Week in Review (July 28 - August 3)

Tuesday (18,933 steps) - Work in the office. No running today, just the regular walks. Big excitement was Pika spotting a coyote on our evening walk. Otherwise... nothing.

Wednesday (40,692 steps) - Work from home. Actually did THREE ten minute videos - the same "magic" three that I did years ago when I got thin. (Abs, upper body and lower body). North Table with Tyler and Mike! It was CRAZY windy on the mesa, but stifling hot everywhere else.

Action shot!

It was Colorado pint glass day at all the breweries, which is why we had picked going to North Table, we thought we would be able to get our glasses at New Terrain. However, they were already out. We went to Odyssey instead - aren't the glasses nifty? Ben met us there after work.

Thursday (19,337 steps) - Work in the office. Picked up cheesecake after work because apparently it is National Cheesecake Day!

Walk at the lake - although we only went for the "small" loop because it was getting late and I still had ALL my packing to do.

I was able to get all my packing done while Ben made dinner. Excited for a weekend out of town!

Friday (10,320 steps) - We were up relatively early (although not as early as if I had to work). Ariel and I took Pika for a walk while Ben started to load up the car. We actually got out right when we planned, at 9:00. The drive was, of course, VERY long. We stopped along the way for Pika to take a few breaks, and stopped to get tacos in Ridgeway. By the time we got to Heather's it was basically dinner time. We settled in and watched the humming birds and had some food.

This was soooo delicious!!

We took Pika for a walk on the trails behind Heather's house. So pretty!!

Finalized everything for our race, yes, a RACE.

Saturday (52,134 steps) - Bridal Veil 30K! 

After the race we sat on the patio and had a few drinks. I finally got an order of sweet potato fries. Once Ross finished we decided we should head out. Ariel had left with Heather, so it was just me, Ben and Pika left. Initially we were trying to find a bakery that had cupcakes, but the two in town that were open didn't seem to actually know what they had, and we got frustrated. Stopped at the grocery store and got some cheesecake instead. Heather made a delicious pan of nachos for dinner.

We sat on the patio and chatted for MANY hours. It's been a long time since we socialized with anyone "new."

Sunday (11,071 steps) - Our only plan of the day was a drive over Imogene Pass. We took Pika for a walk and waited for Heather to get off work so we could head out. We all loaded up into Josh's truck, which was quite an accomplishment with 5 adults and Pika. I had never been on Imogene Pass, and I was a tad surprised to learn it was basically a Jeep road. We probably never went over 10 mph, and the road was super sketchy. I also learned that Ben is almost cripplingly afraid of heights - especially if he is not the one driving. More than once he got out of the truck and walked behind because he felt more comfortable.

The views were truly amazing and we were able to see a bunch of sights that we had not seen during our run, and from across the valley.

We barely made it to the summit before the weather came in. We had about 6 minutes to take pictures, have a snack and drink a quick beer before we heard thunder and figured we needed to get off the mountain.

Sure enough, within a minute or two of getting back in the truck it started to rain, and quickly turned over into either hail or snow, we couldn't really tell.

We were still taking it super slow down the other side of the pass on the way to Ouray, and took time to get more pictures.

It is still "snowing" and I think that is why I'm squinting at the camera

We got passed by a group of ATVs, and not more than 5 minutes later, we came across an accident. The last vehicle in line had somehow rolled over. 

Both Josh and Ben have EMS and medical backgrounds and they quickly sprung into action. The vehicle had been driven by an elderly couple and they helped them out of the vehicle and did an assessment. The man was 88 years old (!!) and had hit his head and possibly fractured his arm. The couple couldn't leave their vehicle up there since it was not a rental and they didn't have a way to tow it down. Josh ended up driving it down and Ben drove the truck down. By the time we got to Ouray it was HOURS later than we planned. None of the restaurants in town would allow dogs so we had to keep going to Ridgeway. We got pizza and beer from Colorado Boy and then headed back to the house.

I took Pika for a quick walk since I knew the sun was getting ready to set. I managed to have a tree branch stab me in the foot, so there was some emergency medical work done. Ouchie. We stayed up VERY late chatting with Josh on the balcony.

Monday (13,163 steps) - Slept WAY later than planned. Guess that's what happens when you stay up until almost 2 am. Heather convinced us to go for an "easy" run (that wasn't easy). She is lucky to have such a diverse and beautiful trail literally in her backyard.

