The Run, The Plunge and the Glasses: Hangover Classic 10K and Ocean Plunge (1/1/12)

Robert, me and St. Anthony plunging into the Atlantic

Race: Hangover Classic 10K
Location: Salisbury, MA
Goal Time: 40:00
Real Time : 39:29 (6th in my age group)

Many years ago I had a conversation with a dude. He told me that he had seen God while he was throwing up peyote and off on some drug induced vision quest. Normally I take random people talking about random drugs at random parties with a little more than a grain of salt. This guy I treated with the same grain of salt.

That was until mile 5 and a quarter of New Year's Day's Hangover Classic in Salisbury. As I turned the hairpin at 5.25 I heard SRRers who had run the 5k cheering me on. Unfortunately, I also felt like I needed to vomit! I was forced to come to a complete stop and dry heave - TWICE. While I did not see God directly, St Anthony of Padua (or maybe Jersey) interceded for him and like Gabriel to Muhammad said: "our Lord knows you best; He will have mercy on you if He pleases."

Well he didn't really say that. What St. Anthony of Jersey said was: "Take this water; you need it more than I do."

I took the bottle of water, took a big swig and was ready to continue the race.

*****

The Winners' Circle Running Club's Hangover Classic was the second leg of the SRR Winter Grand Prix. Because of this yellow and black bees appeared to be buzzing about the starting line jumping from delicious nectar filled flower to delicious nectar filled flower.

Two weeks ago, the plan had been for Jim, Jason and I to go for 40 minutes together. Two weeks can be a long time.

At the gun I spent my time fighting to catch Officer McGinty. The usual people jogging 9 minute miles but lining up at the start forced me to bound around and through people. I finally caught Dan, ran his pace for a minute or two and then pushed on.

My next jump was to Jim and then forward to Jason. Neither of them felt as good as they had earlier in the month.

By the 1.5 mark and the 5k/10k break I was by myself. I did get to yell to St. Anthony of Jersey as he continued to his steaming toward adult PR in the 5k.

I had latched on to Stephen around mile 3 on the back portion of this generally out and back course. I knew I was doing surprisingly well when every person I knew that we passed coming the other way said something along the lines of: "Holy crap! Go Jesse." This started to scare me. Are the wheels going to come off this run?

The wheels came off three quarters of the way through the 5th mile. I told Stephen I was done (at least for now) and that he should go kick ass. From 4.75 until 5.2, it was a real fight for me. Fortunately two things happened that probably would not have if I was NOT in a running club.

1. At the hairpin right on the beach is when the dry heave / St. Anthony intercession happened.
2. Three people passed me in the last mile. The first two were somewhat disappointing. The third however was Matt Noyes.

The water intercession saved me until the passing happened. When Matt passed me, however, I was rejuvenated. At least I could hang onto somebody for a minute. Not only did I hang onto him, with a quarter mile left I was able to shift into fifth gear and pass him. Of course, with a tenth of a mile left Matt shifted into a sixth gear I didn't have and blew me away.

I finished at 39:29 and sixth in my age group - 34th male (which earned me a pint glass for being in the top 40 men!)

And, unfairly if you ask me, my chip time was faster than Matt's so I officially beat him. Anyone who actually saw the last 1/10th of a mile would realize that if we started even he would have merely sprinted in 6th gear earlier. If this keeps Matt from winning something in the SRR Grand Prix - I will file an official protest with the powers that be.
*****

I finished and Robert was all about doing the plunge. I gave my watch to Chris and we went to the beach. To Robert's chagrin, I spent time taking off my socks and shoes. But this allowed Anthony (St. Anthony of Jersey, that is) and SoRad to catch up with us. With Bradley the four of us just ran in.

This is one of those: "Don't think, just GO" times. The more one thinks about diving into the Northern Atlantic Ocean on January 1st, the dumber it sounds. In fact even as I write it sounds ludicrous!

Fortunately (I guess?), I had no such time to think how unreasonable of an idea this was. When the ocean got about knee high, i determined I had reached event horizon. I was now - in for a penny, in for a pound. (of course penny/pound logic often makes you lose a lot of money at the poker table.) Robert, St Anthony, Bradley and SoRad all dove into the ocean with me.

In case you thought since it has been unseasonably warm out thus the ocean might be warm, let me dispel any such hypotheses immediately.

But I did it and got another glass - making it a DOUBLE GLASSWARE RACE!

