Sun 8/27 - AM 50 minutes incl. 4.3 mile uphill race

Another vaguely unsatisfying race to the top of Vermont. Given the length of the trip, I likely won't be back which is a bummer because it is a nice area to visit. Not as tired as last year coming in, but still feeling fatigued both from lack of sleep during the week and the aforementioned trip up. A year ago I figured I was stuck on mountain time for the week following the return from Colorado. It didn't feel that way this year, but whatever the reasons I've been getting to bed too late on a consistent basis with predictable effects. Warmup was skimpy at best. After starting out foolishly fast last year I tried to hold something back this time around. By about five minutes into the race I could see a lead group of 3 emerging, and see that I'd bury myself if I tried to join them. The rest of the race was mostly a death match with a teenage state nordic ski champ who walked on the steepest switchbacks then surged on the flatter segments. Later on another older wiser nordo blew by both of us, and the guy in third as well.  Never really gave up on it but it was frustrating in that I knew I wasn't in a position to put my best foot forward, and once again the last couple miles became an exercise in getting it over with. The last half mile or so in particular were obnoxiously interminable, and I finished feeling utterly spent. Overall the time was 20 seconds or so faster than last year, in broadly similar conditions (slightly hotter this time not that it made much difference higher up). Despite the fact that none of the 3 guys who beat me a year ago returned, I still didn't crack the money slots and in fact finished one spot lower than a year ago. Whoop de doo. To top it off, I was skunked at the raffle after buying $20 worth of tickets. WTF. Like last year, cooldown was a hike rather than a run, along the long trail and down the steep chute of the Cliff Trail to the gondola, then down the ski slope which I wasn't about to even attempt running. I had vague thoughts of jogging around the parking lot of the lodge but by the time I got there the post-race feed had already started.

Mile splits, FWIW:
7:56
8:40
9:26
9:57

As it got harder, I got slower.