Heather made a ton of food, so  I had a delicious plate of curry and spaghetti squash before getting on the road for the VERY long drive home.

If possible, the drive home seemed twice as long as the drive there. We were all a little cranky and tired, but we managed to get home before 9. Instead of cooking, we picked up pizza. Longest shortest travel/vacation weekend ever (I know I say that after every weekend, but this seemed especially short).

Stats:

• 165,650 steps
• 29.2 miles run
• 30 minutes of cross training (!)

Sheep Mountain 50 Mile (Race Recap)

Fairplay, CO

Saturday, July 11

Ultra Marathon #14

Weather - Chilly at start, perfect

 

So the journey began immediately after I got off work on Friday. Since I have apparently lost the ability to read things when I signed up, I had missed that there was a mandatory meeting the night before, at 7:00 pm. So I had initially thought I would maybe just drive up in the morning for the race, but now I was scrambling to find somewhere to stay for the night since it's a two hour drive.

 

Elizabeth suggested I try Airbnb for an inexpensive place since I literally just needed a bed. I reserved a place that was only about 5 minutes from the start line, so it worked out nicely.

 

Anyway, traffic was wretched and it took over two hours to get there and I arrived late at the meeting. I picked up my packet, ate some pasta, and then headed to my Airbnb. I was in bed by 8:45, but I did not sleep well.

 

Race Day

 

Up VERY early. I was up before 5, long enough to get dressed and head to the start area. I had forgotten my wall charger for my phone so I wanted to sit in my car for a bit to get it as close to fully charged as possible. It was in the upper 30's, and I was wearing a long sleeve YMX top (like I did in Utah) under my Runner's Roost singlet and then had my long sleeve 1/4 zip on over that. I knew I would get warm quick, but considering that if everything went well I would be out in the dark I figured it was best if I had the long sleeve just in case.

 

Headed over to the start line at about 5:30. Checked in and then cycled through the bathroom line about 3 times. My stomach felt off. I talked to a few teammates and then at 6 we were off...

Race director is a sadist... check out the hill right at the start!

Since I was obviously undertrained not trained at all for this nonsense the plan was to just keep moving. I mean, it was "only" 50 miles.

 

Walked up the hill and then we were on dirt roads until the first aid station. It was a gradual uphill and I settled into where I would be the entire race - the very very back. I was tired, my stomach was angry and this felt exceptionally hard. There were a few downhill sections and for a while there were actually two people behind me. I had to stop around mile 6 off the side of the trail to "do my business" but then I felt a tad better.

 

 

At the first aid station I took a shot of whiskey. Which is crazy because the very thought of whiskey gives me instant gag reflex.

 

There was about another mile on the road, and then we crossed and finally were headed onto the trail. I was excited for this part!

 

 

 

 

This section was pretty runnable. I ran into Sherpa John (the race director) in this section and he asked me if I was having fun. I said yes!! He warned me the "rock garden" was ahead... what does that mean?

 



 

Oh. Rocks. Forever. So this part was NOT my favorite. This is also when the climbing started. There were sections that were REALLY pretty. That did not change the fact that I was quickly dying. The climb and the altitude were getting to me and I was taking frequent breaks. I got passed by the only two people behind me on the first climb.

 

Once I actually got to the barren top of Sheep Mountain I was really having a hard time. I would guess that I was by now about a quarter mile behind the people who had passed me only a half mile or so earlier. I took a quick selfie...

And then trudged on. Through more rocks. It seemed like it was NEVER going to end. Climb and false summit, and then climb again. I was checking my watch and it seemed like we had gained close to 3000 feet, most of that being after the first aid station.



 

Then FINALLY it seemed I had made it to the high point. There was some downhill but it was a bit technical and I certainly wasn't blazing down the hill. Got to the next aid station. Took another shot of whiskey. This time it was cinnamon flavored so it wasn't as terrible.



This section of the course was really pretty. And where the first of the water crossings were.



Thankfully, the course was very well marked as we were running through a field. The picture below shows a fairly well-defined trail, but not all sections were so clear. There were a TON of wildflowers, and I'm bummed that they don't really show up well in my photos.

