Lighthouse 20 miler

Things went so well at my latest race. The lighthouse 20 miler is held on a ranch north of Blanco Texas. The course is fast with most of it on a totally exposed jeep/gravel road, I made a comment to rick that it wasn't very scenic and he pointed out that the vistas from a top the hills were nice. They were. I think Rick was trying to tell me to "Look and you will find beauty."
The race began with great conversation while running with Rick and Cara. I thought this would last a few miles then we would part ways as the run went into the late miles. We stuck together through the first loop of ten miles sharing interesting stories. On the second loop it was Rick and I. At one point I thought I would slow down but Rick encouraged me to keep up the approximately 10mm pace while walking every single incline no matter how short. This worked well and led to my first negative split ever in a trail race.
Rick and I came in together in 3:25:20. He did officially beat me by 20/100 of a second though.
It was fun!