Continental Divide Trail Run Race Report

Holy shit.  That is a tough race.  Especially when it starts the morning after one of your best friends gets married and you clipped your quadracep on a rock while tubing down the Yampa River that afternoon and you've been at sea level for most of the week before and...OK, that's enough excuses.  Here's how the race went down:

The 2011 Ski Haus Continental Divide Trail Run, which is a Trail Runner Magazine Trophy Series race, sold out with 125 runners, again proving that the Steamboat Springs Running Series is really getting the attention it deserves.   It was another gorgeous morning, the weather clear and cool and perfect for racing.  After meeting at the Knoll parking lot at the Steamboat Ski Area, runners are loaded onto shuttles which take them to the race start at the Fish Creek Falls trail head.  At the race start, runners practically sprinted to the trail to avoid bottle necking and continued down the trail and crossed the footbridge at the bottom of Fish Creek Falls.  Immediately afterwards, runners begin the first of many, many climbing sections.  Gaining 500' in the first mile and 1500' in the first 3.5 miles, I found myself hiking much of the first part of the race.  The trail is not only steep but also very, very rocky for the first few miles, making it very difficult to do any running at all (unless you are one of the rabbits at the very front of the race) since the footing is so sketchy.  I managed to reach the 2nd waterfall in 33 minutes and took a few seconds to go down to a small pool and dunk my hat in an effort to cool off.  After the second falls, the trail begins to climb more gradually and I was able to start running a little more, albeit conservatively, knowing that there was still much more uphill to deal with later in the race.  About 4 miles in, the trail crosses a beautiful meadow that was pretty muddy.  I tried to avoid getting my feet wet at first, but there was an unavoidable section of soupy mud and all bets were off.  I laughed and said out loud, "Yep.  It's a mountain race."  I saw the runner in front of me turn his head a bit and smile in agreement.  At the 5.5 mile mark, the course turns onto the Mountain View Trail, a 6 mile grind up the backside of Mt. Werner.  I paused at the aid station, drank two cups of Cytomax, ate a Honey Stinger gel and pet a race volunteer's dog before I proceeded on. 

I have a real love/hate relationship with Mountain View Trail.  Running in this direction, it's a long, forested uphill run to get to the top of the ski area.  It's a beautiful trail (that's the love), especially in the last 2 miles when the views out to the Continental Divide become really impressive.  But it's tough (the hate).  I always have a hard time on this trail.  I ended up doing most of the trail alone, alternately running the flats, downhills and moderate uphills and hiking on the steeper climbs.  My right quadracep was feeling pretty sore from hitting the rock in the river while tubing the day before but I just tried to keep moving and keep my heart rate from going too high.  I stopped a couple of times to get some debris out of my shoes.  Finally, in the last 1.5 miles, I caught a glimpse of two runners about a hundred yards in front of me and I felt like I would be able to catch them, if not before the summit, then, hopefully on the 2.5 mile descent to the Gondola.  I managed to reel in the first guy and kept steady after the next, catching him in last .5 mile before the summit.   At the summit, I was so relieved to finally be done with (almost) all that heinous uphill.  By now, we had climbed well over 3000'.  On the descent, I saw two more runners in front of me and I ran my fastest to catch them both.  I was able to catch the first runner on Storm Peak Challenge and gave him an "attaboy" as I passed.  There was a short, bushwacking detour to the course due to logging operations on the mountain, which was actually really fun.  There was a ton of flagging to let you know where to run but NO trail. Just low brush, grass and rocks.  I managed to pass the second runner here and then did all I could to stay fast on the remainder of the downhill as we hit dirt road again.  Like the Mt. Werner race I did a couple weeks ago, this course finishes with a very cruel 400+ yard uphill run to the gondola.  I felt like I was moving in slow motion but happily crossed the finish line in 2:30:41 (19th), nearly 6 minutes off my goal time of 2:25 but proud, none the less, to finish this grueling race.  

Nick Sunseri won the race, destroying yet another course record, in a blistering 1:47:50!   We talked before the race and were both a little dubious about the advertised race distance of 15 (or 16) miles.  Both of our GPS watches calculated the course at 14.3 miles.  Nobody disputed the 3400' of vertical gain.  Other locals also recording fast times were Josh Smullin (3rd, 2:05.30),Harry Niedl (4th, 2:07.10),  Bill Goldsmith (5th, 2:08.13) Glen Light (8th, 2:15.34) and Gregg Joyce (14th, 2:25.36).

Randall's Run Rabbit Run Race Report

Perfect weather and beautiful fall foliage were hallmarks of this year's 4th edition of Run Rabbit Run, our local trail ultramarathon here in Steamboat. More than 150 runners (they say it sold out at 190 runners, but a few didn't make it to the start), including myself and a determined Katy Taylor, who had decided to do the race TWO days before, toed the starting line at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area at 6 a.m. This being only my second attempt at 50 miles, there was just enough doubt in my mind about finishing to keep me a little anxious. I felt healthy and well trained enough though and was hoping to finish in a decent race time, while still enjoying the scenery and having fun out in the woods.

The first 6 miles of the race is a 3400' climb to the top of Mt. Werner (a.k.a. Storm) which I did, mostly, with Katy. As we started off in the pre-dawn darkness, the temperatures were cool, in the 40s (F), and we alternated between running the flatter sections of Why Not Road and hiking most of the way up the mountain. We reached the top in about 1:30 and while Katy stopped at the aid station, I pushed on to the next 6 mile section, Mountain View Trail. On the outbound, this trail of technical single track, gradually decends several hundred feet over a couple small hills as it works it's way down to Long Lake. I decided to stretch my legs a little and ran the downhill sections with a guy named Mike from Ft. Collins. Uncharacteristically, I kept hitting rocks with my rearward foot causing me to trip (and fall and roll once!) many times. It continued throughout the day. I noticed I was not the only one, however, and even Mike tripped at one point. Still, we kept the pace quick. It felt good at the time but, in hindsight, I should've eaten at the aid station and run slower in this section and saved more for later in the race. We arrived at the aid station at Long Lake (I think it was in less than 3 hours) and I had my water bottle refilled as I grabbed a little to eat (some fruit) and pushed on.

