Simply Running: Stage 3 - Leadville to Nova Guides

Stage 3 started in Leadville on Main Street. We started over 10,000 ft and stayed high most of the day. The begining of this stage was on road then we turned onto a jeep road that climbed up, up, up. This was also the longest stage of the week, so it was not to be taken for granted. I think this stage is where things started coming together for us, it wasn't our best stage but it got things rolling. We finished in 4:27:22 for the 24.3 mile stage. There was nothing exciting about this stage but it was a good day, we ended in Camp Hale where we would be staying for 2 nights, this meant we didn't have to get all our crap together the next morning.

When we finished stage 3 we jumped in another pond, soaked the legs then grabbed a burger and a beer. I was finally feeling like myself and came out of this stage with a positive attitude. I would say the highlight of stage 3 was the after stage question and answer session that happened in the back of the Budget truck. This is a Transrockies tradition, the luggage man Memphis Joe serves margarita's and has the elite runners in the Budget truck where we can ask all the questions we want. Max King, Ryan Bak, Rickey Gates, Anna Frost, Nikki Kimball and others were in attendance. It was an informal event with only a few of us hanging out listening to what these folks had to say. I had great position bellied up to the bumper, so I got in good with the bumper tender and received quick refills and had a perfect spot to hear what everyone had to say. This was a lot of fun and made the afternoon go by pretty quickly.

As you can see this stage was uneventful, at this point in the week we were getting into a good routine and just trying to get to the next day....so enjoy some photos!