My head on race day: Wow these guys are going out hot! Climbing legs feel so so, lets save some. How do you all go so fast downhill? 20k in @alliemc3 just passed me, its cool, she is a great runner and like the best descender in the world (man or woman) I wonder how far back @billyyang is, I can run with him and @thehilaryann. I doubt anyone cares if I get 30th or 50th. Damn this climb is techy! Trip, grab that rope or you are 😵. Sling shot down a 30 percent grade, stay up stay up. Am I Ricky Bobby? The dumb American who way underestimated this race. These guys are all Formula 1 drivers. Lets slow walk the next couple miles because we almost died. This ridgeline is nice. Oh hey there’s @ryanthrower, he seems like a cool guy, I gotta start racing. Turns headphones on Weird Goodbyes- @thenational on repeat for 2.5 hours. Finally a smooth decent and no one passed! “You are in 20th place” Thud! Gasp gasp gasp, laying face down, punched in the ribs by the ground. Two french men trying to help me. Keeps laying, starts crying. Race is over. Only 8 miles left. I can’t breath. My knee hurts. A few runners pass. Start breathing normal. Start walking down hill. You’ve been out here 4 hours, @amanda_basham needs help with the kids. Aid station. Chug coke, another. Gotta run the whole last climb (A goal for race was top 20) Lots of carnage, pass 1,2,3... At the top. 4.5 left, 3.5 left, 2.5 left, 1.5 left all smooth and downhill. There’s Amanda and Ry, already crying. Grab Ry, 🥹 If I said this training block was easy, I’d be lying. If I said there’s a perfect race there isn’t. I decided to try harder today, like the song says. You can fail a lot of times in life, sometimes you just gotta keep trying. Grateful for my partner, my kids, my bestie @ladiahallie, my bro and his GF for traveling the world to watch me race, this incredible @altrarunning team and @runinrabbit for those half tights that were absolutely amazing today! 📸 3 the amazing @shitinthewoods #relentlessforwardprogress #runningonhope #bravelikegabe #altrarunning #runninrabbit