Stone House Triple Cross (8.6 miler)

I did the Triple cross on a whim the weekend after The Moab Trail Marathon. I needed something fast and an 8.6 miler on trail with six water crossings and a small mountain would be perfect coming off such a technical race. And since the course was at Bear Creek Lake Park, I knew exactly what to expect after racing there for the
With no time goal, the only plan I had was to take it easy on Mt. Carbon and to gain a little ground at each water crossing. I figured anyone faster than me at a 8.6 miler would be young, fast, road runners so the technical parts should help me some.

-breakfast
>half a sesame BumbleBar with peanut butter and virgin coconut oil, and some Tazo Awake tea with ginger
-pre-race
>a small mouthful of Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane (~20 calories)

Before the race I did about a mile build up before heading over to the one porta potty to wait my turn. After a few minutes I realized it wasn't gona happen, so I did the ultra runner thing to do and dipped into the woods to take care of my business.
I changed into my old, trashed pair of Nike Mayfly's and took a deep breath. -I hadn't done any fast training in more than a month and wasn't sure how recovered I would be from Moab the weekend before. Then the race started.
In the first half mile I realized that I was pretty overdressed in my Under Armour ColdGear and ditched it on the side of the trail. At about the one mile mark there was a tree fallen over the trail which made for a little added fun to that stretch: some people hurdled it, some ran around, and on the way back the guy in front of me walked over it causing me to run square into him. The water crossings were brisk to say the least. I knew they weren't gona be warm or anything but it's still crazy to me to feel just how cold these Colorado streams get. It's like running through ice water. By mile three the top twelve or so (myself included) had spread out and by mile four, after heading up Mt. Carbon, I could neither hear anyone behind me or see anyone in front of me. I hate being in this spot: No Man's Land, where you don't feel like you chasing or being chased by anyone. My legs were on fire, but I tried to hold pace and kept telling myself "-at least one or two of the guys up there are road runners -and the longest race they run is a 10k -just hold on until the last two miles and you'll pass a few." And I did.
As I came down Mt. Carbon I saw a duo that didn't look nearly as intimidating as they had three miles ago and I tried to pick up the pace a little. After bursting through the first water crossing I came right up behind one of them. Once he noticed me there his pace dropped about 30 seconds a mile, and I couldn't have been more grateful for it -I did not wana end up in No-Man's Land again if I could help it. I pushed this guy right up to the second water crossing where I passed him and put a few meters on him. He must have be demoralized by that a bit because he dropped off quick after that. But the second guy was only about 150 meters ahead at that point, so I still had chasing to do. And my legs started feeling really good. Again, the water crossing put me right on the guys shoulder and he picked up a bit when I got there. We threw it down a bit for a few hundred meters before we got to the tree fallen over the trail where I just about took him down when he stopped to walk over it. -I guess he was just spent..?

this was taken during the Bear Chase Trail Race 50k (hence the walkers) but its the same creek crossings for both races

Either way, I passed one more guy just before the last half mile and finished in 8th place overall.
Normally, I'd like to think I'd place better at a race this short, but I felt like it went better than I could have hoped for having come off such a big race the weekend before.
It was a blast.