TransRockies. A Quick Recap.

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The TransRockies Run came and went and I miss it already. My feet don't, but my mind and heart do. I wanted to get something up before the week expired so this is short and dirty and cribbed from another post but I wanted to share the gist of our experience - Team Runs With Mascara.

It's been six days since we returned from Colorado and while Dana jetted off directly to Penticton, Canada to meet up with Brian, who was chasing his own goals at Ironman, I came back to San Francisco to nurse my newly dead toenails and the accumulating blisters from the final 2 days.

(Registration pick-up day, Buena Vista, CO)

For both of us, it's still going to take some time to wrap our heads around describing all that we saw and felt and experienced, and everyone we met; not to mention the scads of pics I took and the commemorative video!

(Day 3, Leadville, CO)

But for those of you who hate suspense, in a nutshell: we rocked it...relatively speaking.

Goal 1: Have fun. SO DONE!
Goal 2: Make it to the starting line each day. SIX OF SIX!
Goal 3: Make it to the finish each day. SIX OF SIX!
Goal 4: Run strong when we can, do our best when we can't. DONE. DONE. DONE.
Goal 5: Finish strong. OH HELL YES.

(Day 2, top of Hope Pass, 12,000+ elevation)

Dana provided a quick synopsis of our stages:

Stage 1: Sam feeling okay, Dana good
Stage 2: Dana in pain cave, Sam on fire
Stage 3: Sam and Dana both have a good day, phew
Stage 4: Dana feels great, Sam on top of world beating Dana up and down hills. Awesome!!!! Want to barf at forced sprint to solidify 5th place in stage finish.
Stage 5: Both okay to start. Bit of nausea for both. We pass our competition, they pass us back, repeat x7 at least!. Sam has worst blisters I have ever seen. Sam finds f**k you blister gear and we run in at 8 min miles. Flying high with hope. Unsure if we will be able to walk tomorrow!
Stage 6: Sam tapes all her toes. Try to find reserve strengths. Sam pulls start. Dana pulls middle. Together we make it up final death march of endless hill to final 2 mile ripping downhill into Beaver Creek. We pass yogis in final 300 yards. Hugs. Tears. Awesomeness.

(Big air)

Final numbers: 28 hours+ of running; 6th place out of 14 in our age group; 2 5th place stage finishes (technically giving us a Top Five spin)


(Day 6, the finish at Beaver Creek)

So much more to share and show - hopefully I'll get the stories out there to leave a better sense of how amazing this event was and how much fun we had doing it. In a word, it was incredible.

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