Talk about ants in the pants! We were all so excited we could hardly hold still! There was so much nervous energy in the air! Early breakfast (7am) and out to the start area for a 10am start.
Toby and I felt pretty cool with our Timex Expedition WS4 jerseys on. It was pretty easy to tell we are a team, to bad that doesn't mean we were a fast team! ;-) Check out the link below to see the Timex WS4 watch that we were sporting.http://www.timex.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_iw_c_1_0_237130011_1/188-7760436-6347161?ie=UTF8&node=1264313011&no=237130011&timexBrand=core&me=A1S5XB33AHYRMX&rank=salesrank
Phillip on the bike, Glen, Colleen, Stephen, Shelby, Toby, and me before the start. If only we knew what we were getting into.... Our smiles would have been bigger! Phillip was out on course on his bike telling us where everyone was. Which just turned out to be quite helpful during the last section.
Every morning we would pack our bags and bring them to the truck. Memphis Joe and Sarah would lug over 300 bags into the back of this Uhaul every day! Every time we had to pack our bags, it took both Toby and I to zip them up (maybe we brought just a smidgen to much??)
This stage didn't have much down hill (only ~2700ft elevation gain), so I went with the New Balance 790 (www.newbalance.com) . This is a really light weight trail shoe. Its pretty much a racing flat with a more aggressive soul. I love them because they are so light and simple. Not over built. This ended up being my shoe of choice for 5 out of 6 stages.
The gun went off and we charged out of town. Toby and I tried to keep it easy in the beginning, but we were so excited that we pushed it a little to hard. In the middle section of the day, with a combination of heat and altitude, Toby started to bonk.
He rallied during the last few miles and we were back to a solid pace. The final ~3miles were on an old railway converted to a road. Check out the sweet tunnels we got to run through!
With Phillip telling us about the teams ahead, we charged down the dirt road and passed 2 of the top teams right before the end to finish 9th overall for the day. Not a bad start for a couple of triathletes doing a multi day stage running race.
After the race it was straight to the creek to ice the legs. This was a pretty common sight after every stage. It felt so good and really recharged the legs!
After we got to camp, where our tents were all set up, we unpacked bags and chilled at the Salomon Relaxation Station (http://www.salomonrunning.com/us/). With the whole afternoon off, we found plenty of time to goof around.
Day 1 down and we were in great spirits. Both a little sore, but in no way deterred from the excitement of what was to come! After the spectacular views, fun running, and sheer excitement of the day, it was hard to head to bed.
