Epoch Week Continues

Tuesday - the day after an epic 17 miler on Washington should be a rest day. I plan on racing at Mt Mansfield on Sunday so a day of rest will be good. Ran 7 at GP with the girls. Felt fine, no real things. Added another 3 plus 16 miles on the bike to town (BF) and back.
Wednesday - Headed to Greg and Pisgah to run 9 in the AM. The trails were great, we coasted. Later in the evening I ran with the future 2012 VT State XC Champs for 6. I added 2 more to get 7.
Thursday - went out to the Marathon Road for 10 miles with 3 at a good effort. Felt more sluggish today than any day this week, but opened the first mile in 4:52, felt faster, but I was more flat than I thought. I tried to hold this pace and went 4:58 for mile 2, started to feel better. By the time I ended the third mile I was finally feeling ok and way better than when I started and clipped 4:50 for a total 3 mile in 14:40. Felt good about the time.
I later went back out to GP for an easy shake out 7.
Friday - hit GP trails again with Boj in the evening. Gave my temple as long a wait as possible until the next worship.
Saturday - Greg joined me for the Sap Lines 12. This is a hilly run, and as it turned out, not the best prerace run. But, it doesn't really matter, I've run tired and a bit flat before...
Sunday - Mt Mansfield 4.3 mile road race, Race to the Top of VT in Stowe.
I knew Stowe was awesome, but I also got a chance to check out Smugglers Notch, very cool and gorgeous.
This race was at 9am, so I was up and out by 5:15 to make sure I got there with time to spare.
It was to be a hot day. Very hazy and humid, but I was very excited to race to the top of VT.
As I'm warming up a van opens its doors and the most legit looking dudes piled out. There must have been 6-7 of them and they looked the part. I would figure them to be XC skiers, which meant they could be tough on the climb.
The race started and a few dudes went out hard. The first 500m is the worst of the whole race, and I wondered for a split second on what to do. I hung in the pack till the top of the first climb (500m) then took the lead and made a move to end any ideas of anyone trying to hang on to me. The beginning had some very runnable sections and I made sure to press hard on these and open up the stride. It might have cost me a bit at the end, but it worked and I ran solo for 4 miles increasing my lead.
I ended up 33:53, and to make sure I was King of the Mountains I continued running to the tip top of Mansfield (which is beyond awesome!!!) and then ran down to bag 17 for the day.
It was a tough race, with a lot of talent in the field. Before the race started the starter announced said that anyone who breaks the course record will receive $500 bonus! This was too much to ignore, so I kept my watch on and was checking splits as I clipped. What the dude failed to mention is that the course record includes bikes!!! Haha. Seriously, the running course record was held by a guy I never heard of, so I knew that was coming down, but then after the fact to find out that it included the bikes... Made me shake my head and smile. I joked with the race director that the running record should be apart from the bikes bc they have 21 gears to choose from and I only got 1! I also joked that bikes are a great machine and was made bc it is easier/efficient than running or walking.
Instead of complaining I took it as a challenge for next year. Karma is great, by laughing about it, the director told me that he was going to toss some dough bc I broke the running record by almost a whole minute!
As it also turned out, as primarily a runner, I was a minority. It seemed that most people there were XC skiers or mtn bikers. Def a great venue. The prizes took forever but thats bc they were the best prizes I've ever seen at a race or heard of. The raffle prizes were ridiculous.
Great day to end a great week as I start the taper a bit. Got 95 miles this week and feeling good.