Transrockies - Stage 6 - the Grand Finale!

Stage 6 - Vail to Beaver Creek
Distance: 21.2 miles (34.1 km)
Total Elevation Gain: 4,623 feet

I woke up the morning of Stage 6 pretty relieved this was the last day. Man I was sore and was pretty excited for this evening with my first night in almost 2 weeks sleeping in a real bed! Oh and I was going to really enjoy some well deserved beer later. I only had to get through 34km of running with 4,623 feet of total elevation gain first! Sigh...

I was surprised and relieved to find my heel not so bad this morning. I could still feel all of the vaseline the medic put on there and it was wrapped up really good so I just left it alone. I was hobbling around a bit trying not to put any pressure on it all morning until I had to start running!

Remember when Steve said I could walk all of stage 6 if we got on the podium yesterday in Stage 5? Clearly he wasn't serious but we didn't plan on killing ourselves today. We were currently sitting in 3rd place in the GC with 20 mins on the 4th place team and about 40 mins or so on the 5th place team. All we wanted to do today was keep our 3rd place and not let those 2 teams get in any time on us.

Now that's not to say that I planned on taking it easy and not racing...I had every intention to race. My body however had different ideas. Remember how Steve felt on Day 1? Well I didn't feel quite that bad...well probably not even as close to feeling that bad...but boy did I feel like ass. And my legs were done from the start. They had a mind of their own and basically told me to screw off and that 5 days of racing was enough. I kept waiting for that feeling to go away like it had done after a few km every other day but it never happened. My head got frustrated with the rest of me and I felt emotional. There were mixed teams passing us in the beginning that never passed us before and it was playing tricks with my head.

I don't know if I felt good once the entire day. I hurt so much that I didn't even get to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me and there really was some fabulous single track that ran through the forest for something like the first 10 miles or so. I almost wish I could go back and run it again as a fun training run and get to enjoy that part.

I kept telling myself it's ok, as long as we keep our lead over the Spanish team - Team Helly Hansen who were 20 mins behind us overall, then I would be happy. Well once we finished the first big climb of the race, we turned and began the downhill which was probably the worst part of the entire 6 stages for me. It was mostly overgrown singletrack trail with most of it running through tall grass up to your waist. You could barely see the ground and there were big rocks everywhere to trip you up...I don't even know how I didn't bail in there. For whatever reason I decide to look back and see if anyone was there and of course it was Helly Hansen coming out of nowhere. These two are good at descending and they caught me pretty quick, passed and were gone before I knew it. Shit!!! Now I was worried. If they were having a really good day could they put in 20 mins on us now in the 8 or so miles we had left? There was no way I was about to let that happen so it definitely did cause me to start running a lot faster so I could catch them.

I think Steve was a little frustrated with my shitty slow running but if he was I definitely didn't know it. He still remained super optimistic and kept telling me that they weren't too far ahead and we'd catch them on the next climb we had to do. Finally we got down to the town of Avon and had some flat running to do on the streets through there and to the next aid station that was right before the last big climb. I stopped to fuel up and pour a ton of water on my head..it was mid day and super hot out there. While stopped at the aid station Helly Hansen was not too far away so I started to relax a bit. We had just under 5 miles to go with a really gross 1000 ft climb looming ahead but I knew we were the better climbers.

We caught them pretty quick and I ran whatever I could but there was a great deal of walking in here for me. This climb was gross, I can't even describe how much I hated it. I wouldn't have thought twice about using a tow rope that day if we had one and would have welcomed Steve as my own "personal sherpa"! As someone said recently...he's a friggin mountain goat...and the dude literally pushed me and power hiked my ass all the way up the climb (not to mention the many other times throughout the day).

Finally finally finally we were done with climbing and had 2 miles of single track left to go taking us down into Beaver Creek. We crossed the line in 5th place for the day in 3:57:05 and managed to keep our 3rd place overall. Fewf. What a battle.

Steve and I finishing up Stage 6 in Beaver Creek!

Four Newfs finish Transrockies! (Steve, me, Gary Robbins, Blaine Penny)

Top 5 Mixed teams on the podium ( From Left to Right....2nd Place - Team Nike/Gore-Tex, Peter Courogen Julie and Leasure, 3rd Place - Team Pine Line!!, 4th Place - Team Helly Hansen, Francisco Perez and Eva Braa, 1st Place - Team Montrail NSA, Tamsin Anstey and Gary Robbins, 5th Place - Crasian, Don Sims and Erika Mastny)

To recap the whole experience, here is my Post Transrockies report once again. It was an awesome event and I would recommend it to everyone! Will I do it again? For sure! Just probably not next year...i've got a lot of other things planned for next season.

Transrockies - Stage 5 - and a podium finish :)

Stage 5: Red Cliff to Vail

Distance: 23.4 miles (37.6 km)

Total elevation gain: 4,407 ft

The past four stages of racing was starting to take it's toll and I was getting tired. Each day I woke up feeling the same soreness and it never really got any worse. We would do a brief warm up before each stage and think holy crap, my body is sore...how the heck can I get through another day of this? Yet when it was go time, somehow I would just ignore it all and think of the task at hand. I was impressed with what my body was able to do.

At dinner after Stage 4 there was lots of talk about the two stages that remained. They were both super long with the most elevation gain. I found that throughout the race the best thing to do was to just think of the next stage that we had to do and try not to worry about the stages that remained. It definitely helped! So...Stage 5 was to be a big day...the second longest stage and the second highest in elevation gain. Whew...I was a little worried but excited. Generally, I tend to do better with the longer stuff...especially since it takes me so long to get going...so I was looking forward to another day similar to Stage 3.

