This race was awesome, particularly the weather that day was stunning and perfect. We had cool winds, cloudcover, sprinkles, and just as we were finishing up, it was warm again. The steep change in altitude throughout this course has you discovering layers of wildflowers and canyons overlooking Hollywood and Los Angeles. I think my knees are almost recovered.
The officials said we did it in 2 hours 16 minutes, which is crazy by the way, since we have not been training to do such a thing. If we hadn't have been part of that event, which we did it one time, our time was more like 2 hours 39 minutes (on May 28, 2012), so I guess we rested a bit more when we weren't compelled by photographers and volunteers along the way to "keep going!" There were water stations at every mile and cyclists in yellow jerseys throughout the course with MTB on standby for emergencies and to remind us to "keep to the right" as runners who had already turned around were flying down the rock face.
The fastest man, Kwin Keuter of Los Angeles, 24 years old, managed to go up and back in 40 minutes. The fastest woman Lliana Hernandez, 25 years old, of Glendale, placed 28th overall. She was only 10 minutes behind the fastest man, finishing in about 50 minutes. It was so fun to read about her coaching story in the Glendale News-Press and seeing her "sweep by" us a full 2 minutes ahead of the next woman Emily Farr of La Crescenta, age 29, who placed 34th overall. As for us, or me, I was number 622 out of 653 racers, that's among the slowest 5%. Out of 54 women who ran in my age group, I was the second-to-slowest, among the slowest 2%. But hey, finishing is finishing and by golly we did it!
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