I got to sleep early last night a got a great night sleep. I woke up at 4 a.m. I drove to the finish of today's race. It finished at Snow Basin Ski Resort. I got on the first bus and we headed down to Pineview Resevoir. I got my number and did some stretching and got warmed up. It was about 45 degrees. Perfect tempurature for starting a race. We started at 7:35 after a loud canon went off. The first two miles were on the road. I was trying not to start out to fast but was averaging about a 7:30 pace. After crossing the spillway we went down Ogden Canyon just a little then headed up Wheeler Canyon. Up and Up and Up. It was all runnable but kept going up until mile 7. Then we went downhill for a 1.5 miles. The downhill was great but it was short lived as the rest of the course was basically uphill with an ocasional short downhill. When we came out of the woods at the finish we had to go uphill for about 200 yards before turning toward the downhill finish. I finished in 1:45:08. As I was crossing the finish line they anounced "Matthew Ricks from Bountiful, Welcome back to the Party." I was expecting my time to be closer to 2 hours, so I was excited. I also placed 3rd in my age group. This is the first time I have placed in my age group this year. I got a medal for it and a box with 6 vanilla bean Gu's. The course was beautiful. The leave were changing colors and the trails were awesome. I also qualified to attend the Xterra Xduro World Championship in Hawaii on Dec 6, but I don't think I will be able to make it. | 