In order to understand this better, you may want to go back to read about RRR 2022. You may not though; it's a lot of reading. I'll give just a brief summary of last year to save you. I was not as trained as I should have been and gave in to a rookie mistake of not waiting long enough to see if I could recover before calling it. Bucky and Tammy both were coming back for their own redemption.
So, I trained better. I put in over 250 more training miles with way more hill repeats. I definitely felt stronger. Rick swore he would remind me to sit and recover before making any decisions. No quitting! I was feeling as confident as is smart for a 100.
Mindy and Tanya were both in early on for pacing again, well really neither of them even got the opportunity to pace last year. Sigh. I would do the early start again. That would give me an extra hour if needed (the plan was not to need it, but if being 63 gets me something, I'll take it!).
Bucky's issue last year was with elevation. His body hates it. The plan was for him to try meds for that and to take his time in the beginning where you quickly (shortly?) reach the highest elevation. He would then catch up to me and run with me to Dry Lake where I'd pick up Mindy as my first pacer. Then! Bucky was lucky enough to have Patrick decide to pace for him!! Jokingly, I told Patrick he could get more miles if he wanted; he could run with me from the start to Fish Creek Falls, the second aid station, about 18 miles. He laughed. It wasn't long until I heard the new plan. Patrick wanted to run with me to Dry Lake where he'd become Bucky's pacer. He was going to do the full 100!!! What?! That's crazy, but so cool. Now the plan was pretty much the same as before except that I would have company while waiting for Bucky to catch up with us!
Rick and I flew out a week early to do our usual acclimating at Breckenridge. This was our 5th time doing just that. 3 of the 4 Never Summer 100k's we did just that and for RRR last year. We love Breck. The downtown has great restaurants and it's nestled just right in the mountains. We sleep at over 9,000' and get over 10,000' every day. Neither of us even got the slightest headache this year. Elevation is not my enemy. Of course it's harder to breathe, but I don't get the other shit.
I was going to say Squirrel and Pete were the second ones out, but I guess we were. Tammy and Kenny drove out with the dogs earlier and hung out in the Durango area till the race. Squirrel was the day after us. They stayed in Silverthorn again. They like the hiking from there and Pete loves the fishing. Bucky and family, Tanya, and Patrick came out the Wednesday before the race. We all converged on Steamboat around the same time on the day before.
We were staying in the Love Shack. Sarah found the perfect place, although when Rick and I first pulled in we were doubtful. It didn't look like it would fit us all, but it turned out TARDIS-like, bigger on the inside. It was home to the Loves, Patrick, Tanya, Rick and me, but we all space.
I'm going to do my best to remember as much of the race as I can. Right now, the last 8 that I did are etched into my DNA. There were so many other miles. I'll work to recover them. Next installment, the race.
Yaaaaaaaaayyyy race report blog!!!!
ReplyDelete