Lord Hill

The return of Tim Lofton's Lord Hill Ultra was met with perfect weather and a trail full of happy runners. We couldn't have asked for better weather in the beginning of February. The trails were in great shape with only a dozen or so mud holes.
I carpooled with Shawn and Van. Based on our previous times (6:31, 6:57, and my 7:18) I would be bringing up the rear. I hate making people wait for me so I was going to try to keep up. The course was a little different this year and about 1/2 mile shorter per loop. It was a counter-clockwise loop with an out and back and a lollipop loop along the way.

I ran most of the first loop and finished it in 1:39. I had a nice long A/S break with some snacks and drinks. The second loop was a little slower, mostly because I reversed the lollipop loop so I could bomb down the steepest part of the course. This meant a slower return trip up the long gravel road. It was sooo worth it. At the end of the second loop my time was 3:34. I had been running most of the first two loops with Scott Tomchick but he had to cutout early for some good father son time. On the third loop I reversed the entire course which, in my opinion is the hardest way to run it. I really slowed down in the last 3 miles of the last loop because of a long climb, totally out of gas and almost out of water I crawled over the finish line in 5:46. I'm thinking reversing the course added about 20 minutes to my time. The great thing about going the opposite direction is that you get to see runners that are nowhere near your pace.
I still ended up with a 1:32 improvement over 2 years ago so I pretty happy with that. Next time I'll carry a little more water so I can actually eat (wash down) one of the 5-6 GU's I carried for 31.5 miles!