Our accommodations on Friday night were at the posh Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort, which was also going to be the site of the celebration dinner. Jeff and Julie were kind enough to help us schlep our bags about 2 blocks to the hotel - where we look dumbfounded at the toilet and shower! Hey - after a week of a mobile shower, and looking at the 4 walls of a porta-potty many times a day - this was really like coming back civilization! While Lynn preferred to rest until dinner, I cleaned up quickly and spent a few hours catching up with J & J - telling them stories about our week on the trail, some of the wild experiences we had, and how a killer snake almost bit me less than a mile from the finish line on Day 6. YES!!! A KILLER SNAKE!!! I was skipping and jumping along the single track trail looking down on Beaver Creek, when I suddenly look down and see the HUGE snake slither almost between my feet. Man, did I jump high, and I do believe a let out a quite audible "WHOA"!!!! After 117 miles, you might not think that I had the Texas Two Step still in my bag of tricks, but quite seriously, I looked liked Deion Sanders taking the ball into the endzone for a touchdown - nice big high steps!!Now in retrospect, maybe the snake wasn't THAT BIG, but it was close to 8 - 10 inches and 1 inch in diameter. Pretty large for this snake-fearing runner. Couldn't reach for my machete quick enough.
Anyhooo - dinner than night was very nice, and to celebrate, Lynn and I had a bottle of wine - the real drink we were craving all week, rather than water and drinks with electrolytes! It is also pretty cool to see your fellow runners clean. "Stinky bad" may have been a good phrase for the week! Our time together with this group was running out, so we used the moment to take additonal photos with friends.During the week, I spend a lot of time running with Jen and Marie. Jen works for Gore-Tex in Flagstaff, AZ and Marie is a retinal surgeon in Dayton, OH. They were quite evenly matched to our pace, and were great to talk with, so we caught up with them often during dinners and on runs.
We also got to listen to the final awarding of winners for the overall race. Each night when they did the ceremonies, they would play a song called "Stand Up (For The Champions)" - a nice moving song, with some pretty good lyrics, that got the crowd in the mood. This night was no different, and we found ourselves clapping along for the strongest runners in the field. Later, I googled this song and found out it is by Right Said Fred (that's right, the group that did "I'm Too Sexy"!). If you want to hear the song and see a simple video, click here.
Alas, though we tried, Lynn and I fell just a weeeee-bit short of making it to the podium. About 9 hours and some change short. But it was a valient effort! More importantly though, the crew did a closing slide show from the week, along with a wrap up video, both of which were quite moving, and both of which featured Emmah. In the slide show, there was a photo of me holding the Emmah banner made for the last stage. A photographer happened to be hanging around the tent village on the last day, and I asked him to take the photo - which he obliged. Cool to see that in the show.
After dinner, Lynn and I went to the "Dusty Boot", a local bar in Beaver Creek with a number of the other runners, where we had one last chance to reflect upon the week, what lies ahead....and watch some of the top runners compete in drinking games!!! That's right....team drinking! Run hard, play hard.....
Saturday morning came around all too quick (since we didn't go to bed til after midnight), but it provided another chance to spend time with J & J. First, an all-american breakfast at the local Denny's! So satisfying....then a 2 hour drive back to the Denver airport for the trip back to Charlotte. In the car, they had brought along the video tribute that was played at one of Emmah's memorials/fundraisers earlier in the year. One of their friends did an outstanding job of putting Emmah's pictures to music. It was very quiet in the car for that 10 - 15 minutes, and probably not a dry eye amongst us. Brought right to the forefront the driving purpose for the run....remember the girl who left this world all too soon.
On our flight back to Charlotte, we found a had the 2nd place female open winners on the same plane, as they were headed back to Montrael. A dynamic French duo, who may be thin in stature, but must have incredible leg drive and set of lungs, as they were awesome. Getting on the plane, they were ahead of us in line, carrying these huge backpacks, so I suggested they try running the race with those on next time as a handicap! Ha - funny Ken. Then after we got off the plane in Charlotte, they tried to pass us walking through the concourse, in order to catch their next flight. At this point, I was.....well....I said "hey, can't we have just one moment of glory without you kicking our butts"!!! Ah, they smiled and laughed and went on their way. They better watch out next year, I'm gunning for them....or at least I'm going to tie their shoelaces together when they aren't looking.....
Sure, it was time to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I still had Stand Up For The Champions ringing in my ears!
KEIYH
Still to come - more pictures from the run, final thoughts from Lynn and I, and a wish for all of you!
Ken -
ReplyDeleteThat should have read... "to help us schlep our BIG AND REALLY HEAVY bags about 2 blocks to the hotel." Would've carried them another 2 blocks if needed, but only after a break.
And exactly just how far is 20 years from the finish line? ;)