Transrockies Run - Race Recap - PART FOUR (Stages 3 & 4)

"And then the sun rises.

Again.

Faithfully.

A NEW day is YOURS.

Yesterday remains to never change.

Tomorrow is not yours to touch.

Only TODAY.

Live all your days.

The hard, the joyful, the frustrating, the rewarding, the scary, the crazy.

Treat them as gifts.

Precious & unique.

Live all your days...

Gratefully."

- Sally McRae

Stage 3 started us off in the town of Leadville... an old mining town that is a pretty sleepy little town that sits at 10,152' above sea level. That's where we slept the night before, on a high school baseball field... so we started out day 3 already slightly hypoxic. We had 23.8 miles (give or take, depending on your GPS) and about 2500' of climbing ahead of us. I was nervous that AM - how would my hip hold up?? I had never ran (or even walked!) that many miles in a week at that point, much less for 3+ days in a row! I was a little sore but overall the legs felt refreshed at the start. As we walked to the start chute, we saw Rob Krar hanging out at the start (he was going to fire the gun that morning) - he waved us down to come get a quick pic with him which was such an honor, since he's such a legend in the ultrarunning world. It's hard to remember he's just a cool guy like Justin, and that he considers Justin & Andres friends :)

Once again, "Highway to Hell" came across the sound waves, and the butterflies stirred up again in my tummy!  We made our way through the town of Leadville on actual road (a rarity at TRR) before hitting up the trailhead around mile 2.5 or so. From there, it was straight up a little mountain, and the boys took the opportunity to show off and run up the whole freakin' thing... leaving me and Mariana in the dust!  Hahaha!!  At the top of the hill, we saw Rob again (he had driven up there, saving his legs for the Leadville 100 miler coming up in the weekend ahead - which he WON), and he got a pic of us and later I found out he posted it on his Facebook. We felt like rockstars!! Bahaha!! Thanks Rob for making us feel like a part of the ultrarunning community, even if we literally walked up that entire mountain. ;)

Rob with Andres & Justin

Thanks Rob for texting me the pic! We look miserable!! Bahaha!!

The downhill once again was difficult for me, and Andres & Mariana flew on down the trail. However, it didn't seem half as hard as it did the day before and I was encouraged at how well I felt! Hooray!  That fabulous feeling didn't last long though... about 0.5 miles out of the 1st aid station (mile 4??), I suddenly felt very short of breath. This was a different shortness of breath than I'd felt all week. Something felt very wrong. I could not get my lungs to expand at all. The only way to get some sort of air in was to put my hands on my knees and do pursed-lip breathing, a technique I've used to help many COPD patients as a nurse and NP. My fingernails were turning blue. What seemed like it lasted an hour probably only lasted 5 minutes before the air finally came back to my lungs, but I was short of breath for the next hour or so. When talking this over with my friends later, I'm sure I had become acutely hypoxic... we'd slept at a higher elevation than ever at 10,000+ ft, and I started out the first half a little dehydrated (I didn't drink enough water before or during the first few miles), and it was a perfect storm for altitude sickness. Thank goodness it did not last all day, as it could have done.

Our entertainment for the day - Wonder Woman! Hahaha!!!!

Another climb came around mile 5.5, and at that point it began to drizzle off and on. It wasn't a downpour except for about 20-30 minutes, but enough that we ended up having to wear our rain jackets coming into Checkpoint 2 around mile 10. Justin said, "Tara, I'm not walking in this rain... we're going to have to run some." Basically, he laid down the law, and I said yes sir... bahaha!! As we crossed the highway out of Checkpoint 2 and hit the Continental Divide trail, Justin began making me do run/walk intervals to motivate me to run. At first, I resented him for that but after a few intervals, I fell into a groove and the running came easier and easier.

The rain stopped, and we hit up some of the most gorgeous single track trail we saw throughout our time in Colorado!  It was so pretty in fact, and my legs felt so good, that I basically ran long stretches from mile 15 to the finish. The last few miles of trail before coming into Camp Hale were my favorite kind of trail - they reminded of the trails at Cliffs of the Neuse and suddenly I found my groove! Justin said, "Where's this girl been the whole time??" I was flying around the trails and having such a blast! By mile 20, we came into Camp Hale (read about that cool little place here), and Justin said, "T, I think we can break 7 hours at this pace... it'll be tough, but let's try." That's all I needed to hear, and we basically sprinted it in the last mile (I was running a 9:30 pace at one point, and after 74 miles in 3 days, that's a sprint!!). Finish time:  6:57. Boom. I was so happy and tired.

