 Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. I've never been to a race in New Hampshire before so that's exciting to race in a new state, new things to look at, new vertical to explore, and yes this is the US mountain championships. It's exactly seven miles, a little over 3,000 feet of vertical gain and loss, but it's up, down, up, down, up. It's not just straight up and then straight down, so it's going to be a different type of test compared to running up a 14er. So the warm-up is in the books, we're just stretching out here at the car, heading to the starting line in a minute and this is exciting. This is my brother and I's first US mountain championship race. We've never done this before so it's new to us so we're just trying to figure it out as we go. Have a good time along the way, race hard, eyes up, pump arms, quick feet, all that good stuff. Alright, remember what we talked about yesterday, all the mental, the mental side of running, that's what I'm remembering right now, right now, of racing I should say. Alright, come on now, come on. Finishing time at 55-44 is Joseph DeMorra, 54-47 Seth DeMorra. Thank you sir, appreciate it. Thank you, thank you. Good job guys. Thank you, sir. We're just leaving the course, we'll give you the recap later. Awards are done, we got to go catch a flight actually. Hey, how's it going? I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. How'd you do? Good. Yeah, it was a crazy course. Cool, man. Have a good trip back home. Alright, so we are going to a quick shower and then got to get back to Boston. And we got foam roll in the airport, right Joseph? Lots of foam rolling in the airport, don't judge it. The miracle of flight, it's a beautiful thing. Back to my house in Denver, Colorado. Flight from Boston to Denver four hours and boom! Here we are, ready to rock and roll in the kitchen. Not in the studio, decided not to set up the light. I'm just a little too tired for that so we're going to keep it a little simpler. But I do want to walk you through the race, walk you through the strategy, walk you through how it went, okay? And let's just start with the fact that this was my brother and I's first U.S. Mountain Championship race. I don't know that there's so many, you know, there's so many races out there to do. Ultra races, road marathon races which I'm getting ready for. And not to mention shorter mountain races like the new Cirque series that is a new development in the trail running world. So this U.S. Mountain Championship has just been a little, it's been hard to fit it into the schedule in the past. But no longer, so glad my brother and I and McKenzie went out to New Hampshire for the 2019 race at Waterville Valley Ski Resort. And all right, here we go. Let's dive in. First of all, I feel everyone pretty good about the five mental strategies that I told you about in yesterday's vlog. The five mental race strategies that I used to help me during a race. I think I hit on all five of them in actual race, both the emotional ones and the practical ones. Remember we talked about that? Where I reminded myself, okay, definitely, definitely the number one was eyes up, pump arms, quick feet. In fact, when my brother and I were running together, which we'll get to in a second, I actually mentioned to him on the climbs, like, don't be like, pump your arms, pump your arms. I'm always saying that. And I must say on the uphills, I felt very, very confident, very strong, especially from mile like three and a half to the top of the mountain. I just was like cranking, cranking, cranking. But we'll get that and get to that in a second. First of all, the race was seven miles. The top four qualify for the world championships in Argentina. So I knew that going into the race and I felt confident I could do that. Frankly, I was, but, but here's the thing. I am, I'm getting ready for the Amsterdam marathon. So I've had three weeks in a row of 100 plus mile weeks. And so this is not today's race was not my peak race for this next, you know, six to eight weeks. Like Amsterdam marathon three weeks from, well, when you're watching this yesterday is the peak race. Like that's the goal. That's when I will really taper. So my legs were not exactly fresh today, but they did feel strong. But I in the first, so the first mile of today's course was undulating hills, you know, up and down a little flat at times, even a little bit of downhill. And I must say I was not ready. It felt like a college cross country race. And I was not ready. You saw the clip where I think I was in like 10th or 12th place at about the one mile mark. It was a little before the one mile, one mile mark. And there was like a good 15 seconds of that first mile where I was like, huh, this might get a little interesting. I don't know if I have this, the leg speed to, to, to, to, to compete today. But I didn't panic. That was the