Lap 1 I took out very easy. It was actually 17.5 and my friend's GPS said only 3300 feet of gain for that lap. I wound up running an extra mile running to an aid station to get help for a guy who had fallen. He had to go to the ED even. Poor guy. I probably lost about 20 minutes. Total time was 4:23.
Lap 2 there were a lot less people doing the 55k. Probably only 40 total. The first six miles was all uphill so that was a slog, but I started passing people. In the second lap I passed 12 people and never got passed. I finished the second lap in 4:00 hours even so I pretty much ran dead even splits minus the time for going to the aid station. Finished strong and ran downhill the last 5-6 miles.
Stayed on top of hydration and nutrition. Gear was perfect. Had two bms which was unusual and slowed me by about 5 or 6 minutes. No big deal.
This definitely was not a goal race but I felt really happy with the day and getting out and just getting in a long workout. It was also really nice to run a race at White Ranch where I do so many training runs. Kind of like a home court advantage.