This should be the motto of the Mount Evans Ascent, which also happens to be 'America's Highest Road Race'.
Starting at Echo Lake, just outside of Idaho Springs, Colorado at 10,600 feet (3,230m) , the course climbs for 14.5 miles (23.3 km) up North America's highest paved road. The course takes you through montane, subalpine, and alpine environments to the summit of Mt. Evans at 14,264 ft (4,348m).
It is a spectacular venue, with many memorable four-legged spectators, such as Bighorn Sheep, Marmots, and Mountain Goats dotting the course.

This was by far the highest altitude race that I have done and I was a bit unsure how I would respond to pushing myself in the rarefied air, but I also find that the body has an incredible way of knowing what it is in for and helps you pace accordingly. I also knew that I was fit and wanted a good effort to test my hard work over the past few months.
It is a very prestigious race and has had some memorable winners and this year was no different. The two biggest names on the start-list were Matt Carpenter, regarded as the greatest high altitude runner of all time and Naoko Takahashi, the 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist in the marathon and former marathon world record holder.

I had driven up to the course and ran 5 miles of the middle section and scouted the course by car 3 days before, so I knew what to expect. I had actually struggled a little bit during that test run, getting a headache on my short summit jog. I also took a slightly different tack and ran more miles than usual going into the race to simulate the Trans Rockies stage race that I plan on doing later in the summer. So although I was fit and excited to race, I had my excuses lined up :)

I woke up early on race morning and drove the 1.5 hours from Boulder to the race start to pick up my package. It was petty chilly that morning and I was worried that the summit might be quite cold, but I still opted to keep things light and wore my lightest possible gear for the uphill effort, so I gambled and didn't bring any extra gear with me. I got a sense during the warm-up as to who might be a challenger on the day and I saw 5 or 6 guys who all looked pretty fast. I decided to run with the main group until 8 miles and then crank out the finish.

When the gun went off, well, let's just say that I suck at sticking to game plans. I watched Carpenter bolt to the front and I started chasing him. By the (fast) first mile, I had gapped the field and Carpenter had gapped me, so I decided to keep pressing and see who was willing to come with me. A small group of guys formed about 15 seconds back of me and Carpenter was showing his class off the front. His pace would have been suicidal for me, but as the miles ticked by, I could tell that I was on pace for a fast time and I kept pulling away from the guys behind me, so although Carpenter was on fire at the front, I kept pushing and was very pleased with how things were looking.

The views were incredible and really motivated me. I love looking at beautiful scenery while running hard and the open alpine terrain made for some incredible vistas. Strangely, nice scenery allows me to internalize my effort better, which was a good thing, because I ran alone almost the whole way and I had to use a lot of personal cues to keep on it.

What do I think about while racing? Well lots really:
-I sing a variety of songs. Man do I have some crappy songs memorized, like "Climb every mountain", "running, running...." and yes, I think I sang all of these, how cheezy is that?
-I think about my stride and form
-I do mental artithmatic, trying to fraction out how much I have done and and how much I have left. Try to figure out the decimals of 7/13s at 12,000ft while running hard, not easy, especially not for someone as shitty at math as me
-I remind myself to eat and drink
-I try to convince myself that Carpenter is going to blow up trying to set the course record and I will catch him in a moment of glory at the finish line
-I check out the view and convince myself that despite being in the middle of a "suffer-fest", I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at that moment

Pretty much, yes, runners, like me, have rightfully earned our "geek" monikers. We, well I, really do think about some dorky things while running!!!! But trust me, underneath the skinny legs and talk about mile splits and pacing, we have incredible sex appeal. Okay, sales pitch over, back to running.

The steepness of the road changed a lot, which was nice, because I could change my stride to suit the terrain, taking my mind off of the heavy breathing. I expected the race to take around 2 hours, the winning time from the past 6 or so years, so was surprised and excited to see my pace adding up to a sub 1:50 effort. I used ever trick that I knew to keep forcing the pace. Despite labouring a little when the road kicked up at 3 miles, there is always a point in a race when you question what you are doing, there were enough mental breaks on the course for me to be able to work through the rough patches. I just focused on getting in my nutrition and staying hydrated and figuring out how far it was until the grade eased off a bit.

I often find in longer races that your energy(see sugar) needs directly influence your mood. when you start to feel tired and lethargic, you probably need food and vis-versa too, when you feel too euphoric, you probably need some food or drink too. Pretty much, unless you are boring and monotone, focusing on the effort, then you should probably replenish the energy stores.Overall though, it is was a fairly boring/uneventful race, which means I did a good job with my energy, both pacing and nutrition wise.

I did have lots of marmots checking things out watched a mountain goat scoping the race, but unlike the racing I did in Europe last summer, there were almost no spectators out, which was weird. Even the aide stations weren't quite prepared a I ran by and I hardly got a "looking good" from anyone.

I found the last mile and a half very hard, as I started to get a bit of a headache, but my fast early pace gave me a big cushion and with only 10 minutes or so of running (uphill miles at altitude are not very fast compared to flat sea level miles), I really focused inward trying to keep my cadence as high as possible and ran as hard as I could to the finish-line.

It was a huge relief to finish in 2nd overall in a time of 1:49:29,(7:33 min/mile for the stats geeks), 9 minutes faster than last years winner and a time fast enough to win almost ever year, but this one. Full respect goes out to Matt Carpenter who beat (see demolished) a 31 year old course record. Great run and legend status solidified!!!!
After cheering on the next few runners, I hiked/jogged the last little bit to the "true" summit and then proceeded to cough up a lung. I then hitched a ride down the mountain and after the awards and my romp with the podium girls (just kidding-I wrote that for those of you still reading), I bee-lined it back to Boulder, where I packed up the car and drove (almost) straight back to Victoria.

I stopped just outside of Laramie WY for a great run and watched some solid bouldering, I spent the night in Little America WY, just to say I did (creepy!!!!) and stopped for lunch in Boise, ID for a nice trot around town. After Boise I was getting tired and sick of driving so I pressed hard to get home. Probably not the best post-race recovery, but it is great to be back on the Island and I am looking forward to some great local (B.C.) events coming up and some fun exploring of new trails that I discovered last summer.