Wild West Relay 2009 Part II

We made our way north towards the Colorado-Wyoming border as the afternoon turned into evening. While Allison was running her second leg, the sun set (about 8:30). We waited for her at the state line to take a picture. ("Under the sign?" "You wish. There was no sign, and in fact the state line was represented by a cattle guard across the road." "Was that it?" "Pretty much. Except the road--which was a dirt road in Colorado--was paved in Wyoming.") As Amy began her leg (leading to the halfway point), the full moon rose, and with a mostly cloudless sky added to the surreal beauty of the Wyoming ranch land.

We met up with the second van in Wood's Landing late Friday night, then drove back into Colorado and on to Walden for some much-needed shut-eye. I am grateful that our van had its second sleep break during the night, but at the same time kind of jealous of the other van. I ran a relay leg at night a year or so ago (the Blue Planet Run), and it was a very surreal experience. I wish I'd had the chance to do that again. But as it was, we slept (again, some more easily than others) on a grassy field at Walden High School, resting as well as we could in the chilly Colorado mountain air. ("I had flashbacks to my Bicycle Tour of Colorado trip in 2005." "Really? Did you meet a cute blonde on this trip too?" "Actually several, but they were all faster than me.") We were up at 4:00 to get ready for our next (and final!) round of running.

Amanda arrived and handed off to John at 5:00 Saturday morning, so he started his last leg exactly 24 hours after starting his first. He had a nice easy downhill for 6 miles before handing off to me for my last. I started my last leg at about 6:00, just as the sun was starting to show itself in a spectactular sunrise that was, for me, one of the best parts of the whole race. After a steady 2-mile climb (over which I held a nice 10-minute pace), the road switched to an easy downhill mile before levelling off for the remainder.

With about a mile left, the road straightened out in front of me. Off in the far distance, I thought I could see the exchange point. That is, I saw a dark, unmoving mass next to the road which might have been a dozen or so vans waiting for runners. To keep myself from going crazy watching it grow closer by inches, I told myself over and over again that it was a mirage, that I was delirious due to a lack of any decent REM sleep over the past 26 hours. By the time I managed to convince myself that I was seeing things, I had gotten close enough to see that it was, in fact, the exchange point. I was about a quarter mile away from being done with running, so I dug as deep as I could to force myself to move as fast as I could. As with my last run, I crossed the exchange point at a full-on sprint, and handed off to Al to the cheers of the spectators and my teammates.

The rest of our final legs went very well. Al, Chris, Allison, and Amy all ran very strong, especially given how tired we all were. Allison, who had been dealing with blister issues for most of the race, turned in a very strong finish. I say that because of those four, she was the only one who had never done anything like this before (neither had John nor I, but we were done by this point). Al, Chris, and Amy had all done this race last year and at least had some idea of what to expect. ("To say nothing of an endless list of Things To Do Differently This Time. They sure learned a lot after that first experience." "For instance?" "Bring an extra sleeping pad, because you never know when some unthinking fool might snake yours.")

We met up with Van 2 about midmorning. It was a beautiful day, with clear blue skies and a nice cool breeze keeping temperatures down. Amy handed off to Bret, and we drove ourselves up to the top of Rabbit Ears pass to cheer for him at the next exchange. This is the Pass that inspired the race's motto, "Get Your Ass Over The Pass." While not as steep or quite as high as Sand Creek, it is a longer run by about a mile. More importantly, it's the last steep climb, 165 miles into the race as opposed to less than 80. It is by no means an easy accomplishment, and any runner who conquers it should be extremely proud. We were all proud of Bret, and cheered for him loudly when he handed off to Randy. Then John, Al, Chris, Allison, Amy, and I made our way to Steamboat Springs to wait.

Before going to the finish line at Steamboat Springs Middle School, we stopped to buy a 6-pack of Fat Tire and enjoy some time just sitting, all six of us, and thinking about what we had and were about to accomplish. Again, for half of us, this was something completely new. We were justifiably proud of all that we had done.

At the finish area, we got some much needed food. ("Mmm...burgers.") We also had a chance to meet up with several other Runner's Edge friends who had formed their own teams. I also spent some time chatting with some of the other runners on other teams I'd met over the weekend. ("Would that be those women you mentioned earlier?" "Among others, yes. Now mind your own business.") At just after 3:30, Amanda and Randy came into view, running along the track. As is tradition at this race, the rest of us joined in to run the last hundred yards or so and cross the finish line as a team, ending the adventure some 34 hours and 33 minutes after starting.

Many thanks to Al, John, Chris, Allison, Amy, Bret, Randy, Alyse, Jen, Lana, and Amanda for participating, encouraging, sharing, and everything! This was a heck of a thing to do, and we did it! I'm so glad to have been part of it!

(PS--as you can tell, this blog focused on my van's travels and my running in particular. But that was only half of the race. Although I didn't think to ask anyone in Van 2 to take notes, Amateur Photographer and Blinkybutt(TM) Bret took several dozens of pictures of his van's experiences. To see them, click here.)

See also:
Chris's Pictures
Jen's Pictures
Randy's Pictures


Official Time: 34:33:11
Total Races: 16
YTD Race Miles: 128.8
YTD Total Miles: 794.1
Hours of Actual Sleep During the Relay: ~5

Wild West Relay 2009 Part I

("Wake up! You promised people you'd have the WWR blog up today!" "What time is it?" "Four o'clock in the afternoon! You've been asleep all day! Gotta get cracking!" "All right, but first I have to eat. I'm starving!" "Fine. Go get a burger." "Burger, nothing. I'm so hungry I could eat the whole cow!")

