Traprock

Last Saturday I tried a one-two punch of running the Traprock 17K trail race and then turning around and photographing the second half of the 50K ultramarathon (which had started an hour before the 17K). And amazingly, I was mostly successful!

The 17K race (~10.5 miles) went pretty well. I came in 12th out of 70, and felt great the entire way. Upon finishing, I walked straight to my car where I changed shirts, socks, and shoes, and grabbed my camera and backpack. Back at the finish area I scarfed a burger at the grill (THANK YOU, volunteers!!!) and downed some water, then started shooting. 

The first round of photos, mostly of the tail end of the 17K, didn't turn out all that well. I was a little wobbly still, and not quite as confident as you have to be to get good shots. After heading back out on the trail a ways, though, things started to improve. I wanted to come away with a gallery that really represented the full diversity of the course, and I think I more or less pulled that off. I hiked a total of 6 or 7 miles, and got back out to Penwood Ridge, Lake Louise, the Stairway, the summit, the cool columnar-jointing rock outcrop beneath the hemlocks along the ridge, the "Freeway" section (where the mid-day sun came out for a bit to wreak havoc with exposure), and back again.

To the race directors: this is an AWESOME event. Thank you.

To the woman who shouted out "make me look skinny!" I should have shouted back "you make it too easy!" 

Apologies to the runners who I saw over and over again as I made my way around the middle part of the course. I know it got a little silly. Hopefully there's a photo or two of you in there to make it worth the overkill. 

The full photo gallery is posted here: [deleted at race director's request]

And I've included a few highlights below.