Bending, bending, bending....but not breaking!

I have found out that even world class athletes can have a bad day.  And by world-class, I am talking about me.  How did I arrive at world-class status?  Simple, I define world class as those people who live on Barclay Woods Court in Charlotte, NC.  Out of everyone living there (about 7 homes), I am world class.
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If i was able to upload a photo from my camera now, you would see a pic of me waking up this morning in the cold yet again.  Damn it was cold!  I never in my life had had my eyes nearly swollen shut from puffiness, but it happened for the second straight day, and today was worse than yesterday.  Rocky Balboa had nothing on me.  Not sure of the cause of it, but eventually it goes away - after like 2 hours.  Fortunately, none of the other runners said "Ken, you look like sh*t!".  Oh, I would've opened up a big ole can of Whoop Ass on them (yeah - big talk for 6 am!).

Each day it has been taking longer and longer to warm up, and today was going to be  brutal.  I could feel it my legs that there wasn't much juice there.  Starting out of Red Cliff with the starter shooting a real 9mm pistol, we began our 11 mile climb.  Uggghh..  After running with Lynn for about a mile, I had to walk, and she went ahead.  I didnt see her again until mile 8 when she was waiting for me just outside the checkpoint.  I asked how long she was waiting and she said 5 minutes.  I said Liar!  She said about 10 - 15 minutes.  Let's call it 15!

I was jogging when I could on the flat portions, but had to walk much of the way.  Good thing we have made friends with many of the other runners of our "world-class" status this week, so it became somewhat easier to pass time talking with them.  Eventually I pulled ahead of some of them around the 5th mile and had to go solo until mile 8.  That's what world-class athletes on Barclay Woods Court do - they suck it up and gut it out.

All week long, when I needed a shot of adrenaline, I would do one of three things to get motivated.  1 - think of my family back home (miss them tons!).  2 - look at the Emmah button on the back on Lynn's water pack (I have one too).  3 - look at my Emmah KEIYH bracelet.  Well, the past 24 hours have not been kind to me.  Family - check - still able to think of them.

Emmah button - fell off my pack sometime yesterday (stage 4) and I didn't realize it until this morning when I was getting ready.  Today, my Emmah bracelet came off, likely when I pulled my gloves off midway up that first climb.  I was pretty devasted about this - then I got mad.  Used it as motivation.  The way I am looking at this is that Emmah decided she didn't need to guide me anymore on the run.  She has provided all the motivation she could for the past 8 months, and it is up to me to bring it home.  The button and bracelet are somewhere in the Colorado mountains, and she wants to be there.  However, since the bracelet hasn't left my wrist since February, I am hopeful Jeff and Julie have another one with them on the way out here.

Mile 8 - I gained strength, and it was Lynn's turn to feel the effects. Of course, at that point we moved into my strength - single track trails - uphill into the Vail ski resort area. All I can say is it was a haul, and amazing to run through some of the ski runs.  We peaked at about 11 miles, then had rolling up and downs at the top of the resort for about another 4 to 5 miles.  Incredible views, but I can only take so many pics before they will mean nothing to people.

At the second aid station at mile 14, the sign said 4 miles until next aid station and 8 miles to go (to reach the 22).  Then the person working the station said - its all single track, downhill. I thought great. Lynn took off running.  Then we found it to be a dirt road, uphill.  We weren't happy, and were quite tired. By the time we hit the real downhill trail, I started to pick up speed and pull away.  FIgured we'd hit aid station 3 within 40 minutes at the pace we were going, if not sooner, as we zig zagged across the ski runs.  50 minutes later we still didn't hit the station.  By the time it arrived, it was obvious the distance was wrong!

From there, the sign said 3.8 miles to the finish, all downhill again.  Another 50 minutes passed (at least) before we finally arrived in the hip and swanky town of Vail.  For nearly 10 miles we could see the village from the top of the ski runs, until we hit the bottom.  A long way to go, but fun.

After we crossed the line in 5:51, we started to hear other runners say this was longer than 22 miles. Possibly closer to 25.  I would agree.  Hopefully at the dinner tonight we will hear what it really was.  It was a long day, and true to other days, I was stronger at the end, Lynn was feeling effects.  But we both know there is only one more day left, and at this point we are in good shape!  Of course, the massages help!

Looks like we came in 10th today in our group.  Not too bad, and I think we are either in 10th or 11th overall, just about 8:26 behind the leaders.  I think we can make those mere minutes up tomorrow with a burst of speed at the start.

What?

Huh?

Oh, we are 8 HOURS behing the leaders in our category??

Hmmm.  Looks like this world-class athlete is going to need to pick it up some....

5 down, 1 to go.  Somewhere between 115 and 120 miles in 6 days.  Dang....

Looking forward to arriving at Beaver Creek tomorrow and seeing Jeff and Julie.  Hoping for a safe and uneventful day.  Have so much going through my mind I want to still write about around this experience, that I hope you will stick with me for the next few weeks, as this journey won't just end abruptly tomorrow.

Hang with me....and wish us well!

KEIYH