Where'd the O2 Go2?

It's 7am on Friday morning. I've been up since 4. Shivering, I'm standing in the brisk mountain air at the starting line of a relay race, in which myself and 9 teammates will attempt to run 170 miles from Idaho Springs to Glenwood Springs. (http://coloradorelay.com) Over the course of the next 27.5 hrs, we'll be running in shifts across three mountain passes and over the continental divide.

I'll be running three legs of the race - the first a short 2-mile stretch through Georgetown. I am the fourth runner on Friday morning, and start my leg in a light drizzle, glad for the chance to run so that I will stop shivering! What should have been the easiest leg of my race turned out to be a mental challenge - the air is thin up here! My lungs burned as I ran up the gradual incline to the start of the road up to Guanella pass.

The rest of the day on Friday is a blur of driving from one exchange point to another, enjoying a hearty breakfast during one of our longer breaks, and trying to catch a catnap in the cramped quarters of our makeshift traveling home - a Chevy Tahoe. My second leg was a 6-mile run along the bike path that connects Breckenridge to Frisco. Instead of letting up, the rain was coming down harder all the time. Dusk rapidly turned into darkness as my teammate finished her leg and handed me the baton. I set off into the night, with my headlamp casting a small circle of light in the darkness. I turned up my Ipod and sped up as the trail veered away from the highway into the forest. Running through the pitch-black mountains in the rain was incredible. I felt like I could run forever (thank you, endorphins!) - the altitude was no longer a problem and, not wanting to keep my teammates waiting in the rain and cold for too long, my legs propelled me forward.

After my next teammate finished her leg, we scarfed down a pizza and drove to a hotel in Frisco, where our 5 teammates in Van 2 had been resting while we ran our legs. We managed to crash into bed around 10:30, only to be called at 1am by our teammates, telling us to wake up and get ready for our next round of legs. Exhausted, we dragged ourselves back to the car and met up with Van 2 at the next exchange point.

My third leg started at 4:30 am on Saturday morning - an 8-mile gradual downhill run into Eagle, CO. I thought I'd be really hurting by the last leg, but I was actually feeling good. What an opportunity to see Colorado in a way most people never will - on foot at all hours of the day and night, in all kinds of weather! What began as a beautiful moonlight run turned into a shivering sprint for the finish as the clouds rolled in and the rain poured down once again. I had brought several changes of running clothes and two pair of shoes, and by the end of my last leg, everything was soaking wet!

My teammates and I in Van 1 finished our legs by 7am, and we drove on to Glenwood Springs to wait for Van 2. At 10:40 am on Saturday morning, our last runner came around the corner and we all joined in to cross the finish line as a team.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about these adventure races that so appeals to me. Maybe it is the desire to see just how far I can push my body, or maybe it is the comraderie that inevitably comes with working together to accomplish something that we could never do on our own. Or perhaps I just want to have interesting stories to tell my grandchildren someday. Whatever it is, I can be sure of this: despite all the aches and pains, and the multiple cups of coffee I've needed to stay awake post-race, I am already looking forward to next year's run.