Transrockies Run - Race Recap - PART THREE (Stage 2//Hope Pass)

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the ones you did do." - Mark Twain

We woke up after my first night in a tent and I thought, that wasn't so bad! I slept well (probably from exhaustion), and the temps had been unseasonably warm that first night... I clearly took that for granted, haha!!  We loaded our duffels onto a pickup truck and watched them leave down that loooong hill to the bigger trucks where they were promptly loaded. Good, I thought, that's one less thing to worry about. Now that I had one stage down, I should have felt a little more confident. However, I knew one of the hardest days was ahead of me in Stage 2 - it was Hope Pass, where we'd climb to our highest elevation of 12,600 feet. This was my nightmare... you remember the one about me not being able to breathe and turning blue and slowly dying from pulmonary edema?! Yep I was being dramatic, looking back, but I had NO idea what to expect and just knew it was going to be hard. However, my mantra for that day (and the rest of that week) was "relentless forward motion" and I was determined to finish this stage upright.

We ate our breakfast, which at the time was delicious with crispy and slightly peppery breakfast potatoes, oatmeal, fruit, and coffee (there were non-vegan items too, such as pancakes, eggs, & sausage). That meal would get really old really fast that week. Haha!!  We then loaded onto buses and were transported up to the starting line, which basically took us down a winding dirt road that was all uphill. My ears were popping from the elevation change, and we would start at an altitude higher than I'd ever been in my life, much less that I'd ever attempted to run at.  I. Was. Terrified.

We attempted to remain calm with goofy antics and even some yoga poses by my yogi friend Andres :)

When "Highway to Hell" began playing, I was all but hyperventilating from altitude and from nervousness. Some deep breathing exercises with my eyes closed help to settle my nerves and my heart rate and breathing. Soon the countdown reached "ONE" and once again we were off on another adventure for the day. This day would be 14.5 miles with an approximate gain of 3185 ft according to my Strava. We started out on the trail, and running did not seem as much of an effort as I thought it would be - we were on a flat section of runnable trail. At mile 2, we hit the aid station and everyone began pulling out their trekking poles... oh crap, here we go. We immediately began a very steep climb, steep even for switchbacks, on a single track trail. We all chatted to try and avoid the obvious strain this insane climb was already taking on our respiratory rates and heart rates. Mixed in with runners of all walks of life and even other countries, we talked about everyone's line of work which ranged from banking (obviously) to podiatry to surgery and all in between. This was one of the hardest climbs of the week not including Stage 4!

Halfway up this part of the climb, someone said, "Everyone turn around & look!" This was our view from behind!

To give you an idea, it took me 49 minutes to do mile 3 and 44 minutes to complete mile 4.  Like WHOAH. Finally the single track opened up a little to a little bit wider switchbacks, and we knew we were almost to the top... you see all the "runners" like ants above us on the switchbacks headed up to Hope Pass.

You can tell by our faces that the switchbacks up to Hope Pass were getting higher and therefore more difficult!

The groups of runners began to thin out a little and it really just became the 4 of us for most of the last mile of climbing up to Hope Pass. We joked a lot, laughed a lot, which really helped to make this arduous climb a little easier. At 12,000 feet, Justin announced we had hit that mark and I stopped for a few seconds to recognize the moment with gratitude. So far, the climb had been so much easier than I ever imagined!! No it was not easy, but I wasn't blue and dying!

Almost to the top!  Just after reaching 12,000 feet.

Suddenly, we hear cheering and we know we're almost there. I can see Steve, the guy who is there for comic relief for the runners, and he's at the top of the pass dressed like Gandolf from Lord of the Rings. It was hilarious. And as we summited the top of the pass, we all stood there and hugged and grinned and laughed. Twelve thousand six hundred feet later, we had made it! Breathless, we took a million pics and then soaked in the 360 views of pure amazing creation before heading down the single track switchbacks on the other side of the pass.

The downhill initially was a relief - I could breathe again, and it felt great to be running and not slogging up a mountain. I soon realized, however, that this very rocky singletrack headed downhill would also mean torture for my toes and toenails! We hit a more wooded section of trail that opened up and allowed us to run maybe 2-3 people wide, but I couldn't keep up with my gazelle-of-a-friend Mariana. Downhills are her jam! I knew about 3-4 miles in of continuous downhill running that my quads were turning to straight jelly & I would not be able to sustain any sort of running after the downhills were over. I slowed down (Justin did too, since we had to stay together as a team). Suddenly, I was super frustrated and my legs were killing me and I was sure I'd already lost a couple toenails. Hot tears came, and then I was mad at myself for already crying on day 2. That anger brought more tears. Haha. Miles 7-10 were tortuous, because they should have been easy running but turned into 20-30 minute miles.

View from the top of Hope Pass down into the valley we would run into.

A small example of our downhill adventures after Hope Pass

After mile 10, we were nearing the infamous Interlaken Hotel. I was feeling better because I had finally figured out I was cranky & needed a Snickers, um I mean gel. With renewed energy, I told myself I didn't want to be out there all day. So I started running a tenth of a mile, walking a tenth of a mile, until I was able to run longer. 

I remember this section so clearly - it was where I made myself run despite my pity party!

The Interlaken Hotel - the history is so interesting about this - read the link on it above.

Dexter's Cabin - a beautifully restored home open to the public but in the middle of nowhere on this trail, just like the Interlaken!

We finally finished. And although I wasn't particularly proud of my effort, I was so happy to be done. 

It was a long, hard fought day, and when we arrived at our camp I was so eager to just get a shower and relax. We walked over to the tarp to pick up our huge duffel bags... and they were nowhere to be found. Nowhere. We had the volunteers and staff helping us look for them, but we ended up having to go tent to tent and look in each one (well over 100!!) to see if someone had mistakenly picked up our bags. No luck. The race director, Houda, got involved, trying to help us locate our missing bags. I was so exhausted and frustrated, here came another stream of tears! One of the volunteers was so kind, and offered me her clean clothes and towel to go get a shower and relax until they were found. As she was pulling out her clothes from her bag, Justin came running up and said that our bags had been located... at a nearby hotel! Apparently our bags got mixed in with a load going to a hotel where some runners had gotten reservations. Thank GOD they found those, because we had nothing otherwise!!

That night we had more energy than the previous night so after Mariana and I got massages we hung out in Chillville, ate lots of potato chips (that would become our nightly snack), and enjoyed each others' company before retiring to our tents. We did it. We summited Hope Pass and lived to tell about it. We didn't have anything to be nervous about the rest of the week, right??  That confidence was short lived, as we received our race briefing for the Stage 3 that night... "This will be your longest run of the week," the course director told us, "and the most elevation gain you will have had up to this point." Great... now I was nervous again! Little did I know the scariest part of my week was in store for me the next day...