I started the day early because I was going to help with parking and I knew the road conditions would be snowy. When I got to the Y, James and DJ were there warning people about the icy roads and arranging car pools. I chained up and gave Dave a ride to Fall Creek and we both did some parking help before the start. There was snow on the trail, but the weather wasn't all that bad, I didn't wear a windbreaker. At the start, I took the lead to guide the runners out of the campground and onto the trail. Then I stopped and let the group of fast guys go past. The first leg up to Capitol Peak, I went too fast to begin with and paid for it on the switchbacks. Got passed by a bunch of runners on the hiking part. Unfortunatly, Capitol Peak was socked in so no views this year. At the top I saw Kris who was dropped off up there to run after making a water run, and then Terry caught up to me and passed, only to almost take a wrong turn, then he stopped at the aid station to retrieve some clothes and never caught back up with me. On the way down, my legs felt like lead. Not a good sign since I was planning to do two laps. It was great to see Alexa and DJ at Wedikin cheering everyone on. But it wasn't going to be my day. I finished with the same time as last year and there was no way I could do another lap. After some of Jim's great soup and dry clothes, I spent the rest of the afternoon supporting Kris as she did a second lap sweep. I was disappointed I only did one lap, but I didn't fall, or hurt myself so all in all it was a good experience.

The day started off with blue sky before the start, what a welcome change from the last few days. Kris drove James and I up there in her new car and we listened to some Christmas exchange tunes. We all started together and stayed that way for about a mile till Scott Jurick and the Seattle running co. group came storming by and James hooked up with them. I then took a potty break and took over an hour to catch up with Kris. The sky turned overcast but the weather was perfect, I even ran without a hat on (I never do that), however we soon were running in snow. The Tiger mtn trail just goes up and up then up some more, there was about a foot of snow on the ground for most of the race. But the footing wasn't too bad and it was beautiful winter wonderland in some places. Felt like cross country skiing through the trees in the Cascades! Unfortunately, the viewpoint at the top was socked in so no views this year. I was at my limit for climbing on the last hill, but I followed the same guy for the last hour and we were both very happy with reaching the 3 mile downhill to the finish. James finished in 3:08 complaining about some soccer injury(Scott Jurick finished in 2:38), I came in at 3:22, only a couple of minutes slower than last year, so I was very happy and I didn't fall! Kris finished at 3:40 and we headed down to the Issaqua brew pub, where we met a bunch of people that were at Orcas last year and Big Steve, who creates a party whenever he shows up! This is a great fat ass and now that we know about the brew pub, a must do for next year!