We took a short shuttle ride back to Red Cliff where we ended Stage 4. It was so cold that morning...I think 28 Fahrenheit they said when we woke up and when we got back to Red Cliff we still had an hour until race start. Luckily Mango's Mountain Grill (known for their world famous fish tacos) had opened it's doors for us runners to hang out in and keep warm for the hour. Steve and I sat on stools at the bar and I was tired. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to think about what we had to do today. I didn't want to go outside and warm up in the freezing cold. Ugh. I was cranky and sore and not looking forward to the day.

I was feeling a little better after warm up and once the race started I went through my usual routine of struggling to breath for 20 mins or so before finally settling into the start of the 10 miles of running uphill that we had to do out of Red Cliff. The day was taking us "up and through the legendary back bowls of Vail Mountain and then down into the village itself". I've heard a lot about Vail and was excited to hang out and spend the day/night there after the stage! We got into a good rhythm and started passing teams and quickly seemed to move into 3rd place for mixed. I was thinking, holy shit, this hasn't happened before...do not get excited...it's so early in the day and you're in 3rd already? We had passed Dean and Helen (Team North Face) early on and I assumed that I would see them again shortly.

The first 8 miles on dirt road seemed to go on forever... and we were both getting cranky and just wanted to get to the first aid station already to fuel and take a bit of a break. Finally we arrived...ate, drank, took some salt pills and were on our way for the remaining 2+ miles of the first big climb on single track and summited Bowman's shortcut trail!! Wahoo! Then we got to enjoy some fun, technical downhill for a while and i started to feel good again.

I knew we had another big climb ahead of us after the downhill ended. Two Elk Pass had a lot of long switch backs and luckily they were mostly all runnable. It was pretty sunny though and I was feeling the heat on the way up. I looked up and was happy to see the second place team...Nike/Gore-Tex not far ahead...I couldn't believe how close they were! That helped to boost my spirits and before we knew it we were at Benchmark summit which was the second aid station...and we were standing there fueling up with Team Nike/Gore-Tex. I was stoked and we had 10 miles to go...all downhill!!

The girl (Julie) from that team left before us and we quickly followed but the guy (Peter) left a little after. Eventually she stopped to wait for him and we continued on...and now were in 2nd place. Steve was running balls out and I couldn't keep up with him but he wasn't getting too far ahead either so I just concentrated on what I was doing and making sure I didn't trip and fall. We were pulling farther ahead from Nike/Gore-Tex and even though we were in 2nd, I would not let myself get excited that we might podium that night. There was still a lot of running to do! I was getting more and more tired and Steve promised me that if we podiumed today that I could walk the whole Stage 6 tomorrow if I wanted. I've gotta say...that was a pretty good incentive! :)

The last aid station came and went and they had caught up to us there. Damn it! We left before them and they did not spend much time there before following us. There was a little over 5 miles to go. I don't think I've ever run so fast or hard in my life as I did during the last 5 miles of this race. They were on our ass and we couldn't shake them. I felt sick and hot and crappy and wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up.

I would say with about 2 miles to go as we're rounding a turn I hear Julie yell out as she slips on the loose rock and falls. I couldn't help but be relieved because I was really getting tired of them chasing us and didn't think I could hold them off. I didn't dare look back though as I knew it would be the time that I would trip and fall as well. They seemed to start catching up to me again pretty quick and finally we had a little bit of single track to run down to get into Vail. I'm completely out of control and don't know how I didn't wipe out. Steve was already down through it waiting for me and I was all over the trail and just running scared from these guys. I guess this tactic worked as I ended up pulling farther away from them. Steve was waiting for me as I busted out of the single track and he said they were no where in site. We didn't have far to go and we flew through the finish line in 2nd place in 3:59:10...with Team Nike/Gore-Tex crossing about a minute after! It was the most stressful day of racing i've ever experienced and it was AWESOME!!

On a side note...I had also been running almost the entire day scared from Team North Face...Dean Karnazes and Helen Cospolich....always afraid that they were going to catch up to us any second and pass us. That night we found out that they actually had to drop out of the race at the second aid station that day. Dean had fallen in Stage 3 and had cracked a rib. WTF? Guess he finally decided he needed to go to the hospital! I don't know how he managed to still race as much as he did after that but hats off too him.

My attempt at getting in to soak my legs....it's frigging cold...I think I managed to get in just past my knees. Yes i'm a wimp.

On the podium!! 3rd place - Team Nike/Gore-Tex (Julie Leasure, Peter Courogen), 1st place - Team Montrail - NSA (Tamsin Anstey, Gary Robbins) , 2nd place - Team Pine Line!

Tent City set up in Vail - ours is at the top of the second R :)

After the crazy downhills of Stage 4, I ended up with a giant blister covering my heel. The awesome guys in the medic tent fixed me by draining it, pumping some zinc oxide in there and bandaging it up. After today's Stage 5 with 10 miles of downhill at the end...the blister was enormous covering my entire heel pad. It was a giant flap of skin that the medic had to completely cut off and told me he'd never seen anything like this. The only thing he could do for me was put on tons of vaseline and wrapped up the whole thing. He literally told me it would hurt like a bitch tomorrow and wished me luck on Stage 6. How nice :)