Year 9 of the 40 miler!! I’m thinking one more to get 10, and then maybe take a break. I love this race and course so much, though, we’ll see if I can hold to that. 🙂

Anyway, this year would be different due to Covid. Half the field in all the races, modified courses on the 8 and 20 (now 16), though the 40 would remain the same. No shuttles, so parking near race start (which is a tight turny country road, so a major concern, but I heard from the RD that it went well.)

I’ll cut right to the chase… I ended up on the 1st row, socially distant with 20 other runners in wave 1, so was 2nd onto the 1st big climb. I knew that was a problem, so let 2 others get by, and within a minute, those first 3 were gone. Then I had a couple more on my back, and I was going too hard to soon, so I let them go, and they soon were gone. And I was by myself — for about 33-34 miles! Well, at mile 13 or so, one runner passed me, and a guy he was with stayed with me for maybe 5, 10 minutes top. Other than that, I was 100% alone!

I felt good and strong, and hit the turn in 3:52 — much slower than my best year, but I guess those dats are behind me. 🙂 At 3:52, though, I figured my “super stretch” goal of sub 8:00 was gone, and was thinking 8:15-8:30 was more likely. I was in and out of the turn in a minute, 90 seconds top, and just kept running. It was more lonely on the return this year, with just half the field of 40, and none of the normal 20 milers coming by.

As I watched the time, I kept thinking I somehow still have a shot at sub 8:00, so I just kept running. I knew it was getting really tight. I got to the aid station at mile 35 with just under and hour to go, and figured it was over. But then I remembered this aid was at mile 4.5 on the way out, not mile 5, so I had a little less distance to the finish than I had been calculating, and it was back on!

I ran much more of the last 4 miles than ever, and somehow pulled it off! Going down the steep rocky section in the last mile with speed was a bit scary, but I had enough energy to push here, and got to the finish in 7:56, good for 7th place! Again, a smaller field, but I’m still happy. And besides, my goal is time based here, not placing. (Unless I can ever get top 3 which is where the big pottery is awarded! 🙂

I’m going to update the table I’ve used in past years, and put in the splits for the years they are available, as it shows that this was my strongest 2nd half, even though I’ve had faster overall runs.

Year	Time	Place	1st 20	2nd 20
2010	7:57 (short course)	30/71
2011	8:50:22	30/88
2012	7:57:17	27/148
2013	8:49:06	33/90
2015	8:05:07	17/88	3:49:13	4:14:32
2016	7:31:30	7/101	3:33:42	3:57:48
2017	7:43:54	9/94	3:29:04	4:14:18
2018	20 miler….	11/190	3:25:37
2019	Volunteer!
2020	8:10:01	9/73	3:46:30	4:22:07
2021	7:56:17	7/54	3:52:xx	4:04:xx

So I did break 4 hours on the return in 2016, but was still 24 minutes slower than the way out. This year, in my 50 year old body, I was only 12 minutes slower. Most years, most runners, even in the top 10, are 15-30 minutes slower, so I’m pretty happy with that!

Fuel: pre-race oatmeal and peanut butter; tailwind; 4 vFuels and 3 coconut date rolls that I carried; 1 cup of potato soup at the turn, 1-2oz Mountain Dew at aid stations 29, 32, 35, 38.

Gear: XOSkin shorts, 200 weight ice breaker long sleeve half zip top (should have worn short sleeves!), 2 buffs, one started to keep my ears warm and one to be a face covering at the aid stations, injinji toe socks, Topo Mountain Racers (so far, love these shoes!); calf sleeves (was ready to pull them off a few times but didn’t want to stop).

Oh, and a Coros Vertex – received the night before so I had literally no experience with it. My Garmin had serious GPS failures on 2 of the last 13-14 runs, so I replaced it last minute. (Actually ran with them both, and the Garmin was several miles off, while the Coros with just shy of 40 miles.)

Here is what Kelly posted to Instagram since I didn’t take a picture of my pottery:

Then race analysis from Strava: