Monday, August 24, 2009

a tough grunt up a very steep slope

transrockies is an amazing experience...135 teams of athletes running and living together for 7 days in the colorado mountains. the picture above is of 170 tents which move each day to meet the athletes at the end of the next day's stage. the organization is incredible. check out the link below for a quick article about the crew that's gets it all done day after day:
http://transrockies.com/transrockiesrun/news/?p=252

the stage two profile above says a lot...over 2 miles of over 25% grade with 3100' of ascending in just over 4 miles. and that wasn't the worst part. 3500' of technical descent is my worst nightmare.

it was a good day though, our plan was to take today's stage as easy as possible. the climb to the pass was just that...we stuck behind the nike team, walked when they walked and ran when they ran. what we weren't expecting was having two teams descend the other side like they were floating. i was already well out of my comfort zone, running faster than i'd ever run down a trail in my life and these guys passed us like were standing still. they put close to two minutes on us on the descent and we managed to make up over half of that in the final 2 miles of flat running to the finish but just ran out of trail before we could catch the lead teams.

the body is holding up so far, tomorrow is a big day with 24 miles over rolling terrain. it's the kind of stage we can do some serious damage on and were looking forward to a strong showing tomorrow.

thanks again to everyone for their support! please keep it coming...it's a long week and it means a ton to hear those kind words of encouragement!

rob

today's results below:
http://transrockies.com/transrockiesrun/news/?p=251

youtube video taken before today's start:
http://transrockies.com/transrockiesrun/news/?p=250

1 comment:

~*Run for Fun*~ said...

good job guys! that uphill looked intense and topped out pretty high! Hope your knees did ok on the descent. keep up the good work and kick butt on those hills tomorrow.