Austin, TX - And so, Gabriel's journeys took him to the land of weirdness, where he would be submerged in a maze of trails so confounding that only on race days are runners encouraged to enter, lest they be left to be lost.
Awakening to 25-30mph winds and 48-degrees was not in the plans. This race was supposed to be an exposure to 80-degree high Spring heat and after a day at the lovely Hamilton Pool and a night of Tex-Mex, cold weather and wind was not very motivational.
Arriving late, Gabriel had a decision to make: use the porta-potty, or tie his laces. He opted for the porta-potty. Neglecting the use of a headlamp, or warm-up, Gabriel was content to sit in the top five for about a mile before taking the lead. Once in the lead, he wanted to distance himself from the chatty local legend, Paul Terranova. Terranova had just placed 2nd at the USATF 100K championships at Bandera, so Gabriel knew he had to make him hurt early. And it was paying off... minute after minute, the chattiness died down and Gabriel forged a lead. However, he opted to decide to finish one loop without his laces tied, but he would have to tie them after the first 10km loop, which he did and was surprised that in that 80-seconds, he was not passed.
Halfway into the second 10km loop, he spotted two orange Rogue singlets closing the gap on him... ah, 10K runners. And so, two Rogue guys shot past, full of run, hitting 6:15/mile pace and Gabriel let them past. However, it shortly occurred to him that these runners were not in the 10K, they were his competition in the 30K. These guys were flying! Gabriel had been caught. And so, he drafted behind them for a couple of miles before finally surging back into the lead at breakneck pace, working to put himself and his opponents in debt.
The younger stallion broke first, but this elderly looking Aussie was stubbornly strong and full of run. Eventually, after a couple of miles, the Aussie took the lead and used the maze traffic of runners to get away. Gabriel re-focused on himself. Coming through the 2nd lap, Gabriel was in 2nd, with no clue of how far back from 1st, but as he took down a gel, he noted 3rd coming in and the confirmation that the leader was attacking. Gabriel set off to complete the third loop, unsure of the result.
Gabriel hit a rough patch, stopped to fix his laces once more, and was passed by the young stallion. However, once Gabriel got moving again, he realized the stallion was in dire straits, and Gabriel passed him back on the uphills and distanced himself, finally re-engaging to cut time into the leader. And so, with 30-min of run remaining, Gabriel hunkered down and ran hard. He ran and ran, but ran out of time. His last mile in 5:32, he still couldn't catch Scott Rantall, a 66-min/2:20 Marathon performer and only 30-years old. He had been duped.
However, it was a great run. Nothing hurt, there was plenty left in the tank, and his spirits were high. He defeated third by a few minutes, including the local legend. It was a good day, although the maze did defeat him on this day.
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