We initially intended to start at 7 am, but after cuddling in Michelino’s van for the night at the lupine meadows trailhead and not waking up til almost 7:30, we really eased into this one. The start was relaxed - so much so that we made a wrong turn within the first mile which added on at least 0.25 miles. We dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and dodged around the crowds at the bottom of cascade canyon while talking about past training and dating woes. Michelino was kind enough to let me be in front until we got to the solitude split in 64 minutes, which matched Luke’s split exactly. It was at that moment that Michelino decided it was time to throw the hammer down, and it was about 45 minutes later as he formed a 20 second or so gap on me bearing hurricane pass that I realized that I was going to be hurting for the majority of this run. Hurricane pass in 2:01, and Michelino allowed me to catch up for the descent to our first planned water stop a mile ish past the pass. We cameled up in a stream there and then again just below buck pass, which we passed through in 2:52, feeling great about our chances to potentially go under 5:10 or even under 5:00. The downhill was flowy enough that I could ~almost~ keep up with Michelino as we banged our quads up and hit Phelps cutoff in 3:34. He walked up the following hill for a few minutes to allow me to catch up. The sun had been out all day at this point and it was hot down in the valley. We had to stop at at least 3 streams to get our heads wet and refill on water. The rollers on the valley trail really broke our rhythm and the climbs were long enough to put us in the pain cave, but we were able to keep moving efficiently enough to put some more time between us and the prior fkt. 4:30 at the taggart/Bradley intersection and we knew we had it in the bag even as the fatigue forced us to walk most of the climb coming out of there. Before the last descent I again had dropped about 15-20 seconds back and had to make up ground - it was a bit of a miracle my wobbly legs kept me upright over the rocks and roots and I was able to come back up to Michelino’s shoulder as we pushed the last short flat section back to the trailhead in 5:11:53. I think had I not been there, Michelino might’ve been able to shave a few minutes off our time, but he wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun. There’s no saying how much of an effect our collective stoke had on our performance that day. Stoke can fuel our bodies better than any amount of gels, drink mixes, or sour patch kids when harnessed correctly the way we did. If anyone wants to take down our time, they’ll have to do the same