I ran in the
Colorado Outward Bound Relay this weekend. What is it? A 24-hour 170-mile team relay race through the mountains. When I used to run the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day 1/2 marathon and get up before dawn in freezing temperatures my dad would say, "that's crazy". So when he dropped me off at the start line one year and could see the hundreds of other people out there doing the same thing, I asked what he thought and his response was "they're all crazy." Well this is a race even I was thinking might be a little crazy.
But as it turns out, there's a reason why I chose to participate and hundreds of others did also...it's a challenge, something different and most of all - fun. The race started in Idaho Springs; our team was in the last start wave leaving at 9am. My first leg was a short one - only 3.3 miles. If the leg is along the road, the team can follow with the vans, cheer you on and offer water. Here's our team stopped for Susan's leg. As you can see on the sign taped to the car, our team name was "The Procrastinators".
I was a little nervous about my 6.4 mile leg at night. I had heard stories about routes being poorly marked and runners getting lost in years past. It had also been awhile since I had run in freezing temperatures. It, however, ended up being my favorite leg of the race. I ran on a bike path through Vail along a river. The moonlight was reflecting in the water; it was an awesome sight. The bike path suddenly ended at some tennis courts. About 5 of us were looking around trying to figure out where to go. At this point I paired up with one guy and thought we'd find it together. I ran the last couple of miles with him and we ended up discussing the crazy theory. It was quite a fitting topic since we were two people with lights strapped to our heads running along a path at 2am getting excited when we saw the next glo stick on the ground. He was 50-years old and on a team with his 17 and 19 year old kids. Perhaps I wasn't running hard enough since I could manage to exchange a couple of words with him, but running with somebody kept me going.
My last leg was 4.6 miles along the river heading towards the finish in Glenwood Springs. Here is a picture of the rest area where it began. The entire leg was along a bike path by the river underneath the highway. By this point I was pretty tired both physically from running and being awake for nearly 24 hours. I had managed to get about an hour or two of sleep around 4am. Our team ended up finishing 5th place in the mixed team category. I would definitely do this race again!
I ran in the Colorado Outward Bound Relay this weekend. What is it? A 24-hour 170-mile team relay race through the mountains. When I used to run the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day 1/2 marathon and get up before dawn in freezing temperatures my dad would say, "that's crazy". So when he dropped me off at the start line one year and could see the hundreds of other people out there doing the same thing, I asked what he thought and his response was "they're all crazy." Well this is a race even I was thinking might be a little crazy. 
But as it turns out, there's a reason why I chose to participate and hundreds of others did also...it's a challenge, something different and most of all - fun. The race started in Idaho Springs; our team was in the last start wave leaving at 9am. My first leg was a short one - only 3.3 miles. If the leg is along the road, the team can follow with the vans, cheer you on and offer water. Here's our team stopped for Susan's leg. As you can see on the sign taped to the car, our team name was "The Procrastinators". I was a little nervous about my 6.4 mile leg at night. I had heard stories about routes being poorly marked and runners getting lost in years past. It had also been awhile since I had run in freezing temperatures. It, however, ended up being my favorite leg of the race. I ran on a bike path through Vail along a river. The moonlight was reflecting in the water; it was an awesome sight. The bike path suddenly ended at some tennis courts. About 5 of us were looking around trying to figure out where to go. At this point I paired up with one guy and thought we'd find it together. I ran the last couple of miles with him and we ended up discussing the crazy theory. It was quite a fitting topic since we were two people with lights strapped to our heads running along a path at 2am getting excited when we saw the next glo stick on the ground. He was 50-years old and on a team with his 17 and 19 year old kids. Perhaps I wasn't running hard enough since I could manage to exchange a couple of words with him, but running with somebody kept me going.
My last leg was 4.6 miles along the river heading towards the finish in Glenwood Springs. Here is a picture of the rest area where it began. The entire leg was along a bike path by the river underneath the highway. By this point I was pretty tired both physically from running and being awake for nearly 24 hours. I had managed to get about an hour or two of sleep around 4am. Our team ended up finishing 5th place in the mixed team category. I would definitely do this race again!
