D Day turned out to be a bit of an adventure, at least for me.  Nice, decently cool morning.  Fog curling over the hill, temperature around 60.   I crossed the starting line at 8:44.  My group included Brian Pilcher, last year’s winner, and, as it turns out, this year’s too.  I was tied with him for about 5 feet….started well, getting to top of steps and then to Panoramic in good time.  Kept it up downhill to Muir Woods, a minute or so ahead of last year.  All good!   But the climb after crossing the creek (Dynamite) was a slow, painful, slog.  Gave back a couple of minutes, but felt as though I was still hanging in there when crested Cardiac.  Then the rolling downhill begins, including the treacherous short cut called the “Swoop”.  Running single file steep downhill, some looking for opportunities to pass during this two minute down chute.   Then the shouts of “runner down”, letting everyone know to look out for a down/injured runner.  Runner down.  Oops. It’s me.   Fog, not just in the tops of the redwoods, now in my head.  Still don’t know what happened.  I just recall a long series of rolls, nothing too jarring, maybe three rolls and twenty feet down the dusty incline.  Disorienting.  Checked body parts. Fortunately, all there, including arm and leg scrapes, dirt, sticklers covering socks and shirt.  Retrieved water bottle about fifteen feet up, and persevered.  Flustered, but moving.  Ran pretty well under the circumstances  the remaining two miles, though feeling the need to pick it up.   In the end, pushed across the finish line, thoroughly gassed, heart racing, grabbing a Gatorade and sitting down to catch my breath.  My watch had stopped on the fall, and I worked so hard down the stretch that I ignored the clock as I finished.  So I waited until evening for results to be posted.  Moderately disappointing, but not surprising.  One hour 20 minutes, about three minutes behind last year.   Missed the automatic qualifying 450th position by all of 30 seconds.  My fall might have accounted for that by itself, but stumbles and falls are part of the experience.  I remind myself that my focus has been on distance preparing for the Bridger, and I’ve sacrificed speed to some degree, and I could feel that on the grueling uphill stretch from Muir Woods to Cardiac.   

Stuck around for the post-race awards, which were great and a tribute to Dipsea tradition.  First they march out all the former winners who participated in this year’s run.  One guy had run in 60 Dipseas!  Another had won the race in 1947!   The announcer added that one runner today had a great-uncle who had participated in the 1905 race.  All so cool.  Then they hand out the coveted black shirts that go to the top 35 finishers, including our good friend Craig who garnered #24.  Because of the handicapping the ages of this group ranges from 18 to 76.   Quite an event!  And, as the website notes, 363 days till the 107th running next June….