The course was relentlessly uphill to the turn around. Not vertical like a staircase, but steep enough that even a walking pace got us very winded and kept us in that state. Everything was great until I tripped and knocked both of us off our feet. After that I told her we need to stay a decent distance apart. Not sure how, but I ended up setting the pace for a while. One time I looked around and she was out of sight behind a tree or something. Looking harder, I tripped over a rock or a root or something. After that I focused on keeping my footing and keeping moving. Very aware I would have had a better time if I'd been following her, but she had an asthma attack or something like that without telling me about it.

The difference between the time above and the time recorded in red on the back of my bib was because Virginia started her watch when we crossed the starting line. Turns out we weren't quite the last runners to finish. My feelings about this are tempered by thinking that the woman who came in last was more interested in flirting with the sweep than finishing the race.