First race I've ever won. The Bairgutsman starts at a church in Fruit Heights and runs about a mile uphill on pavement before you begin the dirt trail ascent of about 4.5 miles up to the top of Farmington Canyon (the two large white communcation balls up on the top of the mountain north of Lagoon). While in years prior to 2011 you then ran down the big wide road up there, you now turn around and bomb back down Bair canyon as recklessly as possible - at least that's what I did. I lead out on the heels of crowd favorite & multiple-times winner & finisher, Corbin Talley on the road up to the trailhead. The pace was comfortable. I had a little lead by the trailhead and, having messaged a previous top finisher, Scott Jamie, tried to run to at least the first stream crossing. From there I ran what I could & power hiked the rest. Knowing Corbin was lurking behind I figured I would just push the cardio climb as hard as I wanted to until something stopped working or he passed me. I made it to the top sometime under 1:25 and will admit to enjoying a little bit the blank stares of the volunteers up there who were clearly expecting Corbin to top out first. After the turnaround I felt like I was in a barely-controlled free fall charging back down the narrow, overgrown, washed-out twisting trail trying to keep just enough control to not run into the oncoming traffic. Again, I knew who was behind so I figured I would bomb as hard as I could until I crashed, got passed or something stopped working. I felt blisters form within a mile or two of the top on my heels from the steep, loose, fast descent and my quads were quickly beat. I channeled the descent from Windy Pass in the Squaw Peak 50, the plunge & the dive, and just tried to keep going. Any slight uphill was a welcome relief to let my quads relax even for just a moment. It wasn't until I got onto the pavement that I dared look over my shoulder and was relieved to not see anyone. The mile or so to the finish took forever and it was all I could do to fling my feet in front of me and skid on my midfoot trying to avoid my heel blisters. Raced with two close friends who ended up 3rd & 4th overall. What a great race! I'm not sure how far the race is supposed to be but my garmin read 10.93 when I stopped it.
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