From the lake, on Fish Creek Falls Trail, the next section started with about an .8 mile of meandering and up and down single track, first across a meadow and then back into the forest. The trail then crosses paths with the Wyoming Trail (heading North/South) which runners proceed south on, as they pass Lake Elmo, then Fishook Lake, on the way to the Base Camp aid station. During this part, I found myself starting to struggle a bit. Looking back, I was behind on calories even though I was staying well hydrated and taking a gel every hour. I should have been starting slower and eating earlier in the race.

As I passed Base Camp, I knew it was going to be a trudge out to Dumont Lake. My hamstrings were getting tight from the climbing and I couldn't find a rhythm in my running because I was constantly getting tripped up. At least, I had run this section of trail many times in the past and knew all it's twists and turns (and there are many) very well. I found comfort in my familiarity with the trail even though I was starting to feel pretty bad. As we came out of the woods and started along the shoreline of Dumont Lake, I passed Goeff Roes as he was heading back from Rabbit Ears. I looked at my watch and I think it was 4:40. It was about a mile more before I reached Dumont Lake aid station.

I was super stoked to see my friends, JD, Derek and Ross, who had brought me a cooler with some food (hamburgers I made the night before), ice, water and some chocolate milk. (I ended up not drinking any of the chocolate milk, even though I love it after a run.) I changed into a short sleeved shirt and grabbed a couple gels, refilled my water and took off again. I'm not sure why I was ignoring all the signs that I really needed to eat more but I just kept pressing toward the turnaround at Rabbit Ears Peak. About a mile up the road, Katy caught me, looking fresh as ever. I forgot how steep the hills are up to the Ears but I was really slowing fast and we only hung together for about a half mile before she took off ahead of me. I was super proud to see her looking so good and doing well. She was running a really smart race and her IT band didn't seem to be bothering her. After I (finally) hit the turnaround and started back downhill I caught my last glimpse of Katy about a half mile ahead of me on the dirt road. She was flying.

I was so hungry as I hiked back into Dumont Lake. When I got there, I announced to my crew that "my girlfriend was kicking my ass!" They laughed and acknowledged its truth. I ate half of an avacado and tomato burger and drank a bottle of water, while I sat down for a minute. It was great to clown around with the guys for a few minutes and they were having a great time hanging out at their first ultra. It was a cool scene. I wanted to press on so I hastily took the second half of the burger with me and started on the trail. Just a couple hundred yards down the trail, I saw my friend Bronwyn (Katy's crew leader from Leadville) who offered me some watermelon (technically, cheating) and encouragement. She's awesome. I told her I was fading but hanging in there and she let me know she would be volunteering at the Base Camp aid station so I would see her there. (Cool, nothing like seeing some familiar faces along the way.) I pressed on again, knowing I was in for some decent hills and descents before I would see Base Camp. I just kept my head down and kept doing my best to run the downhills and any flats that I could. I found myself hiking much more than I had anticipated. I was having to dig deep to stay in the game mentally. As I ran the half mile of dirt road to Base Camp under the noonish sun, I could hear a volunteer from the aid station rather annoyingly cheering runners on. (Really, I'm all for the encouragement but this bitch was annoying.) I was glad to see Bronwyn again and chatted for a little while, finally realizing that I needed to take a little more time at the aid stations than I had been. I did some light stretching of my hamstrings and made sure that I drank and ate sufficiently before leaving. I thanked all the volunteers and started down the next downhill section. "Just make it to Long Lake." was my mantra and I just kept on striving.

I started to come back from the dead in this section. I'm sure it was because I had finally eaten something and I made the most of it by running as much as I could. My feet were getting pretty sore but if I put that out of my mind, I was able to keep my pace up. I hiked into the aid station at Long Lake feeling much better mentally even though I was pretty run down physically. I saw a guy (Greg) that I ran with at Spring Creek earlier in the year volunteering at the aid station and we talked briefly. I stretched again and took the time I needed before heading onto what I knew would be the hardest part of the race, the uphill return on Mountain View Trail.

Initially, I was feeling quite good. I managed to run the first couple miles back up Mountain View. Then, in waves, I went through periods of feeling really drained and beat to feeling better (although still in considerable pain) and managing some running. As I hit the last mile and half of the trail, I started seeing a few more runners and by the time I got to the top of Mt. Werner, I was in a train of seven runners. It was cool to press up that final section of trail with a other miserable companions. Finally at the summit, I knew it was a final 6 mile downhill to the finish. I knew I was going to finish and I knew it was going to hurt getting there, so I filled up my water bottle grabbed a handful of fruit and started off. I looked at my watch and it was just about the 10 hour mark. I decided that I could muster a 6 mile run in under an hour to finish under 11 and I proceed to give my quadraceps a nice, long thrashing as I snaked my way to the base of the ski area. Hurt as it did, I was able run almost the entire way down and crossed the finish line in 10:53:14.

At the finish, I was stoked to see Katy (who had blazed a 10:06, one minute faster than last year and 5th Female) as well as a bunch of good friends (JD, Derek, Jason, Becca and Kiarra) who had come down to check out the masochism first hand. All in all, it was another humbling day in the mountains. I didn't run nearly as fast as I'd hoped but the effort was there and lessons were learned. Start slow. Eat early and often. Good times!