Backwards and Out of Order: HURT100 course preview

Running on the HURT course yesterday I managed to run it backwards and all wonky by mistake. It's actually easier to wonkify this course than you might think. The course map has three different legs on the 20 mile "Loop", each marked with a different color (on the map and during the race).  5 "Loops" makes 100 miles for the race.  When I ran it yesterday I was going by the map since the trail is not marked yet.  Something to know about the "loop" is that it is really more of a sort of convoluted "T" shape Runners run a series of out and backs, retracing their steps in several different sections on the "Loop".  The trail is super technical with a good deal of elevation gain, the website says 24,500 feet total.  What I find especially challenging about the course is that the trail changes continuously.  You can hardly get 100 feet before the maze of roots you've been navigating turns into slippery rocks through a muddy trickling stream.  Sounds like masochistic fun of the best trail running sort, no?

I managed to follow the wrong color on the map to begin with then looped back on another color and ended up running the entire part of the course that I previewed backwards and out of order.  I'm hoping that means the course will be that much more interesting on race day, I mean, I will be running it 5 times, do I really need to preview it ahead of time in the correct direction?!

This is what the rooty technical sections often look like.

Wild chickens

A really rooty section of trail

I'm moving so fast, I'm a blur

Although much of the course is through dense jungle, there are some nice sections with views of the mountains, city, and ocean.

 One of the Bamboo Forest sections:

Yeah...whatever....I've been in the mountains in Colorado, this is nothing

A little slop. this section isn't too bad because there aren't a bunch of roots and rocks thrown in there.