Bairgutsman 2010 race report

Crazy Bob's Bairgutsman was today. The race has been run for 30 years, but still has a small race feel to it. Basically, it runs from the Mountain Road in Fruit Heights almost to the top of Francis Peak--a total vertical gain of over 5,600 feet in 5 miles. Upon reaching the top, the course goes down the service road to the Bountiful Peak turnoff where the finish line is. 10.56 miles total.

I was hoping to run a 2:15--an arbitrary number since this was my first year running the race, but 2:15 sounded like it would be a pretty (for me) respectable result. I was on pace for the first 3 miles, but miles 4 & 5 took me 30:42 and 31:55! I was trying to power hike with a purpose, but I was starting to get a bit more tired towards the end of the climb. I have never done any hiking like that before! Live and learn I guess.

I tried to get towards the front end of the race, because with 300 participants on narrow single track, I didn't want to get stuck behind the autobus on any of the climbs. Interestingly enough, I ended up being the slow one on the hike sections and got passed by 6 or 7 people on the climb.

Tangent: There were a couple of stud 13-15 year old kids that were running near my same pace. One kid tried an unannounced pass, wiped out, got up, ran about 200 more yards and then began throwing up all the water he'd been drinking. Have you ever seen anyone throw up? It's nasty! It was only water, but I forced myself not to look for fear of making my stomach do the same.

After what seemed like forever, I reached the top of the climb, shuffled past Paul Bunyan's golf balls, and tried to catch the person in front of me. We must have all been running at the same speed because I could never close the gap. I didn't pass and didn't get passed by anyone from the top of the climb to the finish line. In fact, most of the time, I couldn't even see anyone except for the long straightaways. I crossed the finish line at 2:29:03 in 28th place. I was the fourth place girl.

After I finished, had a chance to recharge etc., the 2:15 goal really was nagging at me because I knew that I lost tons of time on the last section of the climb. I want a rematch! Too bad they only run the race 1x a year. The winner this year knocked almost 10 minutes off the CR and covered the course in one hour and 50 minutes. This really was a neat event, with good energy.

My mile splits so I can compare against next year:

1 - 8:37
2 - 13:21
3 - 22:06
4 - 30:42
5 - 31:54
6 - 11:11
7 - 7:08
8 - 6:38
9 - 6:52
10 - 6:56

I guarantee there is 15 minutes in there somewhere that I can make up.

Full results here.