This was the last time I saw Kyle Skaggs who ran in a zone unknown to the rest of us, Kyle completed the course in 23:23 which is unheard off! During the two weeks I was acclimating in the Saun Jauns I seen Kyle sprinting buy several times looking really fast. I heard this rumor about him breaking 24 hours at Charlie Thorn’s house and was trying to understand how someone could do that?
My race was set be a slow start and go slower until I got to the top of Handies Peak which would be just about daylight, my plan was to start pressing the downhills and get to Sherman TANK UP “Roch Horton quote” and push hard the last 30 miles. Well that sounds except I showed up at Grouse Gulch with a stomach that was saying “no more anything”. With out the ability to intake any water or gu I was facing at a disaster! My sweet wife took me into the mash tent where I had the pleasure of hanging with Witt and Paul Sweeny who were both horizontal. I tried to force down a GU and puked it back up next to Paul’s head, sorry Paul. After sipping coke, broth and eating stale pretzels I felt the body coming back.
I left Grouse aid station eating little bits of pretzels the whole way up Handies with my pacer Joan Parker who did a awesome job getting me over the highest point of the course. Once I got to the top I enjoyed a moment with team mate Marc Cosmas who came from sea level and finished a great run!
Then the switch flipped, I was able to push down gu’s the sun rose and all hell broke lose. I came into Sherman and Tyler Curiel said “he looks to fresh he hasn’t run the whole course.” I sat down super intense and had a coffee and burrito and asked Tyler how long does it take to finish the last 30? He said “about 11 to 12 hours or 10 hours if you are a stud.” I left Sherman and started digging as deep as I ever had and pushed hard into 92.1 aid and suffered up the last 2500 foot climb with Cory Johnson then sprinted the last giant downhill into Silverton to complete the final leg in 9:38.
I ran with out a watch, here are my estimated splits vs. actual arrival times:
Aid Estimated Arrival time
KT 9:30 9:29
Chapman 11:30 11:49
Telluride 3:00 2:59
Kroger’s 5:30 5:26
Governor 6:15 6:12
Ouray 7:45 7:45
Enginneer 11:00 11:29
Grouse 1:00 1:45
Sherman 8:00 7:29
Pole Creek 11:30 10:47
Maggie 1:00 12:12
Cunningham 3:30 2:26
Finish 7:00 - 37:00 Hours 5:19 - 35:16 Hours
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