different kind of double race that socal pete: i ran the road mile yesterday--still rounding into shape, so happy with the feel if not the result; came back to today to do the run to the top of mt. baldy, a 7 mile trail run with a 4000 ft. elevation gain (the finish is at 10,000 ft).
fun experience--different crowds at trail runs than road races for the most part. fortunately someone pointed out the 2 time defending champ/new master jon clark, so i at least had someone who knew what they were doing to key on in my first trail race--definitely felt out of my element. one guy blew us all away by around 6 minutes; i was in 2nd with maybe a 10 meter lead (significant on a steep hill) before the final half mile climb/crawl (no exaggeration!), but went right at a fork in the road--one guy behind me went right, clark and another guy who's been doing this forever went left. i didn't notice, since i still could hear footsteps behind me--as it turns out, about 3 minutes from the top the trails meet back up, and suddenly i see two guys with a 50 meter lead. i cracked at this point--my loud exclamation of "phukk!" probably caused a near avalanche--and i decided fighting for 4th wasn't as much fun as fighting for 2nd. 5th place at 1:13:??--the difference between the two trails probably amounted to close to 90 seconds.
still, it was a nice departure from the roads, and it was beautiful on the top of baldy. i probably ran too conservatively during the middle section, because i had a lot left before the final climb, and i think the final climb is going to be slow no matter how much you have left (all of us were walking during sections over the final 3 minutes). hot fun in the summertime, but school for me starts tomorrow...