*****

Flying Otters update:
Joe O'Leary - 7th overall in 10k
Anthony White - 16th overall in 5k
Jennifer Rapaport - 93rd overall in 10k

*****

Other SRRers:

PRs were numerous and I apologize if I forgot. Aaron Beer had a BEAST MODE 3 minute PR. Erin Morin had a PR but doesn't want to recognize it due to possible short course (by 0.1 miles or so). Bradley, Korynn, Kimi and SoRad all had great PRs.

I don't know if it was a PR for Bill Hees but he definitely dominated with a 21:19 on the 5k.

Running Down the Dream: Winter Classic 5K (12/11/11)

Kimi, Marc, Anthony, Me, Mauricio and Sara after the race

Race: Winter Classic 5K

Location: Cambridge, MA

Goal Time: 20:00

Actual Time: 19:46

After Mill Cities last week, the running world really opened up. Maybe it’s the loss of weight; maybe it’s the 15 months since I quit smoking; maybe it’s the training; maybe it’s a bit of all three.

I set my goal for the 5k to be nothing less that break 20. While Tim doesn’t think 20 is any more important a number than 19, I’ll have to differ. By the accident of the Sumerian Duodecimal system that split the day and night each into 12 hours, the Babylonian base 60 numerical system that split the hour into 60 parts, Mechain and Delambre measurements of the arc that created the meter and the Hindu base 10 numeric system – 20 minutes for 5 kilometers is a HUGE.

At the start there was a huge mass of Black and Gold from SRR. Not only is this a race run by a friend of SRR, but it had special meaning this year. This was the first race of the new (brainchild of Kate O’Malley) SRR Winter Grand Prix. For the next 5 months, there will be one race a month where members of SRR can run against each other for prizes, etc. On top of that, there is a fantasy league (brainchild of Marc MacDonald) where we have picked members of SRR as our “teams” to race against each other.

Anthony had set his goal at 20 minutes also; but, I didn’t like his plan. I decided to do 6:30 miles for the first two and then see how I felt for mile 3. At the gun I saw Anthony and Dan run out with Jason and others laying down a fast first mile. I had decided not to go with him.

The first mile is very flat. From the Ashgard it wraps around University Park and then up Mass Ave into central.

As Mass Ave starts to climb from Central up to the People’s Republic, I saw I was slowly pulling both Anthony and Dan back. Once we started to run through Harvard Square, the two of them were almost within my grasp. At the turn around onto Mt. Auburn right before the two mile mark, Anthony was shocked to hear me so close as I thanked the cops who were directing traffic.

At the mile 2 mark I was under 13 minutes! (I’m pretty certain that’s the first time I broke 13 since I was in the Army). As we continued up the little hill back toward Central Square, another of the over 100 SRR runners passed me to take a point away – damn it! Back at the People’s Republic where Mass Ave dips back into Central, I set myself up for a charge.

By the time I had made it to around a quarter mile left I could literally reach out and touch Anthony and Dan. Anthony yelled: “Go for it Dan!”; Dan responded my nonchalantly blowing the two of us away by 7 seconds in the last quarter.

At the turn back onto Sydney for the home stretch, Anthony egged me on to gun it. Of course this through me into a quandary. Beating Anthony would help my personal SRR Grand Prix points; but it would harm my Flying Otters fantasy team. What do I do? Well, the competitive nature of real sport won out over my desire to win fantasy sport. I sprinted to the finish: 19:46!!! First time under 20 and a PR by 1:33 and 91^st out of 1115!! (When the final times came out, it turned out Anthony beat me in chip time anyway!)

In other personal achievements, it was the first time I ever beat Scott Abrams and only the second time I beat Bill Hees in real races.

The Flying Otters saw: Joe O’Leary, 7^th overall (probably 2^nd SRR); Anthony White, 90^th Overall; and Jennifer Rapaport 153^rd Overall.

Special congrats to Tom Breider who went out to break 20 (and did so by 56 seconds); and the trio of Korynn, Sara SoRad and Paul V who went out to break 7 minute miles and all three achieved. (And I forgot about Ann's PR on a white wine hangover!)

Flying Otters: SRR Grand Prix

My SRR Grand Prix Fantasy team:

Joe O'Leary

Jennifer Rapaport

Anthony White

Gabby Walton

Go Flying Otters!