key. I ran my race. I, I was confident. I didn't know, I won't say that, but I was confident that I was going to be able to do very, very well on the climbing. And sure enough, at the one mile mark, my brother was probably like 10 meters ahead. And I just started cranking and we just started working together for the next two and a half to three miles, just go. And it was again, it was up and down, up and down. So my quads might be a little wrecked tomorrow. That is for sure. But we went from, I went from about 10th place to sixth and that, you know, by mile and a half to sixth. And then probably up in, my brother and I, we were probably third and fourth by mile three and a half approximately. And then, um, so then there was a big long climb from about three and a half to basically, well, all the way to the top, which was about four and three quarters. I'm a rough estimate. And that is where I was just like, you know what, I love, I like, I don't mind the downhill, but I love long sustained climbing. And I knew, and so, uh, Joe Gray was in first Andy Wacker, my old CU teammate. We were teammates at the University of Colorado 10 years ago. Uh, he was in second and, uh, they were both, you know, look strong, but I, I was very confident I could start reeling, frankly, both of them in. And I think I did just a little bit as well. Joe, just a little bit, Wacker, I ended Andy Wacker. Uh, I ended up passing at about mile four. So anyway, I went from like 10th or 12th all the way up to second place by basically the top of the mountain, a little before the top of the mountain, about a half mile before the top of the mountain. So it's like, oh, oh, I know my strength. It's the climbing. And then at the top of the mountain, it's been, it was basically like two miles down to the finish. And sure enough, Wacker, Andy caught me. And so I need to practice over the next six weeks, a little bit of downhill running or just keep in mind at the world championships to really embrace the uphill as my strength and let it rip. Like I felt, I didn't feel fresh today because of the volume of training I'm doing right now, but I felt strong and that I could just, I could just, boom, just, I, I, I wasn't holding back, but there were moments where I was like, you know what? I'm confident I can, I can get top four. Amsterdam is in three weeks. Let's get this done. Get, get on that world championship team and then, and then move on from there. So anyway, Wacker passed me on the downhill. So I ended up in third place, so qualified for Worlds. My brother did great as well. He ended up in fifth place. So missed it by one spot, but he was, he had a great race. And you know, he's five, four or five years younger than me. So he's got plenty of time to, to make a Worlds team, which I bet he will do in the not so distant future. So and he was in good spirits. That's Joseph Barton for you, my brother, Joseph Barton. He just is like nothing gets him down. So kudos to Joseph, kudos to Andy, kudos to Joe Gray, who took first and kudos to David Sinclair, who took fourth, who passed my brother on the downhill as well. He's a strong runner from Vermont. So there's three Colorado guys in the top three, or yeah, in the top three, and then fourth was a gentleman from Vermont. So that was the race. I feel excited, feel ready to rock and roll for the World Championships in Argentina on November 15th. I do believe is the date, November 15th approximately. And that's where it's the World Mountain Running Championships, where nations, I'm like, I'm guessing Italy, Spain, China, maybe Canada, Australia. I don't know, like how many countries will be represented there, but it's pretty exciting. It's pretty exciting. So it's no time to, no time to rest. No, I will rest and, but you know, as I said, like Amsterdam is three weeks away. So that is the focus, that is the goal. And so I'm going to be, you'll see it on Strava, like I'm not done training. You like, I know, I know what I need to do in the next like, let's say 10 to 12 days to just sharpen up, speed up, stay fit, and get ready for those roads in Amsterdam at sea level on a flat course, if you know what I mean. So all right, everyone, question of the day. How was your race this weekend? I saw a bunch of people on Strava, ran Berlin, congrats. And by the way, but Kalei two seconds off the world record. Oh my goodness. We'll have to talk about that another day. I love you all. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching. We're going to toss it back to some old racing blogs where Wacker, Joe, Joseph, myself are just like, we're just getting into this. We're into this like good competitive spirit. And I love it. So I love you guys. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. And man, you're just the best. You're just the best. All right, thank you to work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.