BUNKER HILL DEFENSE

MONKTON, MD - Alright, a very interesting race. I had won this race in 2011 in some good muddy conditions and today the trails seemed in much better shape.

The beauty of this race, as is with all races in this area, is that I was the defending champion, yet of course no one remembered me and the race direction nicely made way for the "fastest" runner in the field, Graham Peck. It was funny, because in my mind, I was like, hmm, this is a trail race and I am one of the top 20 trail/mountain/ultra runners in the USA and I was quite sure that I was faster than Peck, especially over trail, but then again, I knew nothing about him.

Anyway, just to prove a point, I blasted off the starting line to capture the single-track first and put pressure on the "fast" guys. This is a pretty technical singletrack for about 2 miles before we hit an open uphill trail (picture above) in which I wanted to hammer and get some separation. Immediately I built up a pretty signficant gap and then Killian Jornet'd down the trails to finish up the first loop. I was feeling good and unpressed and was well under my personal pace from last year, 34:53 to 37:50. I wanted a time under 72-minutes, as that is the fastest time I had seen in race results.

However, by the time we hit the middle of the second loop, I felt someone was gaining on me. I think I was just paranoid, but I started pressing again, perhaps resting too much, much like Double Trouble, and I picked it up. The day was pretty humid, but I kept it going. Finally, I hit the Gunpowder (river crossing) and I knew I was in the clear for the win.

The best part about the race is that second place finished about 3+ minutes back, yet in the results they made it look like it was a tight race and I out-kicked second by 2 seconds! Nothing was further from the truth, but oh well, another conquered trail and another great effort. 1:10:38 for the win and an impressive almost 8-minutes faster on the same loop than in 2011 (1:18:18)! My strength has come a long way in a year.