Starting at the Putvin Trailhead, I constantly reminded myself to keep the effort the same and not even bother to try and keep speed on the hills.
Pretty much just stayed in the zone until the short mile section just before Lake of the Angels. Once I got there I picked up the speed till the final climb on trail.
Then, here comes the climb. The scree scramble made me pretty mad because I kept going slightly off route into the scree fields. In reality I should have looked at the GPS a bit more, so it’s totally my fault and was very preventable. Eventually I figured it out and made to the base of the scramble at 2:16, and then to the top of Mount Stone in 2:20:01. I don’t think I’ve ever seriously happy cried at a summit, so that was a first.
By this point, both of my quads are on FIRE and cramping pretty hard. Thankfully I had high sodium chews and plenty of water, as long as I didn’t hyper extend or crouch down, all I had to deal with was the pain. Went back down the scramble, ran the ridge, and pretty much slid on my butt down the scree field to the lake.
Back down at Lake of the Angels…now it’s time to rip it! Or so I thought. By this point, my legs are on fire and the calf’s and quads are essentially shaking, cramping, and seizing. Either way, I pushed on and did my best to ignore it and keep going. Dunked my head in the lake really quickly and started my decent of the trail. I had the entire run to myself until the last two miles, where I only saw three people. Got back to the car in under four hours, and I was very ecstatic.
A lot of emotions were fueling this run and I’m very happy with the effort. This is undeniably the hardest I’ve ever pushed myself. I went past my limit and shattered both my previous record and the former record.
Thank you Peyton for constantly texting me the days leading up to this to “grow up and run mount stone”. Love you brother.