TransRockies – Update. Written on August 29, 2008, by admin.
Only one stage to go now and itâs a close run thing.
After 5 days and 85 miles (and a fair bit of climbing) Tom and I are sat in 2nd place overall, about 5 minutes down on the leading team - Nike. The gap to 3rd place is about an hour or so, so the race is all about the win. That said, claiming victory in tomorrowâs 21 mile stage by over 5 minutes will be one heck of a challenge. Eric and Max (the Nike guys) are going really well on the climbs and seem to be suffering less from the effects of running up to 12,000ft every day than ourselves. Our smaller British lungs are being pushed to the limits, but will have hopefully doubled in size during the course of the week. On each stage we try and limit the loss on the long and gruelling climbs and once at the summit we let the legs loose for (typically) 10 miles of downhill forest tracks with the aim of pulling back the time lost on the ascents. Today, from being about 5-minutes behind at the top, the Nike team came into view with 300m to go and we crossed the line only seconds behind.
Itâs a very different storey running over here in the States. The trials are so smooth, wide and well maintained that itâs closer to being a hilly road race than the fellrunning and mountain running scenes of the UK and Europe.
Plenty of results and photos on the website: www.transrockies.com
Iâd better head off and stretch these legs which it feels like someoneâs been working away at with a hammer and chisel for the last 5 daysâ¦
Andy
