Today was up and down in every sense. We started in the cold (like, see your breath) morning at 8:00 and within 50 steps I knew I was in huge trouble. For my senior year in high school, I trained hard all winter long - outdoors in New England. I often would only wear shorts, never with any regard for the health of my joints. That changed one morning when I hopped out of bed and hit the deck, both knees in awful pain. I became the first 17 year old diagnosed with arthritis I had ever heard of. Fast forward to this cold morning 14 years later, with stiff legs and stiff joints, that extremely familiar pain came back in full force.
So let's recap. A half-dozen blisters, an ankle that was very swollen and also quite stiff / immobile, and now throw in two bad knees. Awesome.
The stage did not look good for us. It started with a huge climb, then some rollers, followed by a steep descent to running in a flowing river bed and finally a short 2 mile drop into Red Cliff. Trevor was still a wild card, and typing this in the tent at night, I still don't know how he was this morning. I was going faster than he on the climb, but not by much. All I know is the climb that started at 2 miles was unreal. Steeper and longer than Hope Pass, it tore us up. All 3 teams fighting for 9th, 10th, and 11th were at one point within 10' of each other after racing for an hour+. It was exciting to be competing even if the race was playing out at 2mph. Unfortunately the top of the climb would be the last time we would see them prior to the finish. My knees just wouldn't let me pound away on the downhill and we lost a lot of time as I did my best, but the steep chutes really caused a lot of pain. Most trail runners fly down the hills; it has been our weakest aspect this week and we have lost a lot of time as a result. After asking numerous passing teams for an Advil, I finally struck gold with Ed from Canada. Between popping that 1 pill and cold creek running, my legs were awesome at check 2, with only 2.5 miles remaining. It felt so nice to be running pain free, and fast. For an admittedly terrible video of running down the creek, see here. We closed in the low 7s, flying into the finish together.
The 11th place team finished 7th on the day, the 9th finished 9th and we finished 10th. One of the top teams had an accident out on course and DNF'd. At first it felt cheesy to slide into the top 10 because of someone's bad luck, but when running 120 miles in 6 days, luck is very much a factor in play. It hasn't been roses for us, but we've persevered and I am proud of that. We've earned our spot in the top 10, that's for damn sure.
A few more notes from today:
- Trevor was really good at keeping me distracted on the steep slopes before the creek. My knees and toes were in a bad way and having something to talk about was very good for me. Thanks bro.
- As we went up Hornsilver Mountain, possibly the longest, steepest thing I've ever been up, our competitor Eric from Hypoxic Hound Dogs indicated to his partner that he was out of water. I had a good 6oz. of Gatorade left in my hand-held and offered it to him. He was surprised at first and shook me off, then a few minutes later expressed gratitude. We talked about it post-stage and he was again grateful for the offer. I just don't feel like this is the kind of race where you put your elbow into someone's chest, or close the door on high-speed corners. We're all out here suffering like mad, and yeah we want to beat each other, but we don't want others to get hurt, dehydrated, or anything else detrimental. It's just not like that out here.
- I would like to find an easier way up Hornsilver Mountain and come back here. The view of The Mount of the Holy Cross, one of my favorites in Colorado, was outstanding. Too bad it was so damn hard to get up (and down) there.
- Fun song of the night during the slide show: When I'm Up by Great Big Sea. Check it out, pretty cool.
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