This time my colleague who organized the group I joined, had recruited folks from various parts of the country, with the result that a bunch of those didn't cooperate very well and we ended up with about half as much break time as usual and with one more person in our van. But well, sleep and legroom are overrated, anyway.
I had flown out a few days earlier, hoping that I could adjust a little to the elevation and maybe do a couple of training runs as I hadn't run since my marathon. Denver itself is quite nice but the main reason it's so amazing is its proximity to the Rocky Mountains with their breathtaking beauty. It does look a lot like the Alps, however, a thousand times bigger. Like almost everything here. Especially the food portions...
Eventually, I drove up to Copper Mountain, a ski resort at about 9,000 feet elevation where the race should begin at 6.30am on Friday. I met the team for the first time the night before, everyone but the first van, the four guys who were supposed to run the other 5/12 of the race, causing us to spend way more time driving than resting while they were able to rest longer and, consequently, run faster and decrease our resting time even more. But well, at least they showed up at all exchanges and removed the decorative dicks they had drawn on their van which had caused some complaints from other participants. I really don't understand why Americans get freaked out by naked body parts but are perfectly fine to see heads explode after being shot by a crazy guy who bought his gun at Walmart, no background check required.
Anyway, our first runner was on the road and the race had officially started for us. The first and second runner each gained about 1,000 feet elevation up to the pass where I'd begin my first leg. At 10,622 feet (3.200m). I thought that it couldn't be too bad. Given that my roughly 10 miles would be just downhill. So I took the baton and started running. Until, after 20 seconds, I had to run up a little hill to get out of the rest area where the exchange was located. It felt as if something really heavy had just sat down on my chest. Breathing was hard and I started seeing stars. But, fortunately, once it went downhill it became a little easier. And incredibly beautiful.
I sent a few happy "thank yous" to my fellow runners who, I don't know how they did it, had taken us up that mountain that I was allowed to run down now. Only about 2,000 feet down but still. Everything was lush and green and it was warmer than expected. The temperature difference between sun out and sun behind clouds and the effect on how hard/easy it made the running was surprisingly big. I got a few incredulous looks from people in cars and trucks who drove up the mountain. Seeing a bunch of folks running there didn't seem to be a usual sight. There were two more inclines that took the wind out of me. And I was glad that I hadn't been the one to run up to that elevation.
As I had followed the advise to drink as much as possible I noticed at mile 7 that my two liters were almost gone. But I thought I had only 2.7 miles left so I wasn't particularly concerned. When I got close to where I expected the van to be I started running faster and finished the last drop of water. But I didn't see the van anywhere. The exchange wasn't marked so the teams were able to pick a spot along a two mile stretch. And my team picked the farthest spot... I tried to keep running but eventually, I had to give up and call them to pick me up. No water and no more grains to give. But happy that I had been given this incredibly beautiful stretch to run.
Now I would be able to rest until after midnight when my next leg was scheduled to begin. Right when I got in the van, the rain started. Lucky me just finished in time to not get soaked. The next exchange was in Vail, the exclusive ski resort I had only known from the times when my mother watched winter sport competition on TV. Despite all the big resorts Vail has managed to remain a little quaintness until the next Porsche or the couple dressed in Armani appear around the corner. The sweaty bunch in the colorfully decorated vans didn't really fit in very well.
Once our last runner was done, we realized that we had less than three hours until it would our turn again. So we had to decide between sleep and food and, naturally, went to get dinner. After dinner I was particularly happy as I had gotten a double portion of a kids plate of simple pasta with tomato sauce instead of the adult plate drowned in heavy cream (YUCK!). And, my thermos was full with freshly brewed hot coffee. I didn't really sleep before I was up shortly after midnight.
Ever since the security briefing I had been a little concerned. The area we were going to run through during the night was bear territory. They told us, not to worry. We should just walk towards the bear and try to appear bigger and make loud noises and the bear would run away. Sounds easy. We should, however, avoid running away from the bear because that would make him chase us. What scared me was that they couldn't give us a good answer for what to do in case we didn't see the bear while running and he saw us running away from him... The handout wasn't very helpful either. It said that in case where a runner encountered aggressive wildlife the team should get him back in the van as soon as possible. Well, the trail was mostly obscured from view from the freeway and only accessible every other mile and cell service was spotty to nonexistent. You can imagine how I felt when I left the exchange to run about 5 miles through the dark right into "no cell service but lots of bears area".
Despite my fear I stopped a few times, switched off my headlamp and looked up to the abundance of stars that was visible in the absence of any lights but some bobbing spots from my fellow runners' headlamps and the cars. Milky Way in all it's beauty. One of the vans was fully covered in lights and looked very much out of place, kind of like a space ship or an art car at Burning Man. I can only imagine what people in the other cars must have thought. I kept checking left and right for bears but the only things I found were fresh pieces of bear poop on the trail. I made sure to keep in sight of the next runner in front of me. So that I only had to outrun them, not the bear. But no bear showed up. The run, while only half as long as the previous, seemed harder as there was no downhill just flat or slight inclines. And the elevation was still sitting heavy on my chest. About a mile from the finish line, I scared myself to death. The trail led trough an area covered in trees and bushes and when I stepped on a few dry leaves I was sure a bear had just jumped out of the bushes and was about to attack me. I don't have to mention that, despite being tired and exhausted, my last mile was my fastest.
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| Running in the dark |
Despite my fear I stopped a few times, switched off my headlamp and looked up to the abundance of stars that was visible in the absence of any lights but some bobbing spots from my fellow runners' headlamps and the cars. Milky Way in all it's beauty. One of the vans was fully covered in lights and looked very much out of place, kind of like a space ship or an art car at Burning Man. I can only imagine what people in the other cars must have thought. I kept checking left and right for bears but the only things I found were fresh pieces of bear poop on the trail. I made sure to keep in sight of the next runner in front of me. So that I only had to outrun them, not the bear. But no bear showed up. The run, while only half as long as the previous, seemed harder as there was no downhill just flat or slight inclines. And the elevation was still sitting heavy on my chest. About a mile from the finish line, I scared myself to death. The trail led trough an area covered in trees and bushes and when I stepped on a few dry leaves I was sure a bear had just jumped out of the bushes and was about to attack me. I don't have to mention that, despite being tired and exhausted, my last mile was my fastest.
With impeccable timing, the county had decided to do some construction on the highway we were running along. This would have caused us to take at least an hour or two longer to get through our legs as every second exit was closed if it hadn't been for our daredevil driver who mad a few u-turns and got us to our resting point at least two hours early so we could finally get some well deserved sleep. Sleeping on the floor in a gym with hundreds of other runners isn't really something I thought I'd still be doing at my age...
We got about two hours of sleep when we had to get up again to meet the other team at their final exchange. And we got on our last part of the trip. Only a few more hours and we would arrive in Aspen, the finish line. My leg was short with a nasty hill and a long stretch of no shade that made me regret my decision not to bring water. Two other runners, however, were about to run their hardest legs. Altitude, elevation gain, and the heat mad sure that they had to give the last amount of energy available until, finally, around 2pm on Saturday, the last runner made it across the finish line, sweaty and burnt but happy triumphant, given that he'd passed the owner of the illuminated van who, as well as the van in the bright daylight ruined the magic we had built up during the night, imagining the occupants of the van while following him through the dark.
Done, roughly 200 miles. Between 5,000 and 10,600 feet. 11 runners, two vans and not enough sleep. And yet, I can't wait to do it again next year!
