I was feeling really nervous today because I have never run 20 miles in a row (and definitely not an Ultra in between). My legs were feeling extremely sore and I was feeling a bit tired from all of the running. At 6 am the director blew the whistle and we were off to a long day. The course started off as the same direction as the out and back from the yesterday plus 8 more miles. The scenery was gorgeous and after 20 minutes of running my panting slowed down (still at 12,000 ft) and the pain in my legs and blisters began to fade. I was averaging excellent timing and by mile 20 I was feeling very energized (believe it or not). So the most difficult part of the day.... For the remaining 13 miles the course descended 6,000 ft! You would think going down hill would be easy... Well it's actually very difficult. The beginning of the descend was fun. For the first 40 minutes I was running through the rain forest jumping over logs & small rivers laughing at myself for it being so easy. I stopped eating because I thought I was almost done... Well than the road began to look more like cliffs. I had to literally use my hands and butt to get down some of the trail. On top of that, the trail was going everywhere. I was concentrating so hard on following the red arrows that I almost felt like I was on a wild goose chase! 2 hours later I realized that I had not eaten anything and I could definitely feel it. I forced myself a couple of shot blocks and continued the race. I wanted so badly to just be back in my sleeping bag already! I finally saw one of the journalists taking photos and he assured me that 300 meters were left. FINALLY I crossed the finish line at 6 hours 40 minutes. Yes...that's a long time… however I still finished 15th overall and 5th female. Hewww... That was a crazy one!
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