Stage 6: Vail to Beaver Creek Resort

If I was a steak, I would be overcooked-

Today we finished our final stage of the 2009 TransRockies Run - Wow, what a week.

I'm thrilled to have completed the event with Gavin, who turned out to be a fantastic running partner. His calm demeanor, his fitness and patience helped me push through some of the toughest running I've done in a long time. If I hadn't faltered in stage 3 and 4, we coulda, shoulda, woulda placed on the podium but, this is the TRR and anything can happen over 6 days. Regardless, I'm happy that we finished a respectable 4th place on a competitive year, and look forward to coming back again next year, (yes, I'm still hooked) with more rest days under my belt in the 2 weeks leading into the event.

Stage 5 camp in Vail

The last day was a mix of highs and lows...With 6min down to 3rd, it was all of nothing and I psyched myself for a hard day. And it was.

At this point, I was willing to try anything to get my quads to recover - ' Game Ready' use a mix of cold and compression to help the legs recover. A neat concept...sure beats the cold creek soaks!

As soon as the gun blast signaled the start, the Two Joes (Adam and Aaron) set a hard pace up front - I knew right then that they were going for the win (and they did!). Gavin and I held on to the lead pack as long as possible, but we quickly realized that our fatigue level was too high. We eased off and tried to run conservatively, but continued to drop off the pace. From CP1 to CP2 we struggle both physically and mentally. With 1,400m of climbing, this stage hit us hard. There was no talking, no laughing, we were both on damage control - surviving...

At CP2 we took a few feeds of Coke and turned onto a long singletrack descent. Almost instantly we found ourselves revitalized ( or on a sugar rush) and pushed hard to make up some time. The downhill was crazy fast, super technical and overgrown with grass - you couldn't see the trail because of the high grass and had to hope no obstacles lay where your foot would land. I knew the section from the previous year and took the lead. Halfway down we caught and passed a team like they were standing still - a good feeling - we were cruising...

The track popped us out in Avon - We cruised through town and started the final climb up to Beaver Creek Resort. As we arrived upon CP3, I missed the curb, tripped and crashed hard on my right side...Gavin commented: "We just screamed down one of the most technical descents of the course and you crash on flat pavement??". I popped 3 Advils, chugged 4 Cokes and off I went. Both Gavin and I had run this last section a week ago so we knew what was left. Maybe it was the anticipation of the finish, or the adrenaline from the crash, but for the first time that day, I finally felt like I had some juice on the climb. With 3km to go, we came up on a very steep switchback section going up a ski run, up top, we spotted Team Salt Stick, the 5th ranked team that had started the day 11min back of us - Spotting them a few minutes up the course meant that we would hold our 4th place - sigh...

The last few kms were a blur, everything started to hurt all of a sudden...knees, toes, hips...we cruised down to the finish and crossed the line...it's over.

Let the recovery begin...

I'm in Denver now, about to board the plane back to YYC. My vision is a bit fuzzy, my feet hurt, my IT bands are irritating my knees, I've got crepitus on my left ankle tendon and that's just my body - Don't event get me started on work...I'm not looking forward to Monday...but that's all OK - why... because I'm smilling. I love TR and I can't wait for next year!