Green (PR)

From Gregory TH, Amph, Saddle Rock, Greenman, Green; down the same.

Started at 5:33 am. Met Jeff V this morning. Got there a bit early so did some quick strides up Gregory, then Amphitheater, then Bluebell-Baird until I was gasping for air on each. Figured it was going to be a hard (PR) effort this morning (casual for Jeff) so might as well get a little warm-up in so that the legs didn't feel so dead at the start.

Jeff asked if I wanted to go hard or at a conversational pace as he headed across the bridge from the trailhead. I said something to the effect that it was going to be easy for him and hard for me. I then started my watch at the trailhead and chased after him. Jeff had waited up for me at the Baseline/Amph junction (to start the clock there). When I got there, he started up and immediately his left leg slipped out (on pine needles or loose dirt), and he nearly went down. He stopped, buckled over in pain. At first, I thought he might just be joking, but he said the slip drove his right knee into his chest. He was indeed in a lot of pain, but he continued up the trail after the initial shock wore off.

Up Amphitheater we go. Even in pain, Jeff was just jogging along seemingly effortlessly as I alternated running and hiking, huffing and puffing and sweating buckets. Looking at my split at the Saddle Rock junction, I knew this was going to be a good time given that we lost some time with Jeff's slip. Continued up Saddle Rock, mostly hiking for me but running when I could. Jeff was the perfect "rabbit" to keep me chasing hard. Ran pretty hard through the "flats" at the start of Greenman, then back to mostly hiking but running a few sections that I normally don't on my hardest efforts. Up the log steps, then the mini-switchbacks, then I tried to keep a run going to the summit from there. Walked a couple of times through there but didn't let off the gas to the top of the summit boulder. 39:36! (Jeff had a "post to post" time of 38:47 for me.)

PR by 48 seconds. Previous PR was 40:24 on 5/5/10.

0:00 - Gregory TH
8:15 - Amph/Saddle Rock
22:43 - Saddle Rock/Greenman
39:36 - Green summit (PR!)
42:43 - started down
1:11:24 - Gregory TH

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