I took this one literally and dug deep into the ground to find a root with 3 ticks left of this 23 mile stage. As a result, I jammed/possible broke my right big toe and following my lead, JP subsequently dug up some roots himself and then found his left knee into a tree. Despite both eating dirt, we slugged out the last 5K and finished up our best day yet. More on that to follow.
This AM is was back to the early 5:30 start; time to make more trail donuts. JP and I were optimistic to put in our first solid day. There some good climbing and there wasn’t such steep descents so it should play into our strengths, better yet it lessens our current weaknesses. I also convinced JP to turn to OTC drugs in hopes of lessening his knee pain.
An additional driver this AM is the 2 other teams with which we are in our own little, “mid-bus” competition with. One team of dudes from Memphis who are ahead of us by about 10min and the other team, the “hobbit” brothers who are currently 5 min ahead of us. The hobbits seem to fittingly blitz the short stages while in stage 3, 24 miles, we were able to put 15+ min into them so we were expecting to get back in front of them today.
Alarm.
Race Clothes.
Warm Clothes.
Call.
Breakfast.
Finalize Race Gear.
Pack Bag.
AIS – Ass in Shuttle.
We were in a shuttle about 7:30 headed back to Red Cliff, yesterday’s finish, for today’s 8:30 start. We were able to chill in Mangos to keep warm prior to the race start. They had coffee, water and hot chocolate if we wanted it. I got to chat a bit with Gordy Ainsley – the godfather of ultra running. He was telling me about the shirt he was wearing, which later in the evening I would win in an auction with the proceeds going to Vitamin D research.
The race kicked off heading back up the dirt road that we finished on in stage 4. Instead of pealing off to head back up the riverbed we continued on Shrine Mountain Rd. It was an 8 mile pull up this road before we headed off onto single track. We settled into a pack of runners, the 80+ women’s leaders (incl. Nikki Kimble, the Memphis boys and an Open mixed couple (extremely upbeat couple, and she had some serious hamstrings!). On some of the flats we fell back from the pack, but where they walked some kickers, we continued to jog so we would bring them back in. I’m pretty sure that JP was feeling really good about a mile out from CP1. He was leading the pack. Possibly there was a sudden surge of adrenaline. We held with the pack all the way through CP1 and into the single track. At CP1 I reloaded the handie, took a salt tab and we quickly moved on.
In the single track, we originally started at the back of the train, but eventually moved up a few cars. At first we progressed pass the Memphis boys and eventually the open mixed couple, but by this time the 80+ women’s leaders had already made a gap. We continued to push up and down increasing the gap on the Memphis boys. We were feeling good and just continued to power even up climbs where in previous days we would have walked.
The single track continued to climb up and out of the woods as we made our way to the back bowls of Vail. The final climb up to CP2 was completely open with several switchbacks, thus we were able to gauge our gap (btb…”raw beats su*k” – JPR 11:46 PM 26Aug11). We burned through CP2, refilling handies and taking salt tabs as well as the quintessential very small cowboy! We were running on catwalk for a bit before carefully stepping down a 10ft rock drop off to some more single track and continuing to move West across the back bowls. Quickly we were back onto catwalk and headed towards Two Elk Lodge (where I worked winter break ’98).
Unexpectedly we were up and down on the catwalk for a few miles before turning off down the front side of Vail. As before we tried to minimize our walking up climbs. We were feeling good and we wanted to maintain a “steady grind”. It’s funny because we were in a different place physically today, we were actually both running well and matching each other’s skills. We were both pushing ourselves to the brink without blowing up so that we could hold our gap till the finish. It felt great. Where was this for the first 5 days? What would we have been capable of had we gelled like this since day 1?
We rode the catwalk up and over, dropping down to the front side of Vail onto single track. This is where the course would start to become tricky cutting across various ski trails and dodging ongoing construction at Vail. The advice given the night before during the stage 5 briefing is that you would need to “keep one eye up” looking for flags “and one eye down” on the ground, i.e., your footing. (I had not previously explained this but the courses were marked out each day with yellow tape, “flags”, which was similar to caution tape, but which read “Gortex”. The course was always “marked positive” This would prove to very challenging and at times unsettling, as we were not always sure we were on course.
I did most of the “driving” as we descended down to CP2 at Mid-Vail. We were calling out flags as we saw them to make sure that we stayed on course. The terrain was not too steep as we cut very wide switch backs across the front of Vail. The foot in some of the single track wasn’t ideal though as it tapered down like a V so that there was a camber on both sides. As we hit the trees in between trails there were a lot of exposed roots to be weary of. There was no one around us on the front of Vail. We couldn’t see anyone down below us or above us. We were not exactly sure where the Memphis boys were, so we continued to press as if they were tailing us.
The flagging had been great all week, but once we dropped over the front of Vail things were not as straightforward. There times that we were running for a few minutes without spotting a flag and thus we ran with a little unease that we were off track. They could have done a better job with the flagging here, but we successfully snaked our way down to Mid-Vail and CP2 without losing course. Again we tried to get through CP2 as quick as possible. I think that being used to triathlon, I was constantly in “get-in, get-out” mode; there was no time to waste. (After stage 6, in the final GC, there were a few places that were decided by less than 20sec. This could all come down to one CP.) We only had a little more than 5K to the finish, but the sun had started beating down on us so I topped up the handie with water. Note that all week the volunteers at the CPs were supah helpful. They normally had pitchers of Gu-brew or water taken from their coolers and were ready to fill your handie or camel. Also there was normally tons of nutrition, e.g., Gu, pretzels, chips, watermelon, bocks, gummies, oranges, bananas, etc.
