Looking back - June 2013

10 years ago (June 2013):  I only raced four times this month, 3 mountain races and a downhill 5k.  I started the month (06/02) with the brutally hot Bretton Woods fell race.  It was in the mid-90s during the race.  I took my time to drink throughout and it paid off as I finished in fifth place overall covering 7.25 mountainous miles in 1:20:56.  A week later I headed up Ascutney Mountain taking 6^th place in 31:52.  Four days later (06/13) I was racing downhill in Hollis NH.  The “Fast Five” was selected as the USATF NE championship which normally would have been great but this year the race would be less than 48 hours before Mt Washington.  The Thursday night race was as fast as billed and I very nearly ran 5:00 pace (15:39) and finished 55^th (9^th in the 40+) in a field of 1397.  I left the race and immediately headed North to stay near Mt Washington.  I tried to guess how much the 5k would take out of my legs but doubt it was 45 seconds, which would have put me under 1:10.  I took 22^nd place in 1:10:44 (2^nd 40+).  After that I was done racing for the month but, over the last 7 days of the month I ran 118 miles!  I had planned on going to North Carolina for the USA 10km trail championships but the race was cancelled.  I already had a flight so I headed down and bagged 17 peaks (including a bunch of fire towers) while putting in consecutive days of 21, 20, and 20 miles.  Great fun!