 

 

 

Around mile 20 I ran into a guy who said he had gotten lost. I stupidly didn't look around and took his word for where NOT to go and ended up going about a half mile out of my way. The distance wasn't the worst part, it was the time trying to get enough phone service to get on the internet to look at the race manual. Womp. By this point I was already thinking it was going to be very tough to hit the time limit. We stuck together only for about 15 minutes. He hung back and I headed into where the next aid station should be and I never saw him again.



 

I was pretty tired and hungry when I got to this aid station, but there wasn't a great selection of food. I was pretty happy to hear that the next section was only about 4 miles and it was all downhill on paved road. I actually did pretty decent on this section and I thought I was doing well and making up some time. Thanks to 1). the course measuring long and 2). me getting off course a bit, my watch measured close to 27 miles by the time I got to the next aid station. Somehow I had it in my head that the course only had 7,000 feet of climbing, and by now I had done about 4500. So I was thinking... if this measures close to 52 miles (which is what the manual said the true distance was), I thought I *might* be able to get it done under the time limit if I had already done 2/3 of the climbing.



I grabbed an ice cream bar from the aid station, but my stomach did NOT like that so I ended up barely having any.

 

And by the way, I was completely WRONG about the climbing. The next section was called Breakneck Pass. PASS. So just by the name alone I should have realized that there was a lot of climbing. This section was even worst for me than the climb up Sheep Mountain. I had not seen anyone in hours on the course and I knew I was completely alone and that I was probably dead last. At the aid station they told me it was about 6 miles to the aid station, which the manual had at 32.75 miles.

 

I took about a thousand breaks (but no pictures) on this climbing section. At the pace I was moving and when I realized the course had 9,000 feet of climbing and that after I was done with THIS section that I would still have 3,000 (give or take) left to climb, I knew I was dropping. There was no way that I was going to be able to move fast enough.

 

I saw a volunteer on the side when my watch was about 33 miles and I almost lost my mind when he said it was still a mile to the aid station. AND THEN I found out that I "could" drop but the aid station was ATV access only so it would be a while, OR I could walk (downhill) to the next aid station 3+ miles away.

 

He said there would be beer (!!!) at the aid station and I could decide then. He told me I was, in fact, the last runner (others had already dropped), and he and another volunteer were walking with me and taking down the course markings.

 

Finally got to the aid station (34.3 on my watch) - and I did, indeed, get the promised beer. (And a damn good beer too!)

 

Minutes after arriving the wind picked up and it started pouring rain and hailing. So I clearly stopped at a good time. I was starting to get cold after I stopped moving and these amazing volunteers got me food and a poncho to stay warm. By the time the storm stopped, the ATV's had not yet left. I decided to walk down with another volunteer. Once I got to the next aid station, I was driven to the start/finish area and arrived sometime close to 7:30. HOURS after I had stopped.

I got a veggie burger and a beer and found out I had also won a $50 gift certificate to Runner's Roost! So, all was not lost.

I stayed around for a bit to eat and chat, and then started the drive back, not getting home until close to 10:00 pm.

Garmin Time - 10:57:13
Garmin Distance - 34.35 miles
Miles 1-5 - 13:24, 13:55, 12:47, 12:49, 14:54
Miles 6-10 - 17:00, 14:45, 16:57, 19:14, 26:02
Miles 11-15 - 34:45, 28:32, 18:06, 19:15, 15:38
Miles 16-20 - 17:07, 18:39, 15:00, 16:53, 18:13
Miles 21-25 - 21:54, 18:32, 17:32, 20:32, 15:02
Miles 26-30 - 13:26, 14:26, 19:51, 21:31, 34:42
Miles 31-34.35 - 24:07, 20:11, 22:45, 20:43, 23:22

Thoughts

• Holy moly, this was way harder than I expected. I was thinking, it's "only" 50 miles, and maybe that was part of my mistake. Clearly I need to work on hills as a 30+ minute mile is not great or competitive.
• The aid stations were pretty good, but at the later ones a bit more substantial "food" would have been nice. I normally don't have issues with sugar and candy, but I really wanted something... else I guess.
• The whiskey was a nice touch. But gross. I did appreciate the beer at the aid station I dropped at though!
• The race director advertises as a 50 mile, but then in the manual it says 52 miles. People that finished had it closer to 55 miles. That's a big difference. I don't think it would have affected how I approached the race, but still.
• An unbelievably beautiful course. And very well marked. Just too challenging for me in my current state.