Camp Hale

The long road of intervals into the finish

We found Andres and Mariana who finished about 15 minutes ahead of us. After showers and dinner, we broke out the cards and taught them and Mimi how to play rummy. That began our love affair with rummy that week, and we played every chance we could get after that :)

We fell asleep that night in my favorite area of the week, Nova Guides. The views were gorgeous. It was super chilly at night though, so sleeping included going to bed with running clothes on, then fleece leggings, wool socks, long-sleeve t-shirt, and a thick toboggan. It sounds way worse than it was. It was kind of fun actually. The hardest part was not having cell service that night, nor the next night, so we couldn't talk to our little man!

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Day 4 brought Stage 4, which was running from Nova Guides to Red Cliff for 14.5 miles with 3200 feet of gain, reaching an altitude of 11,670 feet. No big deal... we'd run 74 miles so far without major hiccups (except for my hypoxia episode on Day 3), so the nerves were much less starting out on day 4.  I knew the initial climb would be tough, but I was looking forward to getting my feet wet - literally!  We would have a stream crossing later on in the run and it is notorious for its refreshment to hot piggies! Plus our friend Mimi, who came to volunteer with tent setup, was going to get to run this one, along with all the other volunteers, so I was stoked for her!

Start of Stage 4

The climb would prove to be the most memorable and difficult of the week!  It was pretty much straight... up... a... mountain.  No switchbacks to help ease the pain of climbing. Nope. Suck it up, buttercup. It took us almost 2 hours just to complete miles 3 through 6. I'm not even kidding. My trekking poles were my best friends that day.

Best viewpoint I could find of our climb that day - pictures don't even do it justice.

Steve's comic relief get-up on Stage 4! What a great motivator he was, and a welcome source for a good laugh!

The top of McAllister Gulch - worth the climb!

Reaching the top felt almost euphoric, and the views atop McAllister Gulch were just jaw dropping. After lots of pics, and a phone call to my mom at work (the only time we had service in the 48 hours before/after that point), we headed into the wide open trails where we saw the infamous Mount of the Holy Cross (which was hard to see without snow on it to highlight the cross), and I was feeling pretty good. My hip was a little achy, and some of the downhills were tricky with the loose rocks underfoot so we took our time initially. After a couple miles, the loose footing improved and my hip worked itself out, and I let myself enjoy the fun ride of the downhills without completely trashing my quads. It was so much fun, hopping from side to side! We found our way to Wearyman Creek, which is a creek that also runs the length of the trail for about a half mile. The depth ranges from inches (during dry seasons) to knee deep (in rainier years) and is really really cold. This year, it was basically about a foot deep, sometimes a little deeper. There's no way to avoid getting your feet wet, although I saw some people trying! Not for me - it was so fun splashing my way through it!

When we came out of the creek, we hit up the aid station with handfuls of Skittles and chips (my go-to the whole week), and took off down the gravel road towards Red Cliff. I was feeling good, and ready to knock Stage 4 out of the park. Suddenly, my right foot/toe caught a large embedded rock, and it severely jarred my right hip. I felt a searing stabbing pain in my hip flexor and thought I might be sick for a second there. I stretched it and coddled it, but it basically reduced me to a limp and I could only jog for small stretches before resorting to a walk again. It finally let up the last half mile or so for me to jog it in to the finish at Red Cliff and I was very bummed since I had felt so wonderful all day.

Margaritas and the yummy avocado bowl at Mango's (a little restaurant in the town, right at the finish line) helped to cheer me up before heading back on the shuttle to Nova Guides.

After another wonderful shower, dinner, a massage for me (one of the best ever!! OMG!!) and the Stage 5 briefing, we all went to Chillville and played cards until we had to turn on our headlamps to see. What great memories!

We bundled up in our sleeping bags and felt ready for Stage 5 the next day. Little did I know that Stages 5 & 6 would be the most difficult runs of my life...