The highlight of the second leg of the Triple Crown of Running was passing teammate Sean O’Day. This was made possible by virtue of the new course for 2014 which involved an outer and Inner loop. I passed Sean at the merge point of the two loops as he was finishing up the inner or second loop, probably a good 25 minutes ahead of me. It didn’t take him but a few seconds to pass ME but nevertheless I reveled in my fleeting glory. It’s not every day that a plodder such as I gets to enjoy the thrill of passing an ultra marathon runner. Yeah, okay, it was a cheap thrill. I did experience a first after the run. For the first time in my life I was called into the doping tent. Apparently they couldn’t believe someone could possibly run that slowly. “Dude,” one said, “when you crossed the chip-tracking mat at the 4-mile mark our counter started to run backward!” Or as one of my teammates suggested, “They probably thought you were using Performance REDUCING Drugs.”  Now that the suspicion has been raised I feel added pressure to finish the Ascent before nightfall. Good show by teammates, 3 of them winning awards in their age groups. Props to all of you, proud wearers of the Purple and Gold.