For the route, I started with a hand on the trail head sign, touched the top of the cairn at the top with my hand, and ended touching the trailhead sign. Definitely no cutting switchbacks (I can tell people have cut the ones near the top before), I made sure to stay on the well defined trail. GPS did get a little wonky on those switchbacks. Watch hit exactly 2 miles at the top, but only 1.9 on the way down, probably just from moving faster.
I use Hale as my annual time trial to track improvements year to year. I crushed my time from last year. Wet once again, but it rained the night before every year so that cancels out. I’m continuing to gain big amounts of fitness every year and you can see that in the uphills where I’ve been essentially all out every year. Gone for 45 min to 37 min to now 32 min on the uphill. I still have a lot to make up on the downhills, still took me almost 21 minutes this year and I know I could do like 17 or 18 minutes in perfect conditions and if I just improved. I feel like my ceiling is like 45 minutes on this route, so I still have plenty of room.