For two years when I looked at the Verdugos, I felt inspired and wanted to take the CR. Today was the best run of my life, and I'm the first runner to complete this classic LA course in <3hrs. Here were my splits:
Lanark gate --> Verdugo Peak in 54:30
Verdugo Peak --> Sunshine gate in 32:00
Sunshine gate --> Verdugo Peak in 49:00
Verdugo Peak --> Lanark gate in 38:00
I started together with a group of talented runners (Keith Kilgore, Michael Ruf, Scott Munson, Cody Powers, Sam Condon, Pippa Richter) but I charged ahead after Verdugo Peak and ran the rest of the course solo. Michael Ruf also had a great performance today, and he finished soon after me in 2:57:00 which is the second fastest known time. In the past, many runners parked a car two blocks from Sunshine gate and used the car as an aid station (see the Strava segment https://www.strava.com/segments/17608989), but this takes a few minutes and it is not what I did. I ran unsupported, ran gate --> gate --> gate, and carried two handheld water bottles with 640 calories of Maurtens. Because the weather was cool (44F at the start with a breeze), I felt like this was plenty of nutrition and hydration.