Transrockies Written on September 1, 2011, by matt.
Last week Ricky Lightfoot and I competed in the Transrockies run in Colorado – a 6 days trail race from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek which is run in pairs. The route covered 120 miles with 20,000 feet of ascent. I previously raced the Transrockies in 2008 with Andy Symonds when we finished in a close 2nd. I was excited to return especially as chunks of the course had been improved.
This year we ran flipping well to finish in third place with a total run time of 15h31m. Every day we battered ourselves. The competition was excellent and the conditions tough.
Salomon runners Anna Frost and Rickey Gates ran fantastically well to win the mixed category by a margin of 1h02min. Angela Mudge also raced in the mixed category with Gareth Craft. Gareth bravely stepped in as a last minute replacement when Angela’s original partner dropped out. They ran well and finished in 6th but Gareth arrived late and suffered with the altitude. They had to rely on Angela’s strength and good form.
Results are here.
Below are my highlights and low points from the week:
Highlights
Level of competition: Every stage we battled with the Team Run Flagstaff (Mike Smith & Jason Wolfe), Team Bend (Ryan Bak & Max King) and Colorado Runner/ Inov8 (Alex Nichols & Peter Maksimow). The podium constantly changed and stage records were smashed (often by the first four teams!). I was pleased to run much quicker than in 2008 on the stages which were unchanged.
Team Run Flagstaff was consistently awesome, especially on the climbs and flat. They won the race by 21 mins. Team Bend’s Ryan Bak showed he is dam hard when he suffered falls and ran the last two stages with a broken toe, dodgy hamstring and a gash on his side which required stitches. His partner Max King was mega strong and towed Ryan and they maintained 2nd place. Sadly team Colorado/ Inov8 suffered injury on day 6 and lost heaps of time and places.
Hope Pass: Stage 2 involved a big climb and descent over Hope Pass (12,532ft) which was the high point of the race. We were much more comfortable with the steep running and won the stage.
The entire race was run above 8,000ft with most of stages 2 to 5 above 10,000ft. We had a huge disadvantage compared with acclimated teams such as Flagstaff and Colorado Runners. For anyone thinking of competing in this race I’d recommend 2-3 weeks pre race acclimatisation. We had one week in Colorado before the race –it definitely helped but longer would be better.
Colorado Trail: parts of stage 2 & 3 went over the trail. Magic single track.
Stage 6: The 23mile stage was predominately on single track and included 3 big climbs. The sections of track through the Aspen woodland were stunning.
Running with Ricky: we ran really well together and bloody hard every day.
Camaraderie: The race is a great social. There’s lots of downtime after each stage and a great atmosphere at the camp. Huge thanks to the Salomon Team, race organisers and other competitors. It was a cracking week.
Lows
Stage 1: the opening stage was very runable with not much ascent. It was on open sandy tracks and with the intense heat it felt like a desert. By the end of the stage I felt like I had denatured every enzyme in my body. Fortunately things got better!
Stage 5: Frustratingly, poor marking at the end of the stage meant we lost the route and wasted precious minutes getting back on track – we finished 2nd that day but wanted to put more time on Team Bend who were sitting in 2nd overall.
4wd track and road: the course still had lots of running on these surfaces and it was a case of damaged limitation on these sections. We run better and much prefer the single track and more technical running
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Next up
Understandably we are keen to utilise the altitude training and race form. Angela and Ricky are both bouncing back from injuries and are in fine shape and I expect they will have great latter seasons (including the Ben Nevis race this weekend). I’ve had a cracking summer and have packed in the long, hard races since April – time for a couple of weeks easy and local.
Tom
Tom.. It was AWESOME running & competing against you and Ricky. You both are great guys. I will never forget how fast you descended Hope Pass on Day 2. I am still in awe. Best of luck in future races.