Shafer Butte Endurance Run

It started with the phone going off at 3:50 sharp. No problem, except that I had gone to bed at midnight. Pulled myself together, grabbed my day pack, and headed out the door. Ready to chisel out another one for the record books.
Got to Fort Boise with Burger King burritos in hand, prepared my gear and did all the essentials on my checklist, the pre-race ritual. Inside the porta-john when I hear the word "GO!" and realize they've gone without me. Like the roadrunner, I dash out to catch up with the rest of the pack. A chilly morning, and I can see a hint of the daylight soon to come.
We hit the 1st aid at mile 11. Much more here than I expected, and load up on pringles and oreos. Scrumptious! After the aid, the route takes you up the Boise ridge road, through this small cabin community, and up towards the butte/Bogus Basin. 19 miles into the course, we hit our 2nd aid.After that, we ran through Bogus Basin Ski resort. Got to the North side, and had to scale down this ski run with approx. 1000' of descent. I turned my butt into a sled and had a hey day with the hill. Ran 6 more miles to the turnaround on the back of More's Mountain, and caught up with Steve Boyenger and his crew. We ran back to the aid station, much to our dismay with snow flurries on the way back! Paul Lindauer, Steve Boyenger Lori Bantekas and I ran together for much of the home stretch. We got to the last aid station (mile 41) and I was feeling really good, so I split off and ahead. Almost to the finish, I can see my parents standing in the road. Sprint to the tree, and I finish in 11:26. Quite a phenomenal race, I will definitively try to be back for it next year. Thanks to Frank Hanson and all the volunteers for putting on a great event!