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Lake Loop

Irrational rationality

Morning Scramble

Bancroft et al

1:34 up/2:28 RT 
I haven't tried that hard since Elbert in 2022. Stoked my knees held up! Mad respect to Joe Kennedy for a 2:17 - legend. 

I managed to run to the creek crossing and the section shared with the main trail, otherwise I power hiked exclusively. HR got pegged to threshold until Jim's grove where I managed to "recover" (at least that's what I told myself). I started fading hard right before cables and got up there only to find it caked on ice. I stopped for about 10 seconds to evaluate, and decided on the 5.5 crack to the left. I've climbed up that way 4 times now, but hadn't yet down climbed it. I personally like it much better than the standard cables. I proceeded to crawl my way to the summit, tagged the top, looked at the view for about 3 seconds, then headed back down. 
The downclimb was very secure, though I noticed blood on my thumb several minutes after - I think I shredded it on the fist jam. Put some music in and grinded down the talus. I definitely did not nail navigation until the Jim's grove trail, but was moving pretty well for how gassed I was. Once back on the trail, I did everything I could to hold on for the last 3 miles. I ran into a moose, which prompted a 10 second stop and diverted some of my energy to yelling so she would know where I was. I also stepped on a slapper and whacked the bajeesus out of my ankle. After redlining for much longer than I did in training, I made it back to the TH. 
It was cool to move fast and try hard, and I'm grateful my body was able to make it happen :)

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Justin Swantek

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Lake Loop

Irrational rationality

Morning Scramble

Bancroft et al

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