The Hardest Race I Have Ever Run...

... Is only 14 miles and this year's version is in less than two weeks.

The race is the Matanuska Peak Challenge and I really want to go run it. The race is an out and back that has 9,000 feet of elevation gain (as well as 9,000 feet of descending) in 14 miles! It's an absolutely insane route.

Most of the top mountain runners in Alaska are planning to be there including Harlow Robinson (he's won this race about 3,000 times), Eric Strabel (who just kicked my ass at Crow Pass this past weekend), Matias Saari (bad ass Fairbanks runner), and Patrick Stinson (who also just kicked my ass at Crow Pass).

I'm still not going to be entirely in shape by the time of this race but I'm going to be in a lot better shape than I was this past weekend. Being able to go up to Crow Pass and compete at a pretty good level has me really hungry for more right now.

Problem is the race is up North of Anchorage and it'd cost me another $500 for travel up there and back and for this reason it probably aint gonna happen.

The other dilemma will be that if I do throw down the money to go up there I might decide to run the Resurrection Pass Race rather than Matanuska Peak. After all, I do have a title to defend at Resurrection Pass.