Colorado Relay

Last weekend, a team sponsored by my company slogged through rain and snow on our way to a 29 hour finish of the 174 mile Colorado Relay. We started at 6:15 AM on Friday morning to chilly 45 degree rain, which quickly turned to snow as the racers made their way up Guanella Pass outside of Georgetown. My first leg (the hardest leg of the race) was over 12.85 miles and 2200' of climbing over Georgia Pass on the Colorado Trail. I started around 2:00 PM and finished about 3:50 PM. About 8 miles of my leg was in 2-6" of snow....good times. I was able to pass 53 teams, which felt good.

As we continued on, the day turned to night and my second leg was a quick 6.2 mile section at 1:30 on Saturday morning. I ran with a headlamp and was completely annoyed by the lack of breeze because my breath made a mini-smoke cloud in my face every time I huffed and puffed. It was pretty relaxing running in the middle of the night under a near full moon. After that leg, the sleep deprivation really began to set in (I only got 4 hours the previous night because I had class). My final leg was between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale and covered 4.2 miles. I started around 9AM and finished up in the sunshine after about 30 minutes. The team finished up around 11 AM.

It was an interesting experience and filled with challenges and fun. Our driver was a little crazy and completely oblivious, but we stayed safe and somehow stayed awake nearly the entire time. I'm still catching up a bit...