Not often I register race-week & NEVER EVER a double.  Until now.

Plan A.  Motor after-work, mountain hotel, Saturday marathon, interstate-commute to Wyoming.  Reality.  Room-search in Colorado ski country proved crazy expensive (even in September).  Plan B?  3am alarm.  Road-trip!  Run shorts, hydration vest, layers & a V8.  Who doesn’t dig early morning tomato?  LOL>

I-70 West.  Denver ⇨ Continental Divide ⇨ Breckenridge.  Same east-west where all the great hikes happen.  Same Silverthorne exit where Ash & Tom married two years prior.  Notta lotta snow on the peaks this late in summer – but WOW, whatta sunrise!  Nothing/nowhere/anywhere, our Rockies.  Stunning.  Always.

South Gondola parking.  20-minute bus ride.  Start temp just above freezing.  Race elevation 10,000ft.  Lodgepole pines, thin air, sun now a-blazing.  First couple miles like a REVEL event – straight DOWN.  But unlike REVEL, whole lotta climb thereafter.  UP 800ft, down next mile.  Another push UP, lungs burning/O2 searching.  Colorado-native no big deal, right?  Reality.  BIG elevation jump – my backyard @ 5500ft vs today’s 8800ft average.  Past month of flat-world running also done me no favours.

High-altitude sunshine.  Muy bueno scenery.  Hills?  Oh mama.  That last climb at mile 22?  Mountain folks are crazy tough.  No crocodile tears, no regret.  5-hour finish, all FIGHT, NO FAIL 💪

Gas station cola & a bag of salty chips.  Journey on.  Day One.

Texted a friend – please find/contact the Race Director in Cheyenne, gonna miss bib pick-up.  Burning trailer near Georgetown.  Highway accident.  Need a Plan B.  6pm Wyoming arrival (thanks Larry).

Hotel, shower, sleeps.  Sunday 5am at the Depot (RD bib meetup).  Body tight/achy after Saturday’s all-day hill repeats, skin still radiating sunshine.  But — I’m here.  Wyoming.  THIRD time this year.  Cap off, National Anthem.  Cowboy country & I LOVE it 😊

Day strategy.  Hit it hard first Half.  Walk/run after mile 15.  Elevation similar to home, easy comfortable course.  Tunes early.  Notta lotta runners.  Several miles on an empty military base.  Hill at marker 9 or 10…but not Breckenridge hilly, just an incline.  Day 2.  Perspective.  Push, push, push.  2:05 first Half.  Sun high, getting warm.  Legs like lead.

Walked mile 14.  Called it two miles later.  Sorry Cheyenne – ya deserved better.  Mentally not plugged-in for a March-of-Dimes walk.  Montréal next week, Europe week after.

17 miles.  Check, done.  Colorado HOME by noon.

Lick my wounds, run another day.  Well maybe…in two or three other days.  LOL>

BRECKENRIDGE ROAD MARATHON

SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

 

35 K R HAGA 05:23:41 M Louisville