BEAST MODE!: Mill Cities Relay (12/4/11)

Kings of Beer (Aaron Beer, Dan McGinty, Jesse Morrow, Marc MacDonald, Seth Maleri)

Event: Mill Cities Relay
Distance: 5 legs, 27 miles (5.4, 4.75, 2.5, 9.5, 4.75)
Expected Time: 3:20:30
Actual Time: 3:10:26

Aaron and I met Dan and Marc at the School in Nashua. We prepared our uniforms, bits of Clydesdale red mixed in with SRR Black & Gold. Marc had purchased bandanas for us.

As I began to figure out the red bandana, Brendan (of iPhone meteorology fame) came up to me: “Are you all wearing red for Budweiser Clydesdale?”

“Yep,” I said. He got a kick out of it.

With Seth (hopefully) at transition 1 already, I made my way to the start line with Aaron and Marc giving me a bit of encouragement. At 8:00 am they “dropped the brick” to start the race. (As Marc commented, a far cry from the cannon start at MDI).

Leg 1: 5.4 Miles – Jesse (expected time: 38:00 – 7:02/mi)

Our main goal was to beat Pauls and the Lovely Ladies (there were beers riding on it). As I was matched up with Korynn, goal one was obviously beat her by as much as I could. Considering she has been running her best ever with recent PRs at Casey’s, and MDI along with a trail race at the Wolf Sox 10K – I was not taking it lightly.

It was still my first race since my season defining MiamiMan Duathlon. I had spent the last three weeks taking it easy from training. This week and next week’s Winter Classic were to be my intermezzo between 2011 and training for Blackwater 2012. That said, I was going to try to beat my 5-mile PR pace set in the heat of July in Southie. Little did I know I would bust into Beast Mode!

The first mile was cold and I wished I had worn gloves. I was briefly distracted when we crossed the Merrimack as the sun was refracted by a misty fog that played weird tricks with the view of the Victorian era looking pylons from a long gone rail bridge that might remind one of a Wordsworth poem. (But, I digress).

At the end of the first mile, I had run a 6:42. This was scarily ahead of my pace. Yet, I did not feel like I was running fast. Normally, when I am running too fast, it feels like I’m running fast. I did not feel like I was running fast – hmmm. Now I’m sure in Zen and the Art of Running (a book, I’m sure must exist) it discusses the wu wei of running. The least effort per step leads to faster times. I really felt I was closer to successful wu wei running than I ever have been. I continued running what felt like not running.

Miles 2 – 4 whizzed by at comfortable sub 7 speeds that I would never have thought of running two months ago. When I watched my Garmin to get to mile 4.5 (an attachment that despite Coach Tim’s urging, I have yet to break the bonds of). Here I moved from wu wei into BEAST MODE. The last mile from 4.4-5.4 I did in under 6:30 and the last 800, I broke 3:00.

Turning into the Sears, I realized they probably weren’t ready for me. So, I started yelling over the crowd of supporters: “Seth! I’m Coming!” I reached the hand off to find no Seth. I continued yelling: “Seth! SETH!” Then out of the Corner of my eye, I caught so a red flash attempting to jump up and grab the slap-bracelet (replacement for baton). Seth was not prepared for me to run so fast and had to fight his way through the crowd to get to me. I handed him the red bracelet and walked through the crowd to high fives from Marc, Aaron and Dan who were congratulating me on my beast mode time.

Normal Jesse: 5 miles – Jimmy Kane 5 miler – 37:25 (7:28/mi)
Beast Mode Jesse – 5.4 Miles – 36:17 (6:43/mi)

(For the Record: Korynn did have her own beast mode at 39 minutes and would have put normal Jesse and the Kings of Beer into a bit of a bind.)

Leg 2: 4.75 Miles – Seth (expected time: 36:48 – 7:45/miles)

Seth finished his best 5k two months ago at 7:30 speed. He followed that up with PR at MDI. Running at his best from those two, Macmillan calculated around 7:45s so that was my estimation. Macmillan and I were wrong:

Normal Seth: 5K – Homeless Coalition 5K – 23:20 (7:30/mi)
Beast Mode Seth: 4.75 miles – 34:50 (7:20/mi)

Leg 3: 2.5 Miles – Aaron (expected time: 18:45 – 7:30/mi)

This was Aaron’s second race since his injured New York Marathon. Putting in 7:30s is what I would expect with his “season” over and this as a wrap up. Once again I was wrong.

