- 525 mi
- 4 days 21 hours 45 min
- Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/19671211291
- 1st place woman, 6th overall
Day two: My lungs are tired, my wrists hurt, I have not been moving as fast as I would have liked. I know I am going to miss the resupply hours in Buena Vista. I am looking for reasons to stop; all I can think about is sleeping. Should I get a hotel room in BV? I will be faster, surely, if I sleep in a hotel. I arrive in town at 10:20pm. I find a dark alley to pee. I should definitely get a hotel room and crash here. I call Mark. I tell him why it would be such a good idea for me to sleep in a hotel room right now. It’s only 10:30pm, he says. It is really nice out tonight. You could ride a bit further and bivy and then be sure you are at the Mount Princeton Grocery store when they open first thing. It will be too easy to get sucked into the comforts of a hotel. You can go under five days again. He is right. I get on my bike and start the pavement climb up Cottonwood pass out of town while we’re still on the phone. My wrists still really hurt. Maybe I should adjust my grips? I am ready to fall asleep now. Eventually I hang up, mostly because holding the phone hurts my wrists and I focus on the last few miles of the night.
The new reroute takes longer to get back to the trail than I expect. When I do there is a cooler full of trail magic waiting just after the trail junction. I look inside but don’t take anything. Instead I find a flat enough spot next to it to roll out my sleeping bag. The air is warm and the pine needle covered ground is soft. I feel almost giddy as I crawl into my sleeping bag. What am I so excited about? To sleep, I realize; I am excited to sleep. I eat as much as I can before brushing my teeth and dutifully setting my alarm for 4 hours from the time I lay down.
My alarm is buzzing. I turn it off in a haste and then check my mileage to the Mt. Princeton store. Only twelve miles. It doesn’t open until 8, I know the last few miles are an easy descent on a road. I can sleep for another hour and a half! I set my alarm and immediately fall back asleep. I wake up at 5:30 and pack up my stuff unhurriedly, trying to eat as I do so. The riding is slow, lots of pushing up short chunky climbs, indicative of the day to come, but the morning goes by quickly. I am at Mt. Princeton at 7:30am. I have enough time to find the store and clean and lube my chain before shopping for enough calories to get me 110 more miles to Cathedral. I eat breakfast and use the bathroom while I’m there, and Joe catches up with me, taking care of his own resupply while we exchange brief conversation.
I roll out before him, but Joe and I will spend most of the morning leapfrogging and riding together. It’s always fun to share some miles with other riders, and we are keeping a surprisingly similar pace despite our varying stops. Finally, just before we reach the Monarch Pass highway crossing, I see him for the last time. He stops for water and a snack and I push on, ready to use the pit toilet at the bottom of fooses. There’s some more trail magic at the bottom of Fooses, but I skip it and ride on.
Fooses is more rideable than I expect and I make pretty good time moving up it. At the top I enjoy some pickles and views and realize my inreach has not been tracking all morning. I respond to the messages from Mark and my mom and make my way over the crest. At the junction for Greens creek there is more trail magic! I try and take some this time, but it is in a bear can and I can’t figure out how to open it. The crest is busy with encouraging folks and I enjoy clean water from the piped spring before pushing on to Tanks Seven creek.
The new trail construction coming off of Windy peak is incredible, it is longer but infinitely easier and I make it down the once bone shaking descent feeling fresh and ready to keep pushing. As I near Tank Seven I take a rare break to sit down and eat (usually I try and eat while moving) since I am ravenous and want to get down some bigger calories. I have been eating a lot all day, but I feel like a food black hole. I am never satiated. I respond to a few more texts about my tracker being off all morning. Cheese and pickles and chips fill me up a bit more.
Then down to Tank Seven, my last water for the day. I arrive empty and fill everything. Quite a few hikers are setting up camp, and I am glad to be pushing away, although the lower part of the climb is slow moving. Finally, I find better traction and as the last light of the day is fading I find myself riding more and more. I am tired, thinking about sleep, but determined to stay focused as long as I am riding. Five more miles, I can do five more miles. Okay, that was a good push, can I do five more? I am riding more than I expect and then I am descending Razor creek (no water here, but the longest descent of the Sargents/Cochetopa hills area). It is cold at the bottom of the descent and I know I need to ride uphill a little bit before I camp. A half a mile more; is that a flat spot under some living trees? Well, flat enough and alive enough. Looks like I’m sleeping here.
I eat some more and brush my teeth and I am out. I have been more diligent than ever about brushing my teeth and it is paying off. I have had a better appetite, been able to eat more, and my teeth don’t hurt too bad. Actually I was eating so much that I would run out of food on my way to Cathedral the next day. But I had just enough fumes to get me through the headwind without totally bonking.
I had swung back from the low the night before and I go to sleep proud of the day behind me. I am looking forward to waking up and getting back on the trail. I am, for the first time on this trip, excited rather than scared to get to the San Juans.
Smoke, heat, the painful objections that my body puts up against riding day after day are challenges that even when I know they are coming seem hard to deal with. But it is the mental failures to motivate, to focus, to make good decisions that continue to be the toughest part of this race. Those trials are the best gift though. They are the reasons I go out again and again. I can fail, over and over, and still quite literally keep moving forward.
I was surprised to myself coming into the finish faster than I ever had before. When I was bedding down on night two I thought I would surely not have a chance of breaking five days again. The sense whenever I am out there is that too much is never enough. What a relief it is to find out otherwise.
Finishing is so sweet. Life is luxurious at the finish line The incredible care and support from Mark, food, the friends hanging out at Junction Creek, my parents surprising me at the finish, a long sleep in my friends’s guest bed. I can’t thank everyone enough who made this year happen, especially Mark. The work that he put in to help make this year’s CTR happen for me is not something I can quantify, but I sure am grateful for it!
I, of course, have regrets, moments or decisions I would have changed (I really wanted to catch Matt, for example). In a race this long the mistakes add up quickly, and I like to count them because I think it makes me a better racer, rider and person. Thankfully I don’t feel the need to dwell on them this time.
Like crossing a river, no time down this trail is ever the same. But like the fabled ferryman, I am happy to be making the trip every time.
Since the finish of this year’s race constitutes my 6th trip across the Colorado Trail, I feel like I am getting to know the route pretty well. After completing my third race, however, I am not sure I will ever feel like I know the race well. Certainly I can estimate some distances and time with more certainty, but the difficulty of pushing myself day after day on some of the best trails in the state seems just as novel every time.
Will I do it again? Yes! Racing the CTR is just one of the most fun ways to spend your time.
Great riding and writing! I’m glad we got to see you finish!