I ran the 30K again this year.  Joe arranged the best weather ever for this event.  Since I didn't do something crazy the day before, I felt felt a frisky at the start, so I went out a little fast.  That lasted about 2 miles and then I backed off to a pace I could sustain.  The reverse course made it more interesting for me since I had done the race three times before.  I was running with my new hydration pack which cuts down on aid station time.  All my gels and e-caps were easy to get to and my hands were free.  Through two loops I was just under two hours.  I wanted to pick up my pace ever so slightly and finish under three hours, which I hadn't done before.  I cruised into the aid station and slammed down my last two cups of HEED and off I went.  As I was headed out for my last 2.8 miles, I saw a group of about six runners that was just arriving at the aid station.  I scooted out of there determined to put some distance between us.  After a while, I felt the presence of a runner stalking me.  I didn't look back, but I knew he was there.  I just focused on the task at hand.  When I got to Joe's little wall of a hill, I knew the finish was near.  A couple of twists, turns and rises and I was within a couple of hundred yards of the finish giving my customary finishing kick, when i tripped and went down.  I got back up right away and resumed running when my stalker runs along side of me and asks if I was all right, then proceeds to finish just ahead of me. The clock read 2:59:57 when I crossed so I felt I had pulled it off.  Yeah!  Then I look at my hand.  My finger is sticking out sideways and is starting to swell.  My shoulder has a nice scrape on it, I'm all dusty and I have some dried gel on my chin.  People start asking me if I'm all right because I must have looked pretty rough.  I felt fine except for some swelling on my hand.  Just goes with the territory.  I go over to look at the results and lo and behold my official time is just tenths of a second over three hours.  That dang fall cost me my coveted sub 3 hour time.  Grrr. Later that night the Mrs. makes me go get my hand checked out and sure enough the little finger is broken pretty badly.  On Tuesday I had pins put in the finger.  At least I can still run.  No swimming, no mountain biking for three weeks until the pins come out.  At least I can still run.  Could have been worse.  Could have been a torn knee.  At least I can still run.  See you at the loop.