Believe it or not, I am really glad I did this yesterday. Tough mother eff’er!!
I won’t say it was easy, but I will say it was completely exhilarating. We could not have had a more gorgeous morning or a more gorgeous setting for the Sombero Trail Race.
The race is just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park and starts at about 7,500 feet.
It was freaking freezing when we got there. If you know me, you know how much I hate to be cold. In the end I ran in shorts, short sleeves and arm warmers. Turned out to be the perfect choice.
Yes, I need to dust my car, but who has time with so many races to do?
I had to register race morning as I wasn’t sure I was doing this race until Friday. We had tons of time to hang out in and around the porta potties. It’s always good to have one nearby.
They divided start times into three groups – sub 50 minutes, 50-70 minutes and 70+ minutes. With this type of climbing at elevation, I had no clue. Ken and I decided on the 2nd wave, but at the last minute jumped into the back of wave #1. This turned out to be a really good choice. A lot of the race is on single track, so it’s easy to get bottle necked and stuck. I felt like for my speed I was right where I should have been.
The first mile was all climbing – about 500 ft. gain. After that, it was up and down the whole way (see above) with some very, very steep and rocky climbs. I don’t know if it is the heart rate training or what, but I felt so strong the entire time. Sure I was tired on the climbs, but it was manageable. The air was so cool and the scenery so unbelievably amazing (when I took a second to look up from my feet – you really had to watch out for the rocks and roots). Ken had a fall somewhere along the way (we weren’t together or I would have administered CPR):
The thing I noticed for the whole race is that there were no women around me. Only men. I don’t know where all the ladies went.
I had no clue how to set a goal for this race with all of the climbing and tough terrain. My best guess was to shoot for under an hour. I finished in 49 minutes which was good enough for 2nd place in the 40-49 age group (out of 50?) and 14th out of 220 (or so) women.
I was totally floored. Had no idea. The 1st place finisher in our age group was Katie, a friend of a friend. Pretty damn cool.
And, I will say the prize was the best of any race ever. A mountain goat bobble head. He looks drunk. Or like he’s having an orgasm. Or an orgasmic drunk.
At the end of the race Brian introduced himself to me saying he had read the blog for a few years. He was behind me on the trials and smelled manure. Or, smelled me. He wasn’t sure. At the very end Brian sprinted past me – turd! Nice to meet you out there, as well as the two ladies who introduced themselves at the start line (sorry, didn’t catch your names!! I was stressing about which wave to jump into).
I then stuffed my face with pancakes, sausage and eggs. Made another trip to the porta potty.
Major, major kudos to my friend Kathy. She has never run on a trail in her life and today she did this tough race. Just awesome. She’s turned into quite the runner. Isn’t it weird how she has two hands on the left side of her body?
Nothing like a shitty back drop
And, as always, so grateful I have this guy to share stuff like this with:
What’s one cool thing you did this weekend? (besides read this post)
SUAR