Normal Aaron: 5K – An Ras Mor – 23:02 (7:24/mi)
Beast Mode Aaron: 2.5 miles – 18:00 (7:12/mi)

Leg 4: 9.5 Miles – Dan (expected time: 1:11:15 – 7:30/mi)

Dan has had a great past few months. Yet he expected to run 7:45s (since he finished with the Police Academy and no longer has to endure Bobcat Goldthwait but also isn’t forced to run every day); I gave him a conservative estimate of 7:30s – knowing he might actually run 7:15s. Dan and I were quite wrong.

Normal Dan: 15K – Bow Lake Dam 15K – 1:09:38 (7:29/mi)
Beast Mode Dan: 9.5 Miles – 1:06:19 (6:58/mi)

Leg 5: 4.75 Miles – Marc (expected time: 35:37 – 7:30/mi)

While Dan’s improvement has been the most drastic, Marc has probably had the most linear and consistent improvements of any members of the Kings of Beer over the last two years.

Based on his killer Casey’s Halloween run, I expected Marc, a month and a half out from his marathon, to throw down something like 7:30 miles. Once again, MacMillan and I were wrong.

Normal Marc: 4.06 miles – Casey’s Thursday Night Halloween Run – 29:57 (7:22/mi)
Beast Mode Marc: 4.75 miles – 34:00 (7:09/mi)

Kings of Beer finished at 3:10:26 (7:03/mi), which would mean we would still lose a marathon race to Coach Tim and many others; but we would but combined Boston Qualifier. It also won us each a free beer from The Pauls and the Lovely Ladies whom we beat by 8 minutes. We fiished 77th out of 207 and 22nd out of 30 in the Men’s Open.

SRR Shoutouts

Bed Bugs Can’t Stop Us – 2nd in the Men’s Open
Masters of their Own Domain – 1st Men’s Masters
Get Off My Lawn – 2nd Men’s Seniors
En Fuego – 2nd Women’s Open
Geezergirls – 2nd Women’s Veterans
Nuke to a Knife Fight – 1st Coed Open
Can’t Stop Them… - 3rd Coed Masters

Somerville was also the second place club – 12 points behind Gate City.

Rail-Trail-palooza: Black Friday Hundred (11/25/11)

Train Engineer (or Santa) Totem in Westford (or Chelmsford) on the Antonio (or Bruce) Freeman Trail

Route: Somerville-Nashua-Somerville Rails to Trail Trails
Distance: 105 miles
100 Mile Time: 7:14
105 Mile Time: 7:43

So as people piled into large chain stores to buy stuff for near the same price they can the other 364 days, I decided to ride my Nashua Rails to Trail ride.

Rail Trail #1 – Somerville Community Bike Path (Winter Hill-Davis Sq.)
Rail Trail #2 – Alewife Linear Trail (Davis Sq. – Alewife)
Rail Trail #3 – Minuteman Community Bikeway (Alewife – Bedford Depot)
Rail Trail #4 – Bedford – Billerica Narrow Gauge Rail Trail (Bedford Depot – Bedford Center)
Intermezzo – Route 225
Rail Trail #5 – Bruce Freeman Trail (Westford – Lowell – 10 minute break – Lowell - Westford)
Intermezzo 2 – Route 225 and Sandy Pond Road and Briefly on 2A
Rail Trail #6 – Nashua River Rail Trail (Ayer – Nashua, NH)
Lunch @ Zacharia Pizzeria
Rail Trail #6 – Nashua River Rail Trail (Nashua, NH – Ayer)
Mechanical – Popped Rear Tire on 2A in Ayer (I hate 2A up that way – the Gardner-Fitchburg section is the worst “paved” road in America)
Intermezzo 3 – Sandy Pond Road and Route 225
Rail Trail #4 – Bedford – Billerica Narrow Gauge Rail Trail (Bedford Center – Bedford Depot)
Rail Trail #3 – Minuteman Community Bikeway (Bedford Depot – Arlington Center)
Home Ride (I was already over 100 so I went home the short way) – Broadway (Arlington Center – Winter Hill)

Good LSD ride to start the Winter/Spring Season. Apparently I really didn’t care about the speed of the last 5 either since it took me nearly half an hour!

2011 – Season in Review

So the season had of course ups and downs.

Soccer Team “To Be Determined” had a good run into the play-offs only to be beaten in the first round.

