Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

It’s only natural we kick off the racing portion of our photo set with the Mountain King himself, Levi Shirley. As I hiked from on top of the meadow, miles in from the start line, I was fortunate enough to run into course designer Pier Acerni, who was speeding off making last-minute course checks prior to the start of Run 2. I hitchhiked down to the valley below, and low and behold the glory of a rock infested dry river bed lay before me. I sat ready, knowing Levi Shirely would be first to kick things off. In roughly 7 minutes from the start, Levi came speeding through in a manner only fit for a king. He would complete this 2nd of 4 runs with the fastest overall time yet, 43:37. This ended up being the 2nd fastest time of the entire event, beaten only by himself the very next day (Run 3, 38:02).