Trail Runner Competition ... 3rd
Ran my last race of the 2009 Trail Runner Trophy Series last weekend .. was a tight race for the top five spots. Final results won't be posted for a while but I'm pretty sure I'll end up in 3rd place overall.
Over the course of the 7 month competition I met some great people and ran on some of the most remote/scenic trails in the country. Coming into the last month I had a real shot at taking the title but I came down with a nasty flu that caused me to drop out of 4 planned runs. This takes nothing away from the 2 guys who claimed spots 1&2 (Phil Oreste, CA & CJ Hitz, Ohio) .. even if I had remained healthy it would have been too close to call.
The toughest part of the racing was not being home as often as I'd like, I'm looking forward to sticking to road races in my neck of the woods for a while ... although, coming close to taking 1st in the contest but just falling short pretty much guarantees I'll be back in a few years to make a second attempt.
Map showing the 25 locations I competed in:
recent branches
This looks like it was a great series. I'm sorry you got the 'flu. Seeing the country through something like this sounds excellent.
Nice post Brian...I can certainly relate. Hats off to Phil and his great effort! I saw he got 2nd overall at the Big Sur race which is a tremendous effort. Looking forward to crossing paths in the future.
CJ
Sounds like an awesome AND exhausting series. Congrats on following through and finishing 3rd!