where we ran yesterday. We could see runners ahead of us heading out the other end of the little parking lot. Then we went left and down the stairs. This meant only one thing. We had to go down to the bottom of the Bathtub and come right back up. Yes indeed, that’s exactly what we did. (I think the course architect really liked being you up a hill and then right back down, or visa versa. Happened in every stage).
At the bottom of the Bathtub for the second time within a single mile, we finally hit the flats and headed towards the finish. Along the way we hit some more mud sections. Then finally turned up to the finish line. All worth it for an awesome hoodie.
(photos: (1) Jenn and Hammer sharing a finish line beer, (2) the sweet hoodie we got for completing all 3 stages)
