Stage 3 to 5 Recap

It’s kind of nice to be out of cell/internet range once in a while…

Well, last I wrote, we were in Buena Vista, on a high from finishing 2nd in Stage 2 and sitting pretty in 3rd overall! But, as I’ve said all along, it’s a long week and you never know what can happen from day to day. What did happen was that I mashed my quads so bad on stage 1 and 2 that I wasn’t able to recover for the next 2 stages-

I’ll rip through a brief recap of the stages to put a bit of a story behind the results…

Stage 3 was a long and difficult stage that took us nearly 40km from Leadville to Camp Hale – it was not a good day. With rolling hills and lots of flats (not my specialty), I suffered most of the way through and we ended up losing a bunch of time to the leaders. Team Two Joes (the A-Team of Adam and Aaron), ran very well and closed up a bunch of time on us (about 15min), leaving us with a 15min cushion. Gavin was strong (and patient) all day and ran well, urging me on to the finish. Result: 6th

Stage 4 (Camp Hale to Red Cliff) was quite similar to stage 2, and one that we ‘should’ have excelled at…Unfortunately, my quads were still very sore and although Gavin literally hauled me up the pass in 4th place, I faltered on the upper flats and could not let my legs run down the other side. The bone-jaring feeling of hitting the ground was killing me on the descent...I was not a happy camper - my mind could not escape thoughts of dropping out at this point...We finished a disappointing 7th, hanging onto to a 50 sec lead in 3rd overall…Take it one day at a time Phil...one day at a time.

Stage 5 was another long 40 km (ish) stage from Red Cliff to Vail. With long gradual flats (both up and down), this stage did NOT favour our running strength but, we managed to limit the damage, finishing 6th, less than 12min behind the leaders (Team Run Flagstaff). The A-Team has been on a 2nd place roll and another strong run today bumped us out of 3rd overall and they now have a 6min lead on us.

Both Gavin and I (like most of the others actually), are starting to feel the hard miles under our bodies – It’s actually very odd to see someone NOT walking funny! Tomorrow morning we will leave Vail towards Beaver Creek Resort, via a 35+ km trek that will include 1,400m of climbing! This will not only be the biggest day of elevation gain for the week, but the hardest day of racing. A 6 min gain over the A-Team would put us back in 3rd, but chasing US is Team Salt Stick, and a poor performance could easily see us lose another position in the overall (not an acceptable option!).

So it all comes down to the last stage (this sounds too familiar to me…) – The body got beat up again today, but I’m optimistic…Besides, I made Gavin eat an extra plate of food today, just in case we have to pull out the tow rope!Thanks again for tuning in – I’ll post my final thought once the smoke settles on Saturday morning…