I wrote this shortly after we returned from our summer trip to Vail Colorado in 2005. Luckily, Toby was still able to find it on the computer. One of the hardest runs I've ever done wasn't a marathon or even a half marathon. It happened to be this 5K with the seemingly benign name...A 5K that took me 1 HOUR and 3 minutes to finish...
During one of our daily 4 hour happy hours the conversation went something like this." For a 5K it looks pretty tough. It only goes up. It starts at 8400 feet and ends at 10,200 feet. There's not a lot of air up there. Hey Toby we're gettin' low here. (Toby opens yet another bottle of wine). How long does it take to acclimate--longer than 2 days? We should probably be drinking water. (Laughs). Ok so here's what we do. We sign up, get the T shirt, and if it looks too scary we bail. Yeah, I really want that shirt." (Note: The shirt was really cool).
And so the quest for the Vail Berry Picker 5K T shirt began.
After they take your money, registration and waiver so your family won't sue them if you die, they tell you that your T shirt will be waiting for you at the top when you finish. Uh-oh.
They fail to tell you that technically, it's not categorized as a trail run, but as a hill climb with an average grade of 10%.
Or that last year's winning times were roughly 36 minutes for the men and 43 minutes for the women.
The helpful guy at the counter at Christy's Sports said it was the gnarliest, rootiest, single track on the mountain, legendary in downhill mountain biking circles. He said we were really looking to punish ourselves and gave us a quizzical look as to why. The one voice of reason and we chose to ignore it.
Race day morning. Five Texans with white socks, running shoes intended for asphalt, and ill equipped lungs join the rugged Colorado natives at the base of Vail's Eagle Bahn Gondola for the start. Amazing thing about the start of this race. After the gun goes off you can look up and see the lead runners go up and up and up. And up. It runs parallel to the gondola line, but mostly within the thick trees along a narrow, and yes, gnarly and rooty single track. The thought of running, for the most part, would be laughable, if it were funny.The thought of moving forwards in an upright position, again, laughable. As you cross a clearing here and there you can catch a glimpse of your friend the gondola overhead and with clear footing you can attempt a jog. Oh yeah that's right, you need oxygen for that.
Just when you are having those final thoughts about how this would be a nice place to die and wonder did that rescue dog get a good sniff of you at the starting line there it is! You pop up like a gopher to a flat stretch of road, and just for laughs they make you run about a half a mile at 10,200 feet of elevation to the finish line. Now I know how a goldfish feels when you pull him out of the fishbowl and hang him by the tail.
So we received our precious T shirts and we even won Teva sporting gear for placing in our age groups! We cheered "Go Texas!" as each of us received our prizes, which I hear Colorado natives love that about us. The magnitude of our accomplishment was fully realized by the lengthy gondola ride back down. Indeed, it was a very long ride.
 |
| See how cool the shirt is? |
 |
| Toby actually WON the race...in 43 minutes.. |
