Ben Lomond(again) So this is the 5th time in 10 days I have run Ben Lomond. I wasn't planning on running it again so soon but my cousin B.j. ran it yesterday and had to text me his time of 2:34:41. Doing this he knew that I would have to attempt it as soon as possible. I had to work later than usual so I had to hustle to get this run in before it got too dark. I got to the trail head around 6:45 and started the long climb. I am very competitive so I decided to push as hard as I could without working my legs so hard that they wouldn't be able to handle a fast pace on the downhill. I was working pretty hard and wasn't sure I would be able to keep up the high effort but I pressed on. I basically ran all the way to the summit except for a few steep sections where I power hiked or when I was taking in some calories. After I got past the initial 4+ mile climb it flattened out a bit and I was able to recover a bit and pick up the pace. I kept the pace up until the summit push where I headed straight up the ridge. My time to the sign in post was 1:24:52. My legs felt like jello and were on fire. I thought that I had pushed too hard and wouldn't be able to finish the downhill strongly. But I decided to head back down and see what happened after I got down the snow field. I glissaded down the snow field then headed straight down for the last two switchbacks. My legs weren't coming around yet so I just pushed as hard as they would let me. After I got some easy running in, my legs started to come around and the grade helped out a ton. I picked up the pace for the next couple miles and it felt a lot easier. It was starting to get dark and I didn't want to run the last rocky section in the dark so I pushed the pace even harder. I hit the last switchback and looked at my watch and saw it said 2:16:xx and basically all out sprinted the last bit to see if I could sneak under 2:17:00. I missed it by 10 seconds, finishing in 2:17:10. I haven't run that hard on a run of that distance and with that elevation gain in a long time. My body is pretty worked over right now. I don't think I will be trying this again anytime soon. ~3,600 vert. 2:17:10 | 