H.U.R.T stands for Hawaiian Ultra Running Team 100 Miler.... auguably the toughest 100 miler in the US (not counting Barkley since you need to get "chosen" to race)... its a 100 miler with 99% singletrack, 24'000 feet of elevation gain and loss (the latter hurts more than the former) and very, very gnarly trails... washed out riverbeds, roots as far as your eyes can see..
So I decided to do it! CCC100 went well, and its up or out, always!
I cant necessarily say I had a lot of fun training for it this winter... doing double Mt. Si's in snow storms only mimic the drastic elevation changes not the weather there, and the rain, rain, constant rain throughout the winter got to me over time.. but I prepared for it well, and felt I was ready to roll.... in any event if it did not go well Yumay came along and we were going to go out to Kauaii to hang out for a week so the trip was already a success to start with. My buddy Matt Hart was there along with Krissy Moehl, having some other Washingtonians there was great, and my plan was to not run as fast as them as that would mean I am going too fast!
Steadily uphill.....
I started off rather fast-paced on the first of the five 20 mile loops, finding myself to be running with Krissy Moehl (who would eventually finish 2nd place overall!) and then even passed her and was about 20 minutes ahead of her after lap 1.... not the smartest thing to do knowing that she is a much stronger runner than me... oh well, I listened to my body who told me I was feeling phantastic....
Popping blisters, FUN!!
Second loop I started to slow down, naturally, and being passed by some people, not freaking out about it, I was running my own race, and actually was running by myself for about 80% of the fist 60 miles, when Yumay would jump in and pace me to the finish... Matt was done by then, runing the 100k version.
Mile 50... hot, hot, hot...
After mile 60 I found out I was in 5th place overall out of the about 100 people, NICE! I was feeling the constant heat over the day that started taking its toll, only feeling-wise though, speed wise I was still going really strong up the hills.... Yumay was with me and I felt like this was going to be one of my best races ever.... slip, slam, pop!
Slipped in the middle of the night, very sleepy, on a root, fell into the bamboo forest and sprained my ankle!!! Darn, so close... spend 2h trying to continue but I was down to a crawl and at mile 72 I had to pull out... fortunately I was past the 62mile mark so when that happens and one does not finish the 100 miler they automatically qualify for the 100k time... which I ended up 5th in and got a buckle as well.... no harm done, I ll do this race again in a few years... !!
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