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