Sat 8/16 - AM 3+ hours, Pikes Peak

A demoralizing physiological experiment. While there are people who can come from sea level directly to altitude and do an event like this that ends at 14k before the body knows what's happened, it appears I'm not one of those people. That being said, it also can't be ignored that I wasn't adequately prepared for an event of this duration, and I was further sabotaged by an ongoing inability to get a sufficient amount of rest, something that has always been an issue but has crept up on me a bit more recently. As for the race itself, I ran with the split numbers from the past two years--last year's disappointing 2:50 performance and 2012's 2:32:30 time which will most certainly stand as my PR for this event. Checked the numbers at each split, trying to fall somewhere between them. Really though I was just trying to stay under last year's numbers and run even a tiny bit faster than that dud. Looking at the numbers, it's fairly apparent where things went sideways:

miles to go - split (2012 split, 2013 split)

11 - 14:04 (15:00, 20:51) surprising and a little disturbing, backed off a bit after this
10 - 28:51 (25:20, 33:08) 4:17 up on last year
9 - 40:06 (37:10, 44:25) 4:19 up
8 - 52:21 (48:00, 55:34) 3:13 up
7 - 61:31 (56:33, 64:51) 3:20 up, in hindsight the final effort
6 - 73:04 (64:54, 74:46) 1:42 up uh oh
5 - 85:00 (75:45, 86:52) 1:52 up
4 - 1:41:32 (89:00, 1:41:15) caught by last year's version of myself
3 - 1:58:22 (1:46:18, 1:56:43) the walking begins in earnest
2 - 2:19:07 (2:01:28, 2:13:46)
1 - 2:39:06 (2:14:57, 2:30:19)
3:05:22 (2:32:31, 2:50:26)

Walked 99% of the last 2 miles and 95% of the last 3. Easy to say that I gave up once it became clear that I wasn't going to match even last year's time, but it might be more truthful to say I didn't have a choice. Soon after passing A-frame I had a moment of dizziness where it felt like my legs were wobbling and I might fall off the trail. Even in race mode I realized I might be carried off on a stretcher if I didn't back off immediately. At that point backing off meant walking and walk I did while the entire world passed by. As for the right leg, I rolled out the piriformis beforehand which felt like it worked out some of the kinks, but eventually the hamstring became quite sore and the right thigh and hip were a locked up mess afterward. Disappointing of course but I did have a good pair of races here in '11 and '12. Given that I won't be able to spend two solid weeks in August acclimating to the altitude and I'm not about to sleep in an altitude tent, it looks like this particular race is beyond my reach.