After taking a year off, I was pretty stoked to be running the PPA again this year. I've focused a lot on trying to lose some weight and also spent much more time at higher altitude this summer than I had in years past. Going into Saturday, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited to get back on the mountain.
I rolled out of bed at 3am Saturday morning; a good 90 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, but I was already feeling amped so I got out of bed and made some coffee and hung out for a while. I made the drive down to COS to ride over with some friends and we were at the starting line just in time to watch the first wave head out.
I chatted with a few folks and then warmed up and took a spot about middle of the pack on the far left side for the start. Once the gun went off, I cruised down Manitou Ave and up Ruxton at a pretty easy effort. The clogging at the start of the trail and first switchback seemed much worse this year than before. I stopped several times and counted to 5 before I could take a step forward. I continued up the W's at a pretty casual pace and let people by on multiple occasions. I think I hit the top of the W's at around 58 minutes which is a little slower than I wanted. Things started thinning out after the W's and I continued with the casual pace with the aim to really crank it up above No Name where things flatten out. I made it to No Name at around 1:27 and refilled the water bottle quickly before continuing. Once things flattened out, I started running and ran a good portion of the trail all the way over to the foot bridge that starts the final climb to Barr Camp. I felt like I was the only one running but moved by quite a few people in this section and latched on to a group to follow up to Barr Camp.
I pulled into camp at 2:25 a few minutes ahead of 5:00 pace. Nice! I made a quick stop to refill and then headed up towards Bottomless. The stretch between Barr Camp and A-Frame always seems to take longer than it should and this year was no exception. I let a few people go by on the way to Bottomless, but once on the long switchback toward A-Frame, I started reeling some people in and coming across the first few trail casualties on the side. I never pushed the pace, but tried to stay in contact with a small group that was moving well. I pulled into A-Frame at 3:34 (wtf?) and started to get worried about going sub 5 or even beating my time from 2 years ago. Again I quickly refilled the bottle with some watered down Gatorade and headed out. I hopped in behind a chatty dude who was moving at a very comfortable pace, but it wasn't long before I made a move around him. Once above treeline, the terrain seemed to level out a lot. In years past, the death march started here and it was just a slog to put one foot in front of the other. This year, however, I really started moving well and picking people off at a good clip. I think I was putting down 25-26 min miles for the first two and was only passed by two people on the traverse over to the Cirque. I hit the Cirque aid station still feeling great and grabbed a handful of grapes. For some reason, those are the best tasting grapes in the world.
I moved past a few more people between the Cirque and the 16 Golden Stairs. Once on the stairs, things started moving a little slower. Those first few switchbacks are pretty brutal and once past those, I decided it was time to make a run for it to finish sub 5. I hit the slight downhill and ran a few more switchbacks before coming around the corner and realizing that I wasn't quite as close to the finish as I thought. I dialed it back and felt like I couldn't move. I recovered for a couple of switchbacks and finally found another running gear to power up the last few switchbacks and stop the clock at 4:58:06.
Immediately, I was relieved to get the 5 hour monkey off my back but after things started soaking in, I really felt like I left a lot on the bottom 3/4 of the course. I checked my A-Frame to Summit split (1:24) and had to go all the way up to the 4:15 - 4:30 finishers to find a large sample of finishers that also ran that split. I have never moved that well above treeline and was a little disappointed that I didn't move as well lower on the course. I guess, there's always next year. Hopefully, I'll be a few more pounds lighter and will be afforded the opportunity to spend as much, if not more, time above treeline in the weeks leading up to the race.
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