Simply Running: Stage 1 Buena Vista to Railway Bridge

We woke up on race morning to blue skies and cool air, unfortunatley the cool air would only last until the sun was high in the sky. We threw our bags in front of the Lakeside Motel and starting making the trek down Main Street to eat breakfast in the very place we ate the night before. The food that TRANSROCKIES put out is crazy, and most people would not want to eat this stuff before running. Jackie and I ate enough but stayed true to normal foods like oatmeal and toast, there were no breakfast burrito's for either of us on Day 1.

Because we got to breakfast so early we had a lot of time to kill before the 9am start. We hung around outside and met up with Thor and Jay. On day 1 we did not have to carry the mandatory gear (rain jacket, gloves, winter hat, survival blanket) but we did have to check into the starting chute about 20 mins early. There was plenty of room to move around the chute, so were not corralled in there like cattle. When it was getting closer to gun time they rocked the music and the field moved closer to the starting line and things tightened up. We made sure to get near the front but not too close! We had 20.8 miles to sort this whole mess out and plenty of wide road at the start before the single track began. At 9am on the dot; BANG! the first stage of the TRANSROCKIES RUN had finally started. We made are way down Main Street towards a dirt road and over the Arkansas River. The course stayed flat for about 1 mile and then started a gradual climb.

As the race started climbing we started passing some teams that started out fast on the road. We eventually caught up to the Inov-8 team of Amy Lane and Sabrina Moran and ran with them for a little bit chatting about New England running and the RI 6 Hour. After another steep climb we pulled away from them as well which was a big surprise because they are a strong team. Throughout the middle part of the race we caught up to many teams which kept the confidence high. Niether of us was having a hard time with the breathing, but it was getting pretty hot and we both had some short bad patches that we had to get through during the middle to late parts of the stage. As things worked themseleves out we ended up going back and forth with two teams for quite a while from probably miles 14-16 or so. Rachel Cieslewicz of Team Good People Run for Neways/Newton-CW-X was having some GI issues and we would go by every time she had to stop and then they would pass us again. We also were running with Team PNB of AJ and Keri Wheeler. Running with them on Day 1 set us up for a great friendship for the rest of the week and hopefully for years to come.

Our good fortune in Stage 1 started to come to an end with about 3 miles to go. I was getting dizzy and the legs just did not want to move anymore. The funny thing about this whole episode was we went through all the steep hills of the mountainous section of this stage and I start bonking on a pancake flat dirt road. I finally had to walk run for the last 2 or so miles and teams started to come back by us, including Amy and Sabrina. When we finally saw the finish line I was happy as hell. We ran it in and crossed the finish line in 3:20:55 we made are way over to the food table to get replenished. I went through a few minute period where I was super dizzy and my vision was blurred but I seemed to come out of it after some fluid and a dip in the river.

With Stage 1 completed mostly intact, we took the shuttle back to camp. This was our first night in camp and to our dismay when we arrived we saw that there was another huge hill we had to walk up to get to our tents! The good thing was that they had a truck to bring our 50+ pound bags up for us.

When at top we picked out a tent and started getting our shit together. At this point I started to feel like hell again. This went on for most of the afternoon with numerous trips to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to throw up. I continued pushing fluids all day and by the time dinner came around I was happy t see that I was able to eat!

At dinner we met up with AJ and Keri, Thor and Jay. This would be ritual everynight of the week. It was nice to have regulars to look for every night at dinner. On top of a great dinner, Stage 1 photos and video and a preview of Stage 2 we also were given some more merchdandise, on this day it was a pair of Windstopper Gloves.

After all the day 1 festivities were finally over, we headed up to our tent, zipped it all up and feel asleep to the wind which turned into a heavy over night rain. We needed all the rest we could get (especially me) if we were going to be ready to climb up and over the 12,600 ft Hope Pass in the morning. Stage 2 coming "soon"...