Bound to be Relaying

Colorado Outward Bound Relay

170 miles, 10 people, 27+ hours of fun.

What a ride the Colorado Outward Bound Relay is. Andie and I joined our friend Alana’s corporate team for the race, they weren’t really shooting to be competitive, which was fine by me, but it is still a race.

I got recruited for the second hardest combination of legs, containing the single most difficult leg of the relay, Georgia Pass. Andie, while initially was assigned the easiest combo of legs was quickly upgraded to the third most difficult as some of the teammates weren’t feeling there Wheaties in the weeks prior to the race.

I started us off, 5:40 a.m. on Friday morning in Idaho Springs. The gun goes off and I try to get in my groove. After a few minutes I’m feeling good and settle in with the group I’m around. About a mile from the end of the first leg a guy surged and I went with him, we left everyone else and cruised to the exchange together. 4.7 miles in 39:20, not quite racing speed, but I really wasn’t wanting to start my next leg tired.

The wind was pretty harsh in the morning, by the time we got to Georgetown to start Andie’s leg it was crazy, porta-potties were blowing over and tumbling around, gross. Luckily for Andie, the wind died after she got out of Georgetown and had nice conditions for her run up the majority of Guanella Pass.

My van was then the “resting” van so we went to the next van trade-off and waited. Finally, at 2:40 I received the baton (a bracelet really) and started out on the hardest leg of the race Georgia Pass. The leg started at Jefferson Creek, climbed 2k+ feet and then descended 2k+ feet to Tiger Road.

I started out and was quickly joined by another runner. We passed another runner within a few minutes. We began talking and she asked if I had done the Leadville 100 run, she thought I looked like a racer she saw there (he was also using poles as well), right then I knew that hanging onto this woman’s pace was going to be intense. Being a little timid on how my Achilles would hold up I eased up and let her go, enough that I couldn’t see her and be tempted to chase. I kept chugging, striving to stay in the positive column of people I’ve passed vs. people passing me. I summit Georgia Pass at 3:58 p.m.; 7 people passed, 6 people passed me (some of those guys were smoking fast!), 6 miles in, doing good.

I don’t consider myself a great descender, probably just above average, but now that the worries about my Achilles were over I picked it up. I kept telling myself “This IS a race” so that I wouldn’t ease up. I had someone tailing me for a while and soon I was pushing hard after every switchback to form a gap and discourage him when he came around the switchback. It didn’t take long before I dropped the tailgater and was in a groove, a fast groove at that. I caught several more racers on the upper slopes, 11 passed, 6 passed me. Next, I caught a guy that had passed me earlier, oh yeah payback, 11 passed, 5 passed me; I went by him in a blur, he might’ve been cracked. I probably looked a little funny to everyone; I was running with my tongue hanging out to get air in my lungs as quickly as possible, once again I wondered if I didn't have enormous tonsils would I perform better. When all was said and done I felt good, 14 people passed 5 passed me, 2:18 for 13.2 miles on the Colorado Trail with 2000+’ of elevation gain/loss and a top elevation over 12,000’. I finished 2 minutes before 5 p.m., another mini-goal of mine.

Andie’s leg came up shortly thereafter and she kicked total butt, running an uphill 10k at elevation in 50 minutes, after having run 7 miles up Guanella Pass earlier in the day. Most importantly she passed the Yellow Highlighter Team that we had been chasing for a while. I was waiting with a Double Chocolate Chip Frappucino as a reward, yummy.

Once we became the resting van again we slept for 3 hours and then met up with the other van again. Some bad info was passed along to us from the other van and when I walked over to the exchange area, at 1 in the morning, our runner had been there for 5 minutes! I headed out with a head of steam trying to make up some time. Being that it was my last leg I was going pretty hard, knowing I didn’t have to save it for anything else. I ran 4.5 miles in 34:47, not bad. It was great to be done and just cheer on my teammates to the finish.

At the finish we all crossed the line together and the team was over 2 hours faster than last year (Andie and I were new to the team this year, coincidence? ;) ) 170 miles in 27 hours 42 minutes and 33 seconds, and we finished in the top 100. The finish line festival was fun and I got free socks from Thorlo and a free USB data stick from Gore Tex for putting on some gear and dancing around in the virtual rain storm booth they had set up.

I had a lot of fun and wouldn’t mind doing more relays, in fact, the “Ultra” option of this relay sounds pretty intriguing, 5 runners instead of 10.