Training in Montana

4 miles at Noon to stretch the legs. Lots of wind, felt pretty good actually, and thankfully didn't run into the wind too much.

Holy cow, that was a slog fest. Paced Angela from Footbridge aid station to Jaws, which is the turnaround. It's rained a lot the past few days and it rained 98% of the time I paced her. Even though it wasn't a lot of rain, it added up the past few days and this was the sloppiest anyone had ever seen this 18 mile section. It was brutal. We ran the first mile, and that was all of our running. I took 9 hours and 40 minutes to reach Jaws, at which time we were utterly frozen, and finishing was hopeless. I got back to the hotel, took a shower, and got to bed about 5:15 am. I saw Joe Schmal (SlowJoe) at the Footbridge aid station, then along the way as he was on his way back to Footbridge. He and his fellow runner Julie were killing it, and they finished about 45 minutes before the cutoff time. Way to be Joe! Great to meet you in person a few times.

Got a couple or few hours of sleep, and we headed to the Dry Fork aid station to start the 18 mile run. This was the first trail run and longest distance ever for my wife Kaylene and our 13 year old Dylan. He took 3rd in the 11-19 age group (stud). Our oldest boy Peyton drove us there and picked us up at the end.

The race was fine, we ran a bit and walked a lot. I've walked a lot the past few days. I wasn't very sore after this race as apparently walking is easier on the body than running. New concept.