Stage 2 (TRR & Day Two: 13.3 miles, 3,250 feet elevation gain
Stage 2, Aug 22
Current standing: 2nd place for open women.
It was another tough day. I’m not sure why but my legs just don’t seem to be cooperating. We are currently in second position, 23 minutes behind 1st place but only one minute ahead of 3d and 8 minutes ahead of 4th. This means that every day matters, every step matters. There isn’t a lot of room for error. It’s a close race.
Rosemarie is racing incredibly well. She’s definitely the stronger of the two of us. I feel like I should be closer to her but just can’t seem to get my legs there. We have a couple of theories, one of them is that for whatever reason I slow down when I run behind her. Demoralized? Really? does my ego have that much power over my legs? Quite possibly. We’ve both noticed that I slow down considerably when I run behind her so for tomorrow I am going to set the pace and do most of the leading.
Secondly, I’m pretty sure we started off way too fast, without a warm up, and I went lactic right away and just never really got it back. I worked hard all day and didn’t have a single moment of feeling good no matter how much water I drank or how many gels I took. So for tomorrow, even though it’s a 40km very long day, I’m going to warm up and just run my own race.
It was one of the most beautiful days today. One of the shortest as well. All the way up to the top of hope pass, down the other side and along twin lakes for 7miles. 13.2 miles in total and it took us 2hrs and 36 minutes. 3d place again today, 2 minutes behind second place.
Still, we’re sitting second overall and we’ll try to hold on to that tomorrow as we pull into Camp Hail for two nights.
I’m just praying my legs come back.
On the upside, hearing Jasmine and Natalie’s voices on the phone, wishing me strength, and naming the places we would meet in our dreams tonight, lifted me as it always does and no doubt it will give me strength tomorrow.
Because we're at Camp Hail with no internet or phone service, there won't be any updates today or tomorrow but you can check the Trans Rockies run site for results. I've posted the day 3 and 4 stages below.
Off the the races!
Stage 3 (TDay 3: 24.2 miles, 2,800 feet elevation gain
Stage 4 (TRR): 14.1 miles, 2,900 feet elevation gain
Hi Amy,
ReplyDeleteI was searching for pictures of the TRR and found yours, which linked me to your blog. My SIL and I will be doing this race this year. I have days that I feel like "Hell ya, I can do this!" and I have my days of "What am I thinking!"
We live in Seattle....the dreaded sea-level. Do you have any training tips for us? We are hitting the trails and hills the best we can. A lot of our trails with elevation are closed until June or July.
I enjoyed reading your blog :) If you are running this year, it will be great to meet you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this :)
~Tamaria