by Brad Compton

My goal this year was threefold:  Improve on my place finish, improve my finishing time, and not fade as miserably during the last four miles as I faded last year.  I accomplished one of those three. 

 By this time last year, I had run two marathons, a hilly mini, and a 10K, setting new personal bests.  I was much less prepared this year, this being my first race of ’04.  I paid! 

 There were several indicators that this might not be my day.  Sleeping through my alarm after waking up nearly once each hour was the first.  Forgetting to eat my breakfast because I was so concerned about bathroom issues was the second.  Realizing, once the bus was underway, that I had left some of my electrolyte capsules back at the tent was yet another.  Then there was my silly jaunt up to the trailhead, only to have to return to the bus-unloading site when I realized I was going to miss the group photo.  And the race hadn’t even started yet! 

Last year, I started near the back and used up a lot of energy trying to pass people on the narrow trail.  I learned that it’s a lot more fun to pass people than it is to be passed by the field.  By mile 7, I took the first of four falls, and still don’t know who/what tripped me.  I slipped off the little corduroy bridges, almost lost my shoes in the mud, somehow tripped and fell in the grass where the arrows pointing to the caretakers cabin stood.  It’s funny now, but by this point, I had lost a lot of confidence for running the downhill.

 Once I realized I wasn’t going to better my time, I decided to enjoy the trail.  I had a little picnic lunch at the New Bridge, enjoying a nutrition bar of some kind and several mouthfuls of iodine treated water.  After this point, the run went much better.  I would only fall once more, somewhere around the 27 mile mark where the trail turns 90 degrees left and once again enters a grassy clearing. 

 I had really wanted to finish the race better this year, and I was able to do so.  Using the electrolyte capsules helped, and so did the slower pace at the beginning.  Still, near the end, I was checking my watch, calculating a hoped-for finish time.  It looked like I might finish only 10-15 minutes slower than last year, but my watch had turned back from “chronometer” to “time,” so what I thought was 7:04 elapsed time was actually 1:04pm.  I’m glad I didn’t discover this until after the race.  The “truth” would have been very demoralizing at that point.  (I had even skipped my last electrolyte capsule, thinking I wouldn’t really need it, finishing at what I thought would be so close to the 7 hour mark.)  

The highlight of the day for me was sitting in a lawn chair at the finish line with the crew and other runners, cheering the rest of the group in.  The sun and the fluid replacement beverages left me in just the right frame of mind to celebrate, regardless of how poorly I ran.  I can’t wait to come back and try to redeem myself. 

 Thanks to the RD, his crew, and everyone else who made this one of the “funnest” events I’ve had the pleasure to participate in.