Go with the Flow, Look for the Glow!   This would be an evening of firsts for me. I had never run at night. So, not only would the whole lighting issue be an experiment but also beginning a run so late in the day. My body is accustomed to running in the morning so I was concerned this might become an issue. This was the first race that my family joined in on the fun as well. After spending most of the morning eating, hydrating, gathering up my stuff, loading up the Suburban (her name is Beluga and she loves to camp!) with 2 kayaks and a ton of camping gear we(Sandi, Sierra, Calvin and I) finally headed towards Inks and arrived about 3:30pm. It has been scientifically proven that it is impossible to set up camp properly without drinking beer so I had to have a Lone Star and take a break. Sandi and I pulled up a chair in the shade and watched our camper kids put up their own tent. We got the boats to the water and put the final touches on camp by hanging the hammock from two of the many trees to choose from. On to the fun! Calvin provided kayak support to Sandi for a swim in the lake (she’s training for an Olympic Tri) while Sierra and I grabbed another beer (OK, just me) and went to check in. I got my chip and some course descriptions from a few 30k stragglers that hung out to volunteer for the evening. Back to camp to relax and get ready. I ate a bite, lied down for a while, used The Stick, got race ready, dropped my stuff at the start/finish and went for a warm up jog. 7pm came and so did pre-race instructions followed by the line up, countdown and GO! I always try to start out near the front to scope out who is who and have room to run. Some familiar faces in front and behind me as I settled in with Ryan B for a mile or so. We had a nice chat until his GPSr warned him he was going a little fast for his plan. I went ahead without him for a while and was soon joined by Matt C. Matt and I hit it off immediately and yakked away until the midway aide station for a quick refill. When we got back on trail we commented on how fast Josué was running as we didn’t even see him on the out-and-back. No sooner had we commented on this when Josué appeared, running toward us with only a “Don’t ask” as we passed. It didn’t take us long to guess he must have missed the out-and-back and was retreating to correct his route. Matt and I rolled along at a decent clip and I tried to take mental notes about the trail since I wouldn’t be seeing it in the light again. Matt eased off as twilight approached due to some recent eye surgery and just like that, one lap was complete. My kids were excited to see me and wished me luck as I took off into the sunset. What a sunset it was too. I actually stopped for a sec early in lap 2 as the pink sky seemed to mesh right into the pink granite ahead of me. Oh yea, I’m supposed to be racing! The rest of lap 2 was pretty uneventful until about 1.5miles from the start/finish. I still don’t know who he was but a guy came flying by me wearing lots of light and blazing down the trail. I almost followed him but decided I couldn’t run that fast safely and it wasn’t worth risking anything on lap 2. A quick refill from the wonderful volunteers and I was out for lap 3. I stuck with only a green LED hand held for lap 3 and maintained a decent pace; especially since I kept meeting the guys chasing me at the out-and-back aide station. I felt pretty decent and tried to hammer the easy running spots since I knew I’d give back some time on the rocks here and there. Back to the start/finish for ICE and water in my bottle and an Ensure from my daughter. By lap 4 the runners were getting really spread out and I stopped trying to see who was on my tail. I kept my head down when I met up with folks so I wouldn’t be blinded by the bright white lights. I was heating up quite a bit and wore half of my water each 5k to cool off. I reminded myself how well the trail was marked and seemed to have a natural flow to it. I would have to really mess up to make a mistake. My mantra became ‘Go with the flow and look for the glow’. More ICE, water and Ensure and I was off for lap 5. Laps 4 and 5 I used my white LED headlamp but held it in my hand because I didn’t like the visual effects I was getting with it on my head. This was an experiment after all! I was still feeling really strong on lap 5 and continued to put down a decent pace. I’m usually more of a ‘fly and die’ runner but this one turned out different. I still wasn’t totally sure I was in first place but everyone at the start/finish seemed pretty confident about it. I saw 5:01 after 5 laps and thought I might be able to get in sub 6hr if I pushed the last lap. I wished I could ditch my belt but kept it for the extra batteries and bottle holder. I caught up to Derek and Ryan at the aide station and they encouraged me to finish strong so after some more ICE I hit the trail…hard. Thanks to all the runners who kindly stepped aside and offered nice comments on the way home the final time. I’m glad there wasn’t a boogie man living under the bridge near the end but I doubt he could have caught me at that point! I rounded the final corner and crossed the mat 24 seconds past the 6hr mark. My wife and kids were there to greet me and even brave enough for a sweaty hug and kiss. I grabbed a recovery Boost and some more ICE and took a quick cool down walk with my son. Not long after I was treated to my sandals, a chair and a cold beer to celebrate! I’d won my age group before but never had an outright win. It is a privilege to race against such fine folks as seem to be at every trail event. I’m no longer amazed at how cool everyone is but I certainly don’t forget it or take it for granted. These gatherings are special on many levels and I’m glad I get to be a part of many of them. Thanks to Brad and Joe for a great course/event and ALL of the fine folks that volunteered time and energy to pull off this fine event. See ya on trail, Steven.