TRANSROCKIES RUN

A race/trip report for the TRANSROCKIES RUN will be coming soon.  There is a lot of information to cover for this trip.  Here are some teaser photos of the magnificant scenery that we were able to run in all week!

Course and Elevation

Rhode Island's highest point is Jerimoth Hill checking in at a staggering 812 feet.  Day one of Trans Rockies starts at almost 10 times that elevation.  So in other words we have not been training at the same elevations that we will see in Colorado.  Hopefully when we get there in a few days we will be able to get accustomed to breathing heavy and hard and by race day we won't even know the difference!

The race course at TransRockies has around 20,800 ft of elevation gain over the 119.5 miles, so it should make for an interesting voyage for these two Rhode Island flat landers.  The course consist of 37% Dirt & Gravel Roads, 33% Non-Motorized Single and Double Trails, 18% 4-Wheel Drive and Motorized Trails and 12% Paved Roads and Pathways.  So the trail footing won't be too much of a big deal.

As I said before though, there will be some elevation involved in this 6 day race, however we won't be sky high for the whole race.  

The breakdown of elevation is: 

• 7,000' to 8,000' - 3%
• 8,000' to 9,000' - 31%
• 9,000' to 10,000' - 28%
• 10,000' to 11,000' - 27%
• 11,000' to 12,000' - 10%
• 12,000' to 13,000' - 1%

So the question is, will a beer taste the same at 10,000' as it does at sea level?  We will soon find out.

TransRockies Run Teams

One of the great things about the TransRockies Run is the camaraderie with other runners, which seems to have a vibe similar to the ENDURrun, at least from reports I've read.
Another cool thing with TransRockies, especially for a fan of the sport, is that there are tons of elite ultra and mountain running gurus competing against you during the day and then hanging out with you at night having dinner or hanging around the camp fire.

Hanging around the camp fire.
(Photo Credit: Kevin Arnold/Courtesy TransRockies)

Going into TransRockies of course I want our team to do as well as we can, so I would have liked all of these great runners to stay out of the Mixed Open division, but as of late it seems more and more of them have moved to that division!  It will be interesting to see how us flatlanders do at elevation against this great competition.
Now it is hard to tell who is on what team because the entry list only shows the team leader with the team name/division and the other team members are listed below that in alphabetical order but with no team affiliation.  However through some trial and error you can guess which runners are running together...and of course seeing a couple articles helps too!

Here are some of the teams and individuals that are running TransRockies, but I can't list them without a disclaimer stating that I could be wrong with some of these match ups!  (?) Denotes a guess.

Max King - Andy Martin - Defending Champions (Open Men)
Anna Frost - Rickey Gates - Team Salomon (Open Mixed)
Nikki Kimball - Tracy Garneau - The North Face Betties (80+ Women)
Peter Maksimow - Alex Nichols - Colorado Runner / Inov-8 (Open Men)
Sean Meissner - Jill Perry - FootZone/Finger Lakes Running (Open Mixed) (?)
Sabrina Moran - Amy Lane - Team inov-8 GORE-TEX (Open Women) (?)
Jason Wolfe - Mike Smith - Team Run Flagstaff (Open Men)
Ian Torrence - ??? - Pearl Izumi/Nathan (Open Men)
Sara Wagner - ??? - Flagstaff SALOMON (Open Mixed)

Gordy Ainsleigh of Western States fame will also be there competing!

Rock 'n' Roll 30 Miler?

I had 30 miles on the schedule for 8/7/2011 but I also was given a free entry through the Brooks ID Program for the Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in Providence.  Straight away I thought no problem, I will just get to the race early and do a LONG warm up, do the race and call it a day.  Well, then I actually looked at the details for the race and saw that the start time was 7am!  So as much as I hated the thought of getting up super early it was still better then adding on a lot of miles after the race.  So the plan was for Jackie to drop me off 4 miles from Providence and I would run to where we would be parked for the day.  I would meet up with her there and we would run just over 10 more miles together before the race, we would then do the race and run back to the car with a little extra added on to make 30 miles for me and 26 for Jackie.  All of this went to plan, Jackie dropped me off, I made it to the parking lot in the time I thought I would and we got all our mileage in before the start...the only thing that did not cooperate was the weather.  Now I definitely can't complain too much because it could have been 95 degrees out, but instead it was just a steady rain all morning.  This was actually good running weather, and I wouldn't have disliked it at all if I didn't wear glasses!
As for the race, I wouldn't recommend running a Rock 'n' Roll event.  I say this mostly because the price is absurd.  This particular RnR event for the inaugral.  It started 15 mins late, but really that was the only issue with the race itself.  The course was marked well, the traffic was controlled, and everthing else was in working order.

Jackie and I ran the race together starting off around 7:20 pace and picking people off as we went along.  We stayed in a relaxed training mind set the whole race and never got faster than about 6:50 pace and finished right around 1:32, it made for a good run on a rainy day that otherwise would have been a pain to get 30 miles in.

Hanging @ Fat Belly's

After the race we met up with some friends and headed to breakfast and then hit up another coffee shop after that waiting for a pub to open!  Once that time arrived we headed over to Fat Belly's Pub, meeting up with some other friends and had our fill of good beer and after breakfast wore off we had some lunch, all of this before 2pm, a pretty productive day!

As you would imagine this was the last LONG run before Transrockies which begins in less than 2 weeks!  Now we just have to stay healthy, maintain the fitness and get to Colorado.

Team HumpMe & DumpME

About 2 months after signing up for Gore-Tex Transrockies Run my buddy Scott Mason told me that a local New England runner he knew was going to be running it as well.  I thought "Hey that's cool...it will be good to know somebody else going."  A few weeks after that I met Thor Kirleis at the Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Miler and was happy to see that Thor was easy to talk to and liked his beer so I figure we will get along well out in Colorado.  I have yet to meet his teammate but Thor seems to be doing a little build up to the race on his blog, so we will all get to know Team HumpMe & DumpMe a little better over the next couple of weeks.

An Intro of sorts...

The main reason I wanted to start this blog was to document my trip to Colorado for the Transrockies Run.  Before I even signed up for this race I scoured the Internet looking for race reports, photos, and videos.  I am sure this is what most people do before taking on a new event.  After I finally talked my wife into joining me on this adventure I searched for even more information now that the trip became 'real'.  With that said I wanted to add to the information that is out there by posting our experience through words, photos, and links to other information that is also out there.

So for this first blog post here are some links to some Transrockies Blog's with previous stories, photos, and videos that bring the Transrockies Run to life!

Caitlin Smith
Devon Crosby-Helms
California Old Goats
Team It's All About Me
Team Inov-8 Pre-Run
Team Inov-8 Race Report

Some You Tube Videos