Setting:
Leadville, CO - 10,152' above sea level
Mid summer
Just before sunrise
We sit in the car packed full to the brim with gear under a sliver of a moon as the race staff for the Leadville Silver Rush 50 begin preparations for the big event. The giant screen flickers on and assaults us in our sleep deprived states and we have to employ the use of the windshield sunscreen to block its blinding glow. We try to sleep the last few minutes before registration begins, but excitement wins and we sit quietly but restless. It's been a long night of checking and double-checking gear, practicing aid station hand offs, laughing, speculating, and not sleeping.
Finally, it's time and Anthony and I walk down in the cold mountain air to collect the goodies, bib, and timing chip. The volunteers are chipper in the wee hours of the morning and a young girl about 7 years old takes her job of giving out safety pins very seriously. We head back to the car to wait out the remaining hour til race time. We marvel at some of the runners already warming up doing laps around the start area. Then I realize, they're anxious. They've all tapered and simply cannot wait any longer to run. They need to run like they need to breathe and the breath isn't coming as easily two miles high. So running is what they have to do.
The minutes tick by slowly. Excitement, anticipation, nerves, anxiety, they all come and go, ebb and flow. As the sky lightens the announcer gives the runners a 10 minute warning. We exit the car ready to see this thing through. We join the 500 racers and their crew, the supporters, and spectators at the starting line at the base of Dutch Henri Hill. The national anthem is played and the gun goes off. And with that crack of the gun I knew I had to be a part of this ultra world.
No comments:
Post a Comment