'Til We Meet in Hell

Good friend and fellow Trail Monster Running member Val put together an awesome race today entitled "'Til We Meet in Hell". The concept was a great one: Runners would run an extremely hilly 1.15 mile trail loop for 90 minutes and they try to see how far they could go. A handicap system was built in to level the field for all participants so everyone could have a chance at winning.

My plan was to take it easy and not race it, due to the tough 16-miler yesterday and a pretty tough 11-miler the day before that. Definitely the right call. One mile into it and I could tell my legs were dead from all of the hills the past two days. I was a bit more dead than I expected to be, truth be told, but that was fine and shouldn't be surprising.

I had a blast. Unfortunately, I spent much of the time running alone. Despite there being 24 of us running the loop, I was in an odd void where I didn't really encounter many people. However, Jeff came up and lapped me but decided to walk the rest of the time (a little over an hour into it at that point), so I walked with him for about half a loop.

I crossed the start point at around 1:21 and decided to just stop there and hang out and wait. I got in 6.5 miles which I was happy with. Mindy had called it a day earlier, so we chatted a bit until the other runners finished.

Worth noting that my good buddy Ryan and I had the same handicap. However, with fresh legs I don't think there would have been any way I would have caught him today. Not sure how many miles he got in, but the dude was flying and looked comfortable at it. I'm going to have my work cut out at the Bradbury series this summer trying to catch him.

Afterwards, we headed over to Sebago Brewing Company for drinks and lunch, as well as the award ceremony. Very fun day with very good friends!

Ran 6.5 miles @ 11:47/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 131/165
Trails.
Extremely hilly.
Upper 20s to lower 30s, sunny.
Adidas Adizero XT, tights, windbreaker, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves.