I ran a 1:34:35 this morning from Baldy Village Road to the plaque at the summit.
A couple weeks ago Chris Price and I went to the top in 1:46. We started extremely slow and did not have any kind of time goals (the weather was also terrible). After our run it got me thinking that I should just take a shot at a fast time and see what happens. I was confident I could run at least ten minutes faster than the 1:46. I wanted to put a bit of pressure on myself so over the past two weeks I have been telling Price and Billy Yang that I was going to try to go under the current record. I have a busy schedule and a race next weekend so I decided today was the day. Last night I googled a race pace calculator and saw that a 1:34 time is only 14 minute miles. I even texted Billy and told him about it (it was actually pretty hilarious that I ended up going 1:34!). I also decided that I didn't want any weight for my attempt so I would not bring any fluids or food. I even wanted to start slightly dehydrated so I wouldn't have to stop and take 10 pee breaks like on all of my normal runs. My goal was to get to the top as fast as possible.
I do not own a running type of watch (just a nice bussiness watch for work) so I borrowed my wife's pink Armitron and lined up in the dark and took off at 6:20 this morning. I know in AKs report above that he started super slow to loosen up. I shot out like a cannon. Looking back..I should have run a bit of a warm up before the start because I was hyperventilating within the first 200 yards. It was actually embarrassing when I past a couple hikers about a mile in because I was breathing so stinking loud. Luckily, once I was past them I didnt see another soul until well into the descent. I hit the stream in under 19 minutes but was already feeling terrible. I had to start some hiking to get my breathing under control. Anyways the rest of the climb all the way to the top was painful. I felt like I was going so slow and was actually feeling dumb that I had told Billy and Chris that I thought I could run under a 1:36. Half way up the mountain I was feeling so bad I was worried I wouldn't even break a 1:40. I just wanted to sit down and it was frustrating that I was powerhiking very runnable terrain.
I haven't run with a watch in a couple of years in any training runs or races and I hated the fact that I was wearing one. I could not stop looking at it. It was playing with my mind because time was passing so quickly and I had so far to go. At around the 1:20 mark I mentally threw in the towel and eased up a bit and spent a couple of minutes feeling sorry for myself. Then at the 1:30 mark I realized I was actually almost finished!! I was well under the 1:36 pace I was hoping for. I reached the summit in 1:34:35 and was pretty stoked.
I ended up up just jogging on the descent. I even stopped to admire some sheep that were on the side of the trail. The entire round trip took 2:39 to get back down to the road (that included a couple minutes hangin out at the summit). I should of run the downhill much harder but I just didn't have any desire.
So anyways..I know this record is super soft and there are better climbers out there so I am not going to get too excited about this. I am pretty confident that I can run closer to a 1:30 on fresher legs and once I have another month or two of consistent training under my belt. I took a lot of time off of running this past fall and I am now just starting to feel like I am starting to get into shape. Also, now that Timmy Olsen lives here I bet the record will be well under 1:30 by summertime. I am pretty sure with a nice attempt Price would take a couple minutes off of my time too. It will be fun for all of us to see how low we can get our times.