Leg 29: The Final Chapter

Funny thing about leg 5 is whenever you tell someone who's been to H2C that you're doing it they get a funny look on their face, laugh a little knowing laugh, give a head shake, and tell you good luck with leg 29. I seriously got that 10 times this weekend. It's almost like there are teams of werewolves along the course getting ready to take me out if I slow down and only a select few know. Ha ha, I hope you bring your silver bullets, ha ha. So leading into the leg I was a bit nervous. It didn't help that the elevation map looked like what I was snowboarding down in February just without the chair lift.

But at some point during this fantastic voyage I decided that I was going to beat leg 5 like Rocky beat Ivan Drago. Take some punishment but in the end my leg would start the fall of the Iron Curtain. Bring that bad boy DOWN.

The leg started and I'm climbing the Himalayas almost immediately. Seriously RE-DIC, and after two legs, and no sleep, I had little to nothing to give it. It was like the Commies were going to win. But beyond the Rocky IV metaphors it was beautiful along the path with wooded shoulders, deep woods, a waterfall, and running water in the background.

I did the first mile pretty unimpressively as I climbed about 200 feet - maybe averaging 7:30 - 8:00 pace. The hills let up for a little and climbing another 50 feet over the next mile practically felt downhill. This is also where I started seeing my first road kills. And that's roughly where the fun begins. Coming around a corner I saw the worst part of the climb for the first time as I passed number 1 and 2 and I became exhausted just looking at it. It's the kind of hill people have trouble walking down. And it just kept turning, and turning, and not ending, and turning, and going steeper, and turning, and when is this going to end?

But as I picked off kill 3 and 4 the runners were all just awesome. Every person I passed on the climb said something encouraging. Kill number 4 said, "Go get em." Number 5 said, "Looking strong keep it up." Then a van drove by and slowed down to yell, "Hell yeah team EKIN! Keep it up!" It's ANOTHER one of the awesome things about the race. No one really cares about winning or beating each - there's no telling when anyone started so everyone is just enjoying the experience. It was so cool that I actually started pausing my iPod (which I had playing Ize of the World by the Strokes on repeat since the second leg) as I passed people to hear their encouragement.

By this point I was struggling but kept thinking that the harder I went the shorter it would be. Please let it end.

I rounded the last corner and saw the peak, and It was like Christmas, meets my birthday, meets finding a $20 in a pair of pants you haven't worn in a while, meets making up on a Sunday thiking you're late for work and realizing it's SUNDAY PLAYA! In short - euphoria. People at the top had set up finish-line tape with toilet paper to run through (I assumed for just their teammate who I assumed was the guy in front of me so I let him run through, but they might have just been that awesome?)

I passed another kill as I crossed the line that someone had chalked on the sidewalk that said: TOP OF THE HILL. I turned to him, gave a high 5 and said, "I thought that would never end." He said, "All down hill from here, go and get it." And with that I took off.

The back side of the hill I was flying. If I had to guess I'd say I was at between 5:00 and 5:30 pace the whole backside picking up kills like I was Pesci in Casino. Anyone in my way was getting wacked. Coming over the last hill I saw the finish and let go picking up three more kills and clocking in on the 6.14 mile run in 40:16 (6:33 pace).

And with that my legs were done. My adjusted goal pace based on my 10K PR time (which I put in as 36:00) was 6:30 so I was pretty close, and I was thrilled how I ended. 16 kills to bring my total to 39. Hardest greatest run I've ever had. Life is good.