“This is your alarm clock, its time to get out of your tent.” With her hands cupped around her mouth Sarah, an INCREDIBLE volunteer, was going above and beyond to supply the runners with a personal touch.  Well done Sarah, I may or may not have been voice recording you in-order to set as my personal alarm when I return to urban life.

The first night of tent life proved to be, well, sporadic at best.  But I’m all in, if my biggest problem is choosing which of the 4 sides of my body I will rotate for intervals of sleep, I’d say I things are going top notch.  Scarfed down some oatmeal (with a healthy amount of brown sugar), some home fries, fruit, and a hot tea.  Fueled up, it’s time to fly.  Today’s stage would follow a portion of the Leadville 100 course, summiting hope pass and ending at twin lakes.

I sat next to Blaise on the transport vehicle as they schlepped us to the start line deep in the mountains.  Blaise is a fellow New Yorker, fellow Upper West-sider, and a bad ass runner in the Men’s 50+ age group.  We struck up a chat about the decrease in speed as you age, and suddenly I felt as though I had a racers biological clock, and my short game on the road would be the child left behind.  But, with a lack of oxygen and 3200ft of climbing ahead, I welcomed the distraction of today’s miles.

As the usual suspects toed the line, it was a race out of the gates, my quads were super thankful, (sike).  With the Flagstaff folks leading the charge, Alaska Chad and Caleb would make it a small lead pack slowly disappearing down the gravel road.  As we rounded the first station at mile 1.7, the weight of bricks on my chest (or just Colorado air, ya know) had me wondering why I was speeding up.  Without time to overthink, Yoann, (the Frenchie mountain man with vertical climbing skills that make the alps look like Harlem hill and the speed of freight train on the decent) and the Gu crew wasted no time climbing, chase pack 2 was off.

I looked at my watch, only having muscled up .4 miles since the accent started, I passed the section of tall pines where in the previous year Rivs accosted 2 branches to use as climbing poles. At that moment, I saw blood drip onto the trail.  It was coming from my mouth.  A lung Squeeze!?!? (Having just finished the book “One Breath” about free diving this was my initial reaction) Altitude doesn’t work that way, fat chance.  After a second investigation, I realized my nose bleed was back.  Perfect, just what I need, a loss of blood.

We broke from the tree line.  Tinder with his classy man bun, and few teams made up our chase pack as we weaved through the single-track switch backs.  The summit of hope pass was exposed in all its glory.  Ahead on the trail you could see the sequence of climbers that dropped us in the pines.  I was only left to believe they teleported up there, because they were crushing the pace.

As we summitted I had the honor of witnessing Tinder continue his tradition of full exposure as he traversed hope pass.  Arguably an eighth wonder of the world, and the single most motivation to get on my horse and descend with reckless speed, immediately.

Out of breath and panting, there was no time for recovery.  With 8 miles left and gravity on my side I opened up my stride and let my 10 toes lead the way.  The 3-mile descent consisted of rocks, with more rocks, and several mid run poses required of me that simulated Dabbing, to save me from flying over the trail edge of course.  Still having no air in my lungs from the constant exhale, I couldn’t give up the boost of speed from the decline.

The last 5 miles consisted of mostly flat trail with a scenic view of twin lakes.  Attempting to hold pace, keep my sugar level up, and be able to stand at the end of this stage, I settled in at a manageable pace and crossed the line for another day in the books.  13.1 miles and 32000 ft of climbing.

The big mountain days await.  Over 14000ft of climbing and 86 miles left it was time to let the body recover in the thin air of historical Leadville Colorado over 10,000ft above sea level.