Awesome run on Kitsuma

Finally met up with Adam Hill, aka Mad A, this morning for a wee bit of initiation on the Kitsuma Trail. This is one bad ass trail! It's an out/back run with 800' of climbing and 1,800' of descent on the way out. Then, the 1,800' of climbing on the way back is just brutal. Adam and I went nice and easy chatting all along on the way out getting to the turn around in a very comfortable 42:??. It's very deceiving going easy and chatting on the way out and not really paying attention to what I'm getting myself into on the way back.The steep climbing starts immediately after the turn around so, yes, the chatting ceases immediately! After the first steep climb, the climbing continued but at a little more reasonable grade, probably 10%. At this point my legs were feeling ok so I decided to take it hard the rest of the way back. The climbing never seemed to end in some places - I was in agony heaven. Felt strong and made it back in 45:44 to just dip under 1:28 for the run. This is a great TT trail, I can tell I'll be hitting every month or so to lower my times. I'll probably hit it again soon to try for a sub 1:25, which I think is a pretty reasonable first goal based on our out portion effort this morning. Then as my fitness gets better and I get to know the trail a little more I'll hope for shaving a few seconds each time out.