part 5 - Divide to Slumgullion

After leaving the Divide aid station you climb for another mile and a half or so. I hike this section to give my stomach time to digest all the junk food I just ate. I begin running shortly before the top of the hill. Just before I get out of sight of the aid station, I see Rich trucking in. I don't think he saw me, which is good, as it may have motivated him to come after me a little harder.

The trail is muddy, just like last year when I fell down and just laid in the mud for about five minutes, too tired to get up. What a difference a year makes, as I run the rest of the downhill section to the Slumgullion aid station. Two strong runners do pass me on this section, and I don't go with them. Still, the fact that I'm still running and still feeling good at this point makes me smile. Would I have challenged the two had San Juan been my goal race? Probably. But in hindsight I may have made a good decision not to lay everything on the line.

Coming into Slum was a blast, thanks to all the CRUD support. Paul S was about half a mile out from the aid station, yelling for me. I told him to trip Rich, who I thought was right behind me. Cereta already had my bag waiting for me and Katie was there with a cold Pabst. My chugging of a PBR dropped the jaws of some of the aid station volunteers, pretty funny stuff. Jaws dropped even further when I told them it was my second one of the day.

Another great thing about the Slum aid station - they had popcicles! I fell in love with those at last years Slacker half marathon, and always crave one when the heat is making things rough. If you run and haven't tried this, you need to.

I dropped my camelbak here and went with a handheld water bottle. Nice to lose all that weight. Left Slum at 9:45, and even though I had one more rough climb I was confident I was gonna get that cannibal hat...