Well, this race today was about toughness, because it tested me mentally, emotionally and physically! I am very proud of my effort, even though I would have liked to have been faster, it was a huge PR!! It rained the whole day, when we got up there this morning it was a very light sprinkle with basically no wind. Then as everyone started to line up for the start it began to rain a bit harder and the wind started to blow right at us and so the March began! Mile 1-6 (7:58, 8:05, 7:48, 7:46, 7:51, 8:01) For these first 6 miles the wind was not bad at all, just a breeze compared to what was to come. I was trying to keep it conservative, and I really felt like I was. Mile 7-15 (7:53, 8:04, 8:10, 8:02, 8:16, 8:08, 8:23, 8:33, 8:44) Not necessarily represented in all of my splits but you can definitely see it. We really started to feel the storm about this point, and Everytime I said to myself, "this is really bad", it seemed to get worse! I was using a lot of effort to keep my splits decent and it was a battle. The rain was stinging our faces, smaller runners were litterally blowing in the air between steps! From mile 11 to 15 was the most miserable part of any run I have ever been on. I almost quit several times. I just kept saying to myself, "is this really worth it?" Followed by "Maybe the weather will be ok by the time we hit the canyon, just keep pushing!" I new it was really bad when we came to the aide station around 15ish and they were really monitoring all of the runners closely. Lots of verbal communication to make sure everyone was ok. I could see the concern in their eyes with me as I had the Bloodiest nips of all time, it was crazy!! Mile 16-26.2 (8:18, 8:15, 7:59, 8:05, 8:02, 7:57, 7:56, 7:45, 8:09, 8:39, 8:47, 2:35) A huge running miracle happened somewhere right after that aide station of death, I met Jeff the mechanical engineer! Jeff was my motivation as I was his. We cussed about the weather, we were mad and ran tough and angry! The weather began to lift a bit as well, and we started to push towards the canyon! When we hit the canyon we dominated! Our training paid off, and it was awesome. No more rain and very little head wind also helped in the domination, but we stuck by each other to the end. We ran out of gas a little bit on the trail from all the dodging of half marathon walkers taking up the whole trail. Not sure how the elites deal with it, but it is pretty tough. At the end of the day, this will go down in the books as an all timer. I wonder what kind of time I could have pulled off without that headwind and nasty weather, but I will never know. The toll it took on me was pretty severe. I think I had a 3:25 in me today, but the good thing is that there are plenty of races left in me and the best is yet to come. | 