Cycling saw a PR in the 200K and the finishing of my first official Century ride. It also saw my failure in the 300K

This year’s marathon – the National Marathon – was virtual disaster. Virtual because I did finish.

I ran 3 track miles – none near fast enough.

In the Trail/Cross Country Category, I had one slow 10 miler and an all surface PR at the Playworks Run For Recess 5K.

I ran three different relay races. SRR-Wind took 3^rd at the Club Cup; Team Bonnie and Clyde took 4^th at the MDI Marathon; and, Herbert and The Exotic Dancers did well at Lake Winni.

MAJOR GOALS

I had set three major goals before the season. The first was the National Marathon, which was not a great showing. But, any finished marathon is a good marathon.

The second was the Cape Cod Half Marathon Trilogy. I ran my two fastest half marathons and won the 211-225 lb Clydesdales in each of the three and will get a jacket for the completion.

The third was MiamiMan. Dominated this!

PERSONAL RECORDS

1. Road 5K – An Ras Mor – 21:35
2. All Surface 5K – Playworks 5K – 21:19
3. Khoury’s 4.13 – Summer Steamer – 28:52
4. 5 Miler – Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 Miler – 37:29
5. Half Marathon – Johnny Kelley Half Marathon – 1:37:43 (missed doing it again by 10 seconds in October at Harwich)
6. 200K Cycling – Boston Brevets Dighton Rock 200K – 11:00:00

HIGH CATEGORY FINISHES

1. Hyannis Half Marathon – 1^st Clydesdales
2. Playworks Run For Recess 5K – 1^st 35+
3. Johnny Kelley Half Marathon – 1^st Clydesdales
4. Club Cup Challenge Cup Marathon Relay – 3^rd Team
5. Casey’s Summer Steamer – 2^nd Clydesdales
6. Jim Kelley Sugar Bowl 5 Miler – 1^st Clydesdales
7. Harwich Cranberry Half Marathon – 1^st Clydesdales
8. MDI Marathon Relay – 4^th 2 Person Team
9. Miami Man Half Iron Duathlon – 1^st Clydesdales

Looking forward -

2011/12 Winter/Spring Season

Tentative Goals

B Races

1. Winter Classic 5K - December
2. Sudbury 10K - January
3. Hyannis Half Marathon – February
4. Eastern States 20 Miler – March
5. Boston Brevets' 107K – April

A Races

1. Providence Marathon - May
2. Blackwater Duathlon - June
   
   

99 Problems but the Bike ain't one: Miami Man (11/13/11)

Race: Miami Man Half Iron Duathlon
Distance: 0.85 Mile/56 Mile Bike/13.1 Mile Run
Goal Time: 5:20:00
Actual Time: 4:57:45
Finish Place: 19th; 1st Clydesdales!

Perhaps one of the most disconcerting sights I have ever seen was 50 miles into a bike ride, my legs are rubbery, the headwind is physically and mentally kicking my ass, and I am riding on all heart! There, hanging out on and about a fence in front of an avocado field stood 5 turkey vultures. In my exhausted delirium I shook my fist and yelled toward the buzzards: "You're not getting me!" (Then, I almost punched the guy passing me in the face.)

*****

The Miami Man Half Iron Triathlon has two accompanying races, the International (within range of an Olympic) and the Half Iron Duathlon. As one who determined who absolutely hates swim training, the Duathlon was the logical choice.

*****

Leg One – 1 Mile Run (Actually 0.85 Miles)

Goal Time: ????

Actual Time: 5:53

On a little band of sun beaten asphalt that cut its way through the saw palmettos we stood next to a hand written sign that said: “Duathlon Start.” In the distance behind palms and palmettos we heard the waves of swimmers starting by the lake. The waves were starting at five minute intervals from 7:00 am on while the Duathlon was the last wave to start at 7:45.

We ran down the asphalt until it opened into a picnic area, where the running route led us down to an ancient coral bed trail that ran around the lake. As we jogged warming up our legs I watched those doing the tri force swimming their two loops around the lake.

We reached the end of the run and entered the transition area as some of the elite triathletes entered as well. Shockingly the duathletes were less tired after their mile than the swimmers after theirs.