Below Mid-Vail it was more of the same WRT the terrain. Push, Push, Push. Clearly our descending speed has dropped progressively every day, but we were descending as well as could be expected given the conditions of our feet and muscles. Not long after CP2 is when I decided to “Dig Deep”. I got good wood…on wood; I kicked a stump or a root directly with my right big toe. Man down. I can’t recall at this point if I was singing hymns when I did this, but the chances are high. I went sliding head first into down on the ground. I immediately got back up and started running again, albeit with a bit of a limp. WTF. We are going so well and this happens. I was furious with myself, but I was determined that we had to keep going; there was no time to think about the foot.
Not long after I hear a scuffle and then some yelling. I look back to see JP on his back grabbing his knee. Again WTF, we aren’t getting any breaks. JP tripped and put his left knee into a tree. He was rolling around on his back with a wicked grimace on his face and clutching his leg/knee. At this point I though, “Game over, he really messed up his knee”. I was worried that he dislocated it, but I helped him up and he enforced “Rule 5”. Sweet Chickens, we were rolling again. Nothing was going to stop us today. We battled our legs/feet for the last 3 miles and came in 7th on the day. The last mile was very technical and it was the only time that there were tenth mile markers from 1 mile to the finish. Dana and Colin were down at the finish waiting for us with old school poster board congratulating us!! It’s possible this is what helped JP turn around so quickly, despite the clear pain he was in after his battle with the tree.
Wow, what a day. We came in at 3hr54 and rightly put 20+min into the hobbits and grabbed 4 mins back from the Memphis boys. Not only that, but we finished ahead of several of the various division podiums. Some couples will always have Paris, but we’ll always have Stage 5.
I was not long hanging around the finishing shoot before heading over to the medic. This was my first real trip to the medic in 5 days other then for some kenisio tape for a blister on my left toe. (The sols usually result in a blister or two where with the Newtons blisters are not an issue.) I sat down on a cot and took off my shoe to find a pretty sore right big toe. At this point it there was slight swelling. The medics advised to get ice on it right away. I started with an ice bath, but then I wrapped it up. They did give me the option to go get an x-ray, but I didn’t really consider it. One of the guys there was flicking the end of my toe and as there wasn’t any noticeable pain he concluded that it wasn’t broken. Is that your final answer? I wasn’t too convinced of his methods or the diagnosis, but I didn’t think I was going to get any more help so I took the ice and a lift back (<5 min) to camp.
Camp was in a Ford football/soccer field and would end up being the best camp we had. The ground was level and dry. Leadville was equally level but was pretty wet when we were there. In camp, they arranged the tents in the shape of a heart, as it is apparently tradition in Vail to be creative with the set up. Previous years tents were arranged in the form of “Run” or “TRR”. I am not sure the reason for the heart, which seemed a bit weak considering our accomplishments so far. Why am I telling you this? Just to paint a picture or where our tent was.
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| Camp - Night 5 |
I went to the medic at camp first thing. They didn’t seem too concerned about my toe, which was a bit troubling. The girl that I was explaining my situation to didn’t even get out of her chair. She just suggested that I would shower first. As I was back before JP I grabbed my duffel bag and hobbled to the closest tent, which happened to be the bottom point of the heart (hence my previous tent setup explanation). It was off to the showers.
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| Busted Toe |
Post showers it was back for ice and I would put my foot up while eating and chilling in the Gore relaxation area (an area set up every night with lounging chairs and tons of snacks. After 20min ice time, I followed JP into Vail village where the US Pro Cycling Challenge TT stage start was. I got there just in time to see Big George buzz by. Then I hobbled to a Starbucks to grab some java, WIFI and put the leg up. Surprisingly I have not been having any coffee in the mornings and the only other time that I had coffee this week was post stage 2.
Dinner tonight was unreal. We were back with the Gourmet Cowboy and as this was their last night they normally went above and beyond. All true. They were grilling steaks, chicken, yams, peppers, onions and zucchini. In the salad bar, on top of the normal wide variety of options, they had a large couscous salad, bean salad and mozzarella, tomatoes, basal salad. Fantastic!!
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| The Grill - Vegetarians Need Not Que |
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| The Rabbit Bar |
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| My Grub - Plate 1 |
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| Desert - Loads of cookies |
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| Gordy, "Great Wave" and I |
Yikes, long post, but it was a wickid good day!
Sincerely,
Bitter Sweet, TJM
The Short:
Finish Time: 3:54:35
Place: 7th
GC: 9th of 21 (4:45:54)
Garmin: Go Get It
Distance: 23 miles
Gain: 4,200 ft
Max Elevation: 11,701 ft
Terrain: 8 miles dirt rd, 5 miles single track, 3 miles cat track, 7 miles single track/catwalk
Weather:
Sneakers: Newton Ms
Gear: Short sleeve tech (no compression), handie, mandatory kit, visor, breath-right strip
Food: 3 gels, Salt tabs
Fluids: Water (with ZYM), Gu brew, Water
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