Ring, ring..."Yeah, I'd like to reserve a room." "Sorry, none are available." "Really?" "Yeah, it's graduation weekend."
Oh no! I had waited too long to reserve a room in Fort Collins for Quad Rock, and now I was stuck finding a hotel as close to the race as possible. I ended up getting one in Loveland, which was still a 40 minute drive, but that is better than the 2 hour drive from home for a 6am start. Thank goodness. 50 miles is a long way and I certainly didn't want to start with a long drive.
Oh no! I had waited too long to reserve a room in Fort Collins for Quad Rock, and now I was stuck finding a hotel as close to the race as possible. I ended up getting one in Loveland, which was still a 40 minute drive, but that is better than the 2 hour drive from home for a 6am start. Thank goodness. 50 miles is a long way and I certainly didn't want to start with a long drive.
Ready to go!
My wife and I headed up after work and got some dinner. We hit the hay as early as possible for the 4am wake-up call to get to the race. We woke in the morning to freezing drizzle and fog. What?!?! I did a white knuckle drive the back way into Horsetooth, barely able to see the front of my hood through the fog. But we made it safe, parked, and got to the start line.
The fog and sleet continued to fall, albeit only lightly at the start. So, I decided to start with my jacket to try and keep as dry as possible. We all were ready and off we went. I went out relatively quickly and we all made our way down the dirt road a couple miles and then onto the single track. Then we started climbing. This race has a solid amount of vert, and the start of the first climb told the whole story. I knew I was in for a tough day. At this point I had to remove my jacket so I didn't overheat. This certainly helped me as I worked hard to stay warm, which kept me moving at a decent pace. As we climbed into the clouds, quite literally, the rain fell harder. The entire tops of the mountains were covered in clouds that were just dropping rain on us. It ended up being a game of climbing into the wet clouds, and descending to get out of it.
Before The First Climb
Photo Credit: Mahting Productions
My wife left the park and went to her parents, so I was on my own for the first 25 miles. No issue at all. I made my way up the last climb before the downhill to the halfway mark. At the aid station, I found Woody! Awesome! He took off down the trail and I followed to try and keep up. We ended up chatting for the next several miles as we made our way down. Then, a couple miles from the turn-around, I caught my toe and went flying into the jagged rocks and down the embankment into a bush. OUCH! Next thing I know, Woody is picking my up and asking me if I was alright. I checked and my leg was hurting. I looked down and no wonder! It was bleeding pretty good and had mud worked into the wound. But I was able to run and we headed down to the AS where my wife met me.
Photo Credit: Terry Grenwelge
Feeling Great Before The Fall
Feeling Horrible After The Fall
It was great seeing her, but the AS crew wanted me to get my leg looked at. I, of course, refused and asked if they could squirt some peroxide on it. OUCH!!!! everyone at the aid was looking and laughing at me. It was funny.
Nice Little Trail Wound
At that point, I was drenched and freezing and now I was stopped. It hit me hard. I started shivering uncontrollably. I was getting hypothermic, and I was not feeling good about heading back up into more freezing rain.
Faking The Smile
My wife gave me another jacket and I stood in the shelter to see if I could warm up. But it was getting worse. We decided to walk to the car to see if the heater would warm me up, when I looked up and saw my truck...but it was on another road above us! We would have to walk a lot further to get to it. We turned around to do so and I decided that was it...I told my wife I was going and going now. I started running back to the start to get back on course and I didn't stop for about 2 miles and 500' of vert. But I was warm again! The next AS was about 7-8 miles away and I came in feeling good. And there was my wife! NICE! I didn't expect to see her again until the end, but she was worried about me and decided to make sure I was okay. It made my day!
Feeling Much Better
At this point, I was able to keep pushing and I did my next climb to the top and back down again to that following aid station . And there she was again! One more climb left before the downhill to the finish. At this point, I was 40 miles in and no one was around me except for one guy about a 1/4 mile ahead of me. We had chatted along the way and it was his first ultra. Nice work! He was moving well. I tried to latch onto him and pull myself up the hill faster. I was getting closer. I was probably less than a 1/10 of a mile behind him when I couldn't find him anymore. Where did he go? That started to make me feel like maybe I had slowed and he was gone. I ran the rest of the way in by myself. That guy ended up getting off course right near where I lost him and he came in around 2 hours later. I felt bad for him!
At this point, I realized I was going to beat my goal and I in my mind I set a new one on the fly to see if I could get in under 10.5 hours. I pushed but ended up with a 10:32:56 and a solid PR for the distance. All while climbing more than I ever had in a 50 mile event and taking a 25 minute "break" at the turn-around to warm-up. I was thrilled and hugged my wife at the finish.
Coming Into The Finish
New PR!
Even though it was a miserable day of weather and pain, it was a great race and it made me stronger. That is worth the suffering. Plus, the course is awesome!
