Sunday, 06/16/12 Mt. Evans Ascent

14.5 miles/3,500 vert.
2:19:50
26th/369

Quick and dirty recap....

My race did not go at all as hoped and I ran a PW (personal worst) and fell way short of my goals.  I was a little down on myself throughout and for a few hours after, but have let it go and am just calling it a good (though expensive) training run.

Nothing was particularly wrong during the race, but I did not feel that I had much to give, or really gave it my all and did not feel like I was at my best.  I could probably dredge up a few lame excuses that led to a less than ideal build up to the race, but they are hardly worthy of mention, just things that most of us encounter from time to time (sickness, family demands, work demands etc.....).

Once it became clear that things were not going my way, I just became somewhat apathetic and my goals incrementally slipped from lofty to simply finishing and getting off the mountain.

Upon crossing the line, I crossed paths with Lucho (who was long done after getting 2nd in 1:50) and offered me a ride down, but not before I ran up to tag the true summit block.  Running back down to the lot, I seriously considered continuing all the way back down to my car cross country, but my road shoes would have made it difficult, I had already made Lucho and his wife wait and the clouds were building in such a way that I knew the weather was going to get nasty quite soon (which it did big time).

Though I signed up for Evans as a training race, I of course set lofty (and now obviously unrealistic) goals after running what I felt to be a good race at the Bolder Boulder.  I think I had an overly inflated sense of confidence going into it, especially given that my training really lacked quality over the past 3 weeks.

During the entire race, I questioned what it is that I really like about racing.  At the time, I honestly could come up with very little and thought to myself how I would have rather been off doing my own thing elsewhere on my own terms.  Of course, had I achieved my goals, I would have been itching to sign up for another race or two.

Oh well, water under the bridge and I'll just use this as a wake up call that if I want to do well in August, I'll need to get my nose to the grindstone a little more.

Thanks to Jim P. for the below pictures and a huge thanks to Lucho and his wife for giving me a ride down and for the great company.

Being a sore loser as Jim graciously took my photo and offered up friendly encouragement (he looked like he was having WAAAY more fun than I was).