Today's run was 18 miles and Jen figured out that 2x Mt. Si plus and extra couple would do the trick and I agreed. We drove there around 9 AM and I hit the first lap -- and Mt. Si hit back. Hard. The way up was much steeper than I anticipated and I did a combination of run/walk that ended up being about 75% walk and 25% run. Only had one wipe out and it could not have been an easier one. I tripped over a rock or something on a section of the trail that was mostly dirt. I caught myself easily and just did a little push up to get myself back up again. The very last bit was up some super steep rocks but I made the 3200 feet 4 mile trail in 01:15:00 it and turned around to do it again.

After seeing Jen much sooner than I thought I would on the way back, I did my best to try to run down yet not kill myself. It was raining intermittently and the rocks were fairly slippery. I was only slightly faster on the way down, finished in 02:15:00 and turned around again.

This time the rain really started to pick up and I ended up doing the second ascent as a fast walk because there really was not much run left in me. I got a lot of comments this time around from people who had seen me my first lap and saw Jen again, who was running the descent and having a total blast. At the top, the wind was really howling and the rain was coming down pretty hard. It took me 5 minutes longer to make the ascent this time and I was quite happy to be headed back. I think I got a little better descending and was only 1 and a half minutes slower than my last decent. Not bad on really tired legs! I let the last two miles go and figured I got in a very good workout with the 16 I did.

16 Mile Trail Run @ 04:36:28 (6400 elevation gain)
140a

So I was feeling pretty proud of today's run until I checked December's race site and learned that the elevation gain is almost 11,000 and the cut-off time is 14 hours (I thought it was 16).