Thank goodness I previewed this course the other day and knew what I was getting myself into. It lived up to expectations, rugged in the extreme. Woke up feeling some continued lingering cold symptoms, not expecially spry or energetic on the warmup. Thankfully the field was such that there was no competition in the age group, although I was a little concerned the first couple of miles with a few people who seemed like they might be stalking me. By the time we finished climbing (and climbing) no one was in sight behind me and with a turnaround at the 7 mile mark I was able to see that I had 3 minutes or so on the closest pursuer. Ended up running the entire race in fifth place, got close to fourth on the climb but lost him on the descents. Not my concern at all, by then it was about holding on to place and not falling. I did almost eat shit a couple of times, once on a tight left-hand turn with adverse camber, and again while ascending here:
in both cases, the 2-3 inches of loose gravel underfoot played a crucial role. No traction on the shoes didn't help either but I don't know if the shoes exist for that type of thing. Adductor seemed to hold up pretty well to the loose footing and sharp turns, I'll know more tomorrow though. Weather was warm, sunny and dry. For the first time that I can remember, my voice went hoarse immediately after the race, from all the heavy breathing in dry air combined with the sore throat no doubt. Cooldown was superslow jog around the parking lot for a few minutes, eventually followed by a dip in the nearby creek which I could only take for about 45 seconds at at time.
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