THE NORTH FACE ENDURANCE CHALLENGE

The race was awesome!  I forget how much I love racing until I'm doing it and then I wish I could race more often!  I think my favorite part of racing is beating people.  The Gifford comes out in me and I turn insanely competitive and aggressive.  I love it!  At the beginning of the race there are always guys in their early 20's that think they're the stuff (and usually haven't really trained).  They stand at the starting line jumping up and down, yelling, and are super obnoxious.  I always want to say "save your energy buddy.  You, of all people are going to need it."  As soon as the race starts they go sprinting off.  One of these weenies yelled at me to get out of the way.  Around mile 3 I passed them.  I yelled "SUCKAS!"  Ha!  Just kidding.  But I really wanted to.

I was super excited when I picked up my packet and I was in the fastest wave.  Which means based on my previous racing times, I was running in the wave of the fastest group of runners.  What runner doesn't like being told they're fast? The race was tough!  It was 13.2 miles.  So basically a half marathon.  It was a single track mountain trail run.  It was almost all up hill, running through streams, jumping over rocks and trees, and climbing over some large rocks.  The trail was super narrow so you couldn't pass anyone unless you or they moved off the trail.  When I got to the aid station at mile 11 I had so much energy left!  It was one of the few downhill parts so I was sprinting down hill and I tripped on a rock and went flying!  Oopsies!  My arm and leg were super bloody and swollen.  I mostly just felt bad I slowed the people down behind me because they stopped to help me up and make sure I was ok.  I didn't realize how bad I actually hurt it until I was done.  It was a great race!  By far the hardest half marathon I've ever done!