I arrived last night at 10PM into Denvah from Dublin with a layover in Chicago. Only mode of transport that I didn't take was boat and camel. Car to train station, train Cork to Dublin, bus from train station to airport and two flights. Door to door it was about 26hrs. JP collected me at the Denvah airport and then we had a few hrs to his friends "ski lodge" (read: several times larger then the house I grew up in) in Silverthorn, CO. It was fantastic to find head to pillow.
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| My pre-race suite! |
Mind you, I probably would have found a couch luxury after the long trek here, but I had a big, plush bed. Normally there would be no problem sleeping, but considering we were at 8800ft, I definitely found myself gasping for breath even sleeping; brushing my dents required significant effort! I also fit in 4-5 bathroom breaks in the span of 7hrs. I was horsing in the water since getting landing. Starve a cold, feed a fever, drown altitude!
There was a whole crew of peeps staying here this weekend. Everyone else was doing the Warrior ash Sat and Sun. We were up relatively early today, about 8. Breakfast, chit-chat with the others then as they went off to find some mud, JP and I did our first run together in about 7 months. No problemo. We were matching stride for stride! We did about 4 miles and mixed in a few strides. I was certainly breathing heavily considering the ave pace.
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| View from the back deck - wish I brought my clubs |
After cleaning up we were off to the grocery store for some grub and toiletries for the race. Back to the house to unload and then it was off to Breckenridge to pick up Greg and Amy, RedFern. Previously Greg had posted in the TRR forum that he and his wife Amy needed a spin to Buena Vista on Sat. As JP knew that we were headed by Breck on the way to reg he said we pick them up. Good choice. JP and I would soon become RedFern groupies.
It was an hour and a half or so to Buena Vista (BV) through some fantastical scenery, which was probably pretty run-of-the-mill to the locals. I have always loved Colorado. Something about the shear mass and raw beauty of the mountain backdrop that routinely amazes me.
As we got into BV there was definitely a buzz around. We queued up for registration, signed our waivers, got our race chips and numbers and of course our swag. Yikes, you could carry bodies in these duffel bags. Number 19; Team E.L.F.S.
Next up was dinner in the local elementary school followed by over all race brief and a brief for Stage 1. There was a little mixing and mingling and naively I was looking around sizing up our competition. A lot of these suspected open mens teams look lean and fast, but I was confident. The quantity and quality of training in last 16 weeks didn't matter in Stage 0; I was ready to race.
After dinner and the race briefing we headed back to Silverthorn to pack and get some Z's before driving back in the morning to BV. But not before a stop at the drive through liquor store!
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| Gotta Love America |
Below is the swag that we got at reg. Short sleeve tech shirt, duffel, towel, Nathan handie, tech hat, shoe dryers, gu, sports wash, salt tabs, drink. Very cool swag
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| Registration Swag |
Before Enter Sandman, I packed my duffel for the AM, including all my nutrition for the race and post race. THANKS Honey Stinger for sponsoring us. They gave JP and I a $150 each of product for the race so I stocked up on my regular favorites: gels, energy bars and waffles. I also grabbed some protein bars for post race.
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| Honey Stinger Nutrition |
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| Ready to Load the Duffel |
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Enter Sandman about 10. Up at 5:30. Brushing dents was slightly less effort tonight, therefore I've clearly acclimated....
Sincerly,
Fired-up, TJM
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