Leg Two – 56 Mile Bike

Goal Time: 3:10:00

Actual Time: 2:56:11 (19.07 mph)

Like I said 99 Problems but the Bike Ain’t One! At the bike shop – Elite Cycles in Kendall – KC did not recall me requesting a bike. But, that was okay. I ended up getting a Specialized Allez Sport – the all-aluminum version of my very own Ajax Telemon. While its aluminum forks make the bike a little bumpier and apparently the shifters weren’t as good as the ones I carry. (I never noticed since it was flat and I was not trying to change speeds.) Overall it was a pretty sweet bike I was comfortable with and knew like I knew Ajax Telemon, so I will call it Ajax Oileon (currently my dad and two other of my readers are laughing).

In the transition area, I grabbed Ajax Oileon and ran out of transition and across the field to the park road. In a long reasonably slow line we rode down the park road and out of the Park onto 127^th Avenue through South Miami “Heights.” Soon we were out of the residential areas and out into the swampy or drained farm lands of avocado, coconut and palms.

I was still warming up my legs trying not to go too fast and find an even pace when we passed the International Tri’s with its 22 mile bike turnaround point. It was here that the roads got a little rougher. What did Tolstoy once say? “All good roads are alike; but, all bad roads are bad in its own way.” Admittedly none of the roads were frost heaven with temporary patches over last year’s temporary patch. But, many of these farmland roads offered their own challenges: just damp enough to be oily; grainy; slightly gravely; patchy tear halfway down the length of the right hand lane. The grainy roads kept making me think I had a flat.

Without a bike computer, I was nervous to going too fast, however I found one guy who was going a steady comfortable pace who I followed a bit. Once, we got to what I thought to be about 20 miles and was at around 1:15 on my watch, I picked it up. I got to the left so I wouldn’t be drafting off my previous pacer. As, I passed I noticed he had a bike computer: “Hey, what pace are you averaging?” He turned out to be Eastern European and said: “30 kilometers.” 18 and half – great.

The course was a 13 mile out, 2-15 mile loops and the 13 miles back. At the end of the first loop, I knew I was doing well and knew as long as I didn’t pop a tube, I was gonna kill it. At the start of the second loop, the prevailing winds KC at the bike shop had warned me of kicked in. I fought the cross winds and enjoyed the brief tail wind as we went South again. But as we turned back to the north – uh oh. It was just a fight for the last 20 or so miles, straight into a hot prevailing wind.

I kept churning out a steady pace all the way back until I reached the International Tri’s turn around point. I knew it was only 11 miles now. I put the bike and myself into a higher gear and probably did 21 or 22 mph into the headwind. While I spent most of the last 11 passing people, one guy did pass me while I was yelling at the turkey buzzards. We pulled back into the park on 184^th Street and my passing days were done. I had to spend the last ½ mile going the speed of the two guys in front of me as there was no room to pass on the park roads with people parked on either side.

I hopped off the bike and carried it to transition cyclocross style.

Leg Three – 13.1 Mile Run

Goal Time: 1:58:00

Actual Time: 1:53:01 (8:37/ mile)

Apparently last year the run was voted the best part of the course – with good reason. The run is a 6.6 mile loop around the park that goes around the lake again through a campground and through the zoo. The open zoo mind you – so there are people with children gawking at animals and sometimes cheering, but mostly gawking at random people wearing race numbers who are running through the zoo.

While each of my first couple of miles were under 8 minutes and my last few were over 9, I was able to maintain 8:15-8:45 miles over the flat course. Through the zoo I was occasionally slowed by either families in these odd pedal powered Model A looking contraptions, or by getting caught up looking around at Hey there’s a rhino. Add “lion”, “elephant” or “sandhill cranes” (especially fascinating birds).

After mile 7 is where I started to stray from the 8:30 miles. I took my last gel at the 9 mile tracking pad and knew NOW just hang on and we have 5 hours.

Mile 12 was still one of the most physically, mentally and emotionally challenging things I’ve ever done in my life. (If I hadn’t had a chance at break 5 hours, it may have been easier because I would have just dropped down to 11 minute miles and celebrated completion.) Every step was painful without obvious gain. But I remembered my Prefontaine: “Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” I never lost mentally or emotionally. At the marker in the campground that said 12 miles my virtual tears of pain became real tears of joy. Nothing could keep me from finishing and finishing under 5 hours now. By the end I was rejuvenated; the runner from Relay Team Grizzly gave me a last word of encouragement as I passed him near the 13 mark.

The last 0.1 miles, I barely remembered. I glided in just under five hours, more than two hours ahead of 2^nd through 7^th in my category. Enough to win me the Victory Gator!