Imogene Pass Survival run

Well that was fun! Ran as usual no real taper, you have to be training to do that, just took Thursday off but had a good rest of the week. Cindy was much more into my running than I was. What outfit, how many gels, water ect????......Her concern was nice. But I had a plan and was sticking to it. I knew I would be walking a bunch at higher altitude so taking it real easy early would be key. I was hoping to run into one of my freinds who has run this many times as her pace would be honest for me. This is a course where you can legally take short cuts. And I planned to use every short cut. They are steeper than the longer way but they would also make me walk a bit early. After .25 miles of flat the course starts uphill. Took the 2 short cuts and yes they were faster. Saw my freind right after 1 mile and ran chatted with her for the next few miles. She was hurting and I made her run a few sections she would've walked. Things like let's run to that tree; to that big rock. I took pictures along the way as this race is beautiful. (Pikes Peak is also but this area is like a little Switzerland) After 5 miles I left her and saw another freind (coworker of Cindy) who was running his first real race in a while. Cindy had told me his goal was to beat me, HA. He had seen me run the time I bonked on Pikes Peak from no gels. But he's a great guy so I encouraged him as I went by and we ran a bit together. He'd catch up when I stopped to click photos. After 7 miles it gets real steep and rocky and loose. I had to walk/ jog this section. Another mile up and it was all walking. I don't do well at altitude and this is over 13,000' . The plan was walk 100 steps fast ;stop catch breath repeat. I passed a bunch of people doing this and was well within myself at the top.I waited to snap a few photos of my freinds at the top~ 3 minutes gave high fives and headed down the 7 miles to Telluride. I didn't fall!! Saw one poor girl superman fall 100 meters from the pavement. The down is brutal on the quads. I finished and that is that.