All the participants
Me stretching before the race
Here is the link for the race results:
It's sad when a 70+ year old man beats 98% of the participants and looks like he is 30 something.
Anywho the story actually starts out the day before when we headed up to Powderhorn. I got a condo for Saturday night at Goldenwood Condo because I thought Tarra would be joining us. Instead of giving up the reservation we went on up. The sweet thing about the condo was it had a full kitchen and jacuzzi tub, luckily Renae and I brought our swimsuits. I fell asleep around 930 and woke up around 1030 hearing straining noises like someone was having a hard poop. Well I got up to investigate I walked towards the back bedroom and the noise got louder then Renae popped out of the bathroom and we scared each other. I asked her if she was ok she said yes. I said what's that noise then? She said it was one of the neighbors "doing it" and that they woke her up twice. So I tried to go back to bed, but all I heard was "oh yeah yeah do it oh yeah oh oh oh". She's (unknown receipent of awesome feelings) is lucky she didn't scream out his name because that would be in here too! So around midnight or slightly after I was able to fall back asleep. Needless to say my pre-race sleep consisted of about 5 hours.
Renae and I got up about 6 am and ate some breakfast and got ready. We checked out at 0815 and headed to the check in for the race. Renae got her favorite number #5, I got 17 not sure how that worked out since I registered us all at the same time. Roby showed up shortly after and we were all checked in.
The started the race promptly at 0930 and we were off in the wrong direction. What is this. Renae and I had practiced the route twice and either they switched the route (more likely scenerio) or we practiced the wrong route. Instead of down the road to the hiking path we freakin went up to disc golf hole number 1 and came down to hole number 4 across the road to the hiking path. Shit my butt is already dragging. Once we hit the hiking path I started running. I ran for about 3 miles before we started the creek crossings on the moon loop. At this point I could still see Renae and here comes Roby finishing the Moon Loop. I tried to get a picture of him but damn my camera and it's complicated operations I missed and took a picture of the ground. I walked 3/4 of the 1.3 mile moon loop and then started running again, probably ran 1/2 mile before coming back up on the aide station. Side note: How can you run a race with aide stations and not have gatoraide? Side Side note: They only had water at the 2 aide stations. Then I started the laborous climb back up to the resort through the forrest. By that time the 60 something year old lady that I was following started running up and I ate her dust. I was bonking big time. So I pulled out my gel and took a big ole swig of it. I felt a bit better but each time I would trip over a tree root my energy level would drop. I even pulled the sole of my shoe away from it's main part on one tree root. I finally made it up the first 700 feet elevation ascent and to the last aide station where I actually drank some water. I started running again but it probably looked more like a delirious swagger. I reached the road and WHAT!!! the changed the course again! Instead of going up disc golf hole #4 like we practiced the had us turn right and go to the Westend lifts. I almost started crying.
Anywho when I got to the lift there was a lady with a cow bell jingling it for me she said 3/4 of a mile to go WHAT!!!. At this point I started talking to myself and decided I probably should have a shot of haldol. This route took us to disc golf hole number 5 through 12 (I think) and I was walking again because we were gaining in elevation (roughly 500 feet). Each time I would see the orange trail sign I thought it was a sign from God to head back down to the finish line. But God was a sense of humor and it was actually the sign for the next disc golf hole. For 5 different orange signs I got my hopes up and they crashed. I finally saw the way down and on a trail that I have boarded 50 times or so. I started running again down the 500 feet of elevation I just gained. Renae and Roby met me at the bottom of the hill before turning up the last bit to the finish line. I was the last person to cross the finish line but I don't really care...I finished. And even won a give away prize yeah lucky number 17.
Roby is trying to talk me into running the Mary's Loop 8 mile. It is a charity race for the Mesa County Search and Rescue on Sept 5th. We'll see.
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