Thursday, August 23, 2012

DAY 5: REDCLIFFE TO VAIL

Day 5 is always a tough day mentally for me. My body is tired, sore, and it's just a long day out there with quite a fair amount of elevation gain. I believe today's stage was 23 miles and you begin with 8 miles of steady climbing up a logging road. We had a nice crew to run with at the beginning but eventually parted ways once we got into the single track. Again, Shauna pulled me up the mountain as I was just lacking energy and having trouble eating. All I could do was put my head down and put one foot in front of the other. Shauna also thought she saw the 3rd place Go Go Girls which had me running scared. The views today are also stunning and all that climbing was worth it in the end to be surrounded by beauty.

There was a camera man up near the top who was looking for some fancy dance moves, so I busted out everything I knew hoping it would make the final cut! I brought a camera today but sadly I think I only took one photo...how terrible is that! My favorite part of today was of course when we got to go back down the mountain into Vail. It seems as though the only time I feel good, is on the descents. The year Peter and I did the race we ran down the entire road...something like 8-9 miles of it which was pretty hard on the quads. Today however, we got to run down an actual single track trail and a mtn bike trail called Fred's Lunch before finishing right in town. We finished this stage in 4 hrs and 41 minutes with the same guy (Matt) we finished the day before with.

Immediately after, we ran to the creek to soak our legs! God it felt good! I spent the rest of the day relaxing under the La Sportiva tent, chatting with the rest of the team and checking out next years clothing line! There is some super cute running wear coming out by La Sportiva so look out for that next year! The dinner they put on in Vail is also a step up from the other days. They bust out some BBQ's and roast fresh veggies and pineapple, do a prime rib, and some amazing salads we didn't have on the other nights.

Another memorable thing about tonight was that there was an outdoor concert literally right across the road from tent city. The genre sounded like some serious R&B music that went pretty late. When we selected our tent location Shauna was all concerned about being close to some rowdy foreigners but I had to laugh because after the concert started, I think they were the least of her worries!

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