Yes, friends, it's time for another epic tale, this time of the Wild West Relay, a 200-mile adventure relay race that starts in Ft Collins and ends in Steamboat Springs, after wandering through Roosevelt National Forest in Larimer County, up over Sand Creek Pass (elev 10, 269 ft), into Albany County in southern Wyoming, through Medicine Bow National Forest in Jackson County, Colorado, and up and over the Continental Divide at Rabbit Ears Pass (elev 9573 feet). I had the extreme pleasure of running with a team made up of Runner's Edge of the Rockies members Al, Bret, Randy, John, Amy, Alyse, Jen, Lana, and Allison, Chris, and Amanda. The twelve of us divided into two vans. This allowed half of the team to drive ahead on the course to rest while the other half ran, and leapfrog along the way so that each person would run a total of three of the 36 legs of the relay. ("Some teams had only six people, each of whom ran six legs. One person actually ran the entire race by himself!" "Wow. And I thought you twelve were crazy.")

	Van 1		Van 2
1	John	7	Bret
2	Doug	8	Randy
3	Al	9	Alyse
4	Chris	10	Jen
5	Allison	11	Lana
6	Amy	12	Amanda

John started us off in Ft Collins at 5:00 am. After a while the rest of us drove along the course, cheering for John and all the other runners as we passed. ("This became something of a tradition for us, cheering for all the runners as we drove along to each exchange point." "I'm sure they all appreciated it." "The funny thing was, at first our cheers were enthusiastic and coherent: 'Way to go,' 'Good job,' and that sort of thing. By the end they descended to a kind of unintelligible 'Grahraun!' kind of noise, and we weren't doing it all the time." "Didn't care any more?" "No, we were just exhausted.")

All too soon John was finished with his run and I was off. Actually, John was the first person to reach the exchange point, which meant that we were in the lead. ("Awesome!" "Yeah, well, it didn't last long.") I set off at a very aggressive pace to start, but was passed by a runner about 0.3 miles into my 3.9-mile leg. Still, I maintained a sub-9 minute pace for the entire run, and in fact each mile was faster than the one before. ("That, also, wouldn't last.") The sun had risen by the time I started but stayed, mercifully, behind some low-hanging clouds which kept the temperature nice and cool. My first leg was very quiet and peaceful in the early dawn. There was very little traffic and some gentle, easy uphills.

I finished my 3.9 miles in just under 34 minutes. After that I climbed into the van to rest. We made our way along the course, with Al running after me, followed by Chris, then Allison, and then Amy. At each exchange point, we would wait for a while, then drive along slowly, cheering for runners as we passed them--especially our own--and then waiting ahead at the next exchange point. I particularly enjoyed seeing members of the other teams again and again at these exchanges. It was kind of nice to be able to check in with them. It was a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and really feel part of a community. ("A community of crazy people!" "Be that as it may...")

We got to the first van exchange at 10:05. It was now Van 2's turn to run, and the six of us in the first van had a chance to eat some real food. ("A church at the exchange point was serving homemade waffles. Allison, Chris, and I agreed they were hands down the most delicious waffles ever." "What?! Even better than Waffle House in Ft Collins?! I can't believe that!") After cheering for Bret--first runner for Van 2--and encouraging the other half of our team, we drove ahead to the next van exchange at Chapel Pines near Red Feather Lake to get some sleep and wait for Van 2 to arrive. Rolling our sleeping bags out on a nice grassy knoll, we managed to catch a few hours of sleep. Before we knew it, Van 2 had arrived ahead of our last runner, Amanda. So John got ready to begin his second leg of the relay--a very hard uphill climb of five miles. When Amanda arrived, John took off. We followed after a while, still cheering for the runners as we passed.

While we waited at the next exchange point, I spent some time reviewing my next leg. Of course I'd studied it pretty carefully in the weeks leading up to this, trying to psyche myself up for it. But now that it was here, and having driven up along John's climb, I was getting plenty nervous. I was facing an 8.5 mile run that would start downhill for the first 2.25 miles before climbing from just below 9200 feet to the top of Sand Creek Pass at 10,269 feet, 4 and 1/2 miles later, followed by a quick descent for the last 2 miles. I'd thought I'd be able to handle the nearly 1200 foot elevation gain if not easily, at least without having to walk. Now, I wasn't so sure.

When John arrived, I set off. I made good time on the initial downhill, holding myself to about a 9:15 pace for the duration. When I started to climb up, I slowed to about 11 minutes, a pace I hoped I could hold for the rest of the uphill. ("When our van passed by me, they sang some of my Theme Music at me." "What's your Theme Music?" "Superman the Movie." "I should've known.") But as the climb grew steeper as the road wound its way up, my pace began to slip. To keep my focus, I began reciting Shakespeare monologues in my head--Hamlet, Julius Caesar, MacBeth, even some of Portia's "Quality of Mercy" speech from "The Merchant of Venice." I also spent some time chatting with other runners. I ran for about a half mile with Kevin, who was a member of a wedding party: two of his teammates were getting married in Steamboat on Sunday. I also ran with Mark, a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy and member of Team NF, a charity team supporting neurofibromatosis research. Mark and I paced each other for a solid mile before I pulled ahead just before the summit of Sand Creek.

I'm happy to say that I walked less than a mile of that uphill. I took 7 or 8 walk breaks, each about a tenth of a mile, on the steepest climbs. They were good breaks, because they gave me a chance to reset my form and renew my focus. When I started downhill, I picked my pace up again to about 9:00. As I rounded a corner and saw the exchange point and my teammates about a tenth of a mile away, I gave a shout of triumph. Suddenly I heard a runner coming up behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Mark closing on me fast. As he pulled alongside me he said, "If you wanna beat me, I'm gonna make you work for it." Before I knew it we were in a full-on sprint for the finish. As our respective teammates and the volunteers and other waiting runners cheered, we handed off to our next runners at exactly the same time! It was awesome.

Next: The night shift and Big Finish