Simply Running: Stage 5 Red Cliff to Vail

Stage 5! Stage 5 for me was like running the next to last interval of a workout, you say to yourself this is the last hard one, because you can always get through the last one. In this case however the last two intervals were 23+ miles each! So as close as were to the end we had two long days ahead of us, a lot could go wrong!

Today's stage started where we finished on day 4. We were in Mango's to stay warm, as the morning temps were in the 40's. We started on the same gradual downhill road that we finished on the day before, but in the opposite direction which meant it was now a gradual uphill.

After what we felt was a strong showing in Stage 4, we had some confidence starting this stage. We moved further up in the starting chute, and since we were on a wide dirt road, and we are mostly road runners, this start suited us well even if it was uphill! This gradual uphill was about 9 miles long. After that we jumped onto some single track for a little more climbing but by 10 or so we reached the max elevation which was over 11,000 ft. We stayed up there winding through the trails on the top of Vail Ski Mountain until about 15 miles where we started the long descent to the finish. These were mostly mountian bike trails that were twisting and turning with some steep slightly rocky downhills, not east coast rocky though!.

I would say the last 8 miles you could see where the finish was below but you kept winding back and forth down the mountain, in and out of tree covered areas, which made it feel like you would never reach the bottom. With about a mile to go, you ran into a much more wooded area than we had been running in, and it was rocky and rooty until you came out of this random spot onto an access road where you could open it up down to the finish. We continued with our late race push and finished stronger in the Mixed Open Division with a 9th place in 4:20:41, over an hour behind Rickey Gates and Anna Frost!

Tonight we would stay in Vail and it just so happened that the US Pro Cycling Challenge was starting their 3rd stage about a half mile from where we had finished. We headed over there to see some of the riders pass by, and since this was their time trial we were able to see some of the fastest riders start their 10 mile "sprint".

Since this was our last night in camp, the dinner was a little more over the top. They had steak, chicken, salads, corn on the cob, grilled veggies, baked potatoes, and a whole bunch of other items I can't remember! It made for easy fueling for the next day. After dinner, it was same ol' same ol'; awards, photos, video, and off to bed we went, to rest up for stage 6!