Toby Guillette: Athlete, Adventurer, Social Media Expert

Here's my recap of life leading up to the event and my race report from the inaugural King of the Hill: Iron Mountain trail race.

Recovery from King of the Hill: Mt. Woodson race was great after a chill weekend of camping and hiking in Jtree with friends. Then I shifted my focus to power endurance with ActiveX strength and conditioning workouts during the week and short trail runs every other day. On top of that, I maintained my running with a few really fun outings. The first was on the PCT with a solid crew of friends during a bout of rain. Check out Stephanie McCormack’s blog for a recap.



The following weekend I wanted to preview the King of the Hill: Iron Mountain course so I put together a group run with a bunch of friends and had what could have been the best trail run of 2011 so far. Conditions were incredible -- check out Paul Jesse’s blog post for a recap of our day.

Sycamore Canyon

Next, I telecommuted from the east coast for 2 weeks while helping out my family after my dad’s total knee replacement surgery. Being able to help out was great for the family and he made excellent progress while under my watch. Check out his knee:

28+ staples.. gnarly!

All the struggle will hopefully be worth it when he’s finally moving pain-free. It’s really made me appreciate the crazy advances in technology as well as my own good health. So I hit all my workouts while he was in PT, despite the less-than-ideal weather and conditions there. A special thanks to the Body Shoppe in Greenfield for allowing me to train at their great facility!

SkinFit base layers keeping me warm

So without further ado, here’s my report from race day at King of the Hill: Iron Mountain:

I was feeling super rested and relaxed on race day morning and weather was in the comfortable low-40's. After I took 2 elemental energy and 3 elemental powers at 6:25am, I headed out for a 10 minute road run to get a light sweat on before the start.

In typical Gut Check Fitness fashion, the race started with 10 burpees and we were off and running at 7am. I was immediately running in the top 10 and had crept up to 5th by the top of the 2nd climb. The whole time I was switching from running to power walking on the steep sections to keep my heart from going crazy -- easier said than done -- check out the elevation profile:

1,964' elevation gain in 8.5mi.

The guy in front of me took a wrong turn and being the nice guy that I am I looked up and yelled to him and ended up running into a Spanish Bayonet plant which punctured my quad in 2 spots. It felt like an acupuncture treatment gone wrong!

As Steph said, "the fucca yucca got you, huh?"

So there I was in 4th place when our route connected to the main trial junction challenge station for 10 pushups and 10 jumping knee tucks. As I got closer to the peak, the race leader, #2 and #3 headed down the mountain and I finished my bottle of Vitargo before the summit, where we did 25 mountain climbers before starting the descent.

I absolutely flew down the main trail at a controlled mid-7 pace all the way to the final 10-burpee challenge station before the finish line. The same 4 dudes (me included) finished in the same 4 spots as last race and held our series standings. I took 4th overall, 3rd in age group.

My coworker, Todd, took 3rd in the "Old Foggey" age group

Immediately after finishing I went straight to my car and drank a bottle of premixed Vitargo and a protein shake then got my calves massaged by the free masseuse. Smart recovery makes a world of difference. Since the race my body has been feeling great besides the puncture wounds, which were swollen and discolored for two days.

I'll also note that I was much closer to the guy who beat me last time -- who also beat me this time. With more distance I'm confident I would have caught him because I was gaining on him the whole time. That makes me excited for the next event, which is longer, but doubt it will change the series standings even if I do.

The final series event is October 22nd on El Cap which is arguably one of the hardest trails in San Diego and the race is the longest of the series -- 13 miles -- so I'll be ready to crush dreams that day for sure.



All things considered I feel satisfied with my performance and excited I've found a new nutrition solution that is working so far. Now time to switch gears for the next few months. Got some fun and different plans in the works!