Well, that was incredibly nice.
Yeah, I know this is (and my other reports are) long, but that is for the supposed someday when I want to go back and recall this stuff.
I was fairly unsure how Burro Days, a 29 mile run from the town of Fairplay to Mosquito Pass and back would play out. The run on Saturday felt a bit more labored than I had hoped. I chalked it up to coming from sea level to 10k feet in pretty short order, but I also knew that was not going to go over night. In the AM before the race, I chatted with Brad M (Jack the burro’s owner) and told him I was just happy to be out enjoying another day in the mountains. And it was true. With burro racing, you can be prepared fitness-wise, but how things go with the burro can throw all sorts of curveballs. I was happy to just be out there enjoying and smiling.
After the morning preliminaries with the family, getting the burros set, I lined up with Jack in Burro Days largest field ever: 55 racers! It was crowded at the start. Not wanting to get drug out of town at sub 5 pace like 2010, I lined up a ways towards the back. Jack got out well, but we were smack dab in the middle of the field, and the first drop into the fork the Platte had runners and burros queued up on the shoulder of route 9.
Running easy, I got my first view of the field ahead as we went through the quarry area. I did some counting and figured I was in about 18th place. And with this calculation came a swift reminder from the back of my brain: don’t think about place. don’t think about where you will end up. let it happen and whatever happens is good.
Nonetheless through the rolling fields west of route 9, we were moving up, moving steady and moving easy. It was a little warm and I knew I’d have some burnt shoulders under at 2 mile high sun. It seemed we were suddenly at the power sub station heading up Mosquito Pass road. I took water at almost all of the checkpoints, but kept moving. I usually would grab a mouthful or two, but then dump the rest of it over the back of Jack in an effort to keep him a bit cooler. I am not sure if he minded or not, but he was moving well.
We kept moving well up county road 12. I know this road well. Its early stretches are a low low grade, slowing climbing out of the river valley to the steeper slopes leading to the Mosquito Range. Again, the time just seemed to disappear and we were heading into the small mountain community of Park City. I though I was in about fourth or fifth place here but I could not quite make out how many were ahead in the distance.
This photo from Amber Canterbury, via Facebook
Runners began to turn around: the race has a 29 mile distance and a 15 mile distance. The first 15 miler back was a small very fit looking woman. For the briefest of moments, I contemplated hitting the turn around and racing her back, but I knew that was not really an option. I looked up ahead and about 300 yards climbing the hill out of town was Hal Walter: six time champ, and probably a second place guy another dozen times. And nobody else.
I caught up to Hal over the next mile and we started to work together. Pack burros are that: pack animals. Having one go will usually motivate the others to go. We’d run side by side, or he’d get 20 yards ahead or vice versa. Back and forth it went. We did a lot of this in 2010, and took the time to catch up, chatting on running, family, work, and the like.
The Mosquito Pass road splits, and the route most take is to the right. The race goes off to the left here, and the road gets much rougher pretty quick, both in terms of grade and how well it is graded. In some regards it is welcome: you get away from people and cars who are very distracting to the burros. The burros were not particularly motivated to move fast here and we walked nearly all of this up to the pass. On some of the flatter stuff we’d get a little jog or two but the burros were content to walk 20 something minute miles. I was content to hang with Hal. I knew there was still more miles of racing than what we had done, and that making a break here was unlikely. Still we’d taffy out, with one or the other of us getting 50 yards ahead before we’d naturally regroup.
We’d look back occasionally and could see nobody. My brain would start to churn, and I’d remind myself how this was not really about that, and that I just needed to enjoy this day in the hills. And that a lot could still happen.
We stepped off the road for the cut across American Flats. This is one of the harder sections for the burros because there is not much a trail they can see. We can see the flag markers but they don’t seem to pay attention to that. About 400 vertical feet below the pass, I started wondering if there was some sort of prize for first to the summit, and so I looked to motivate Jack ahead. I’d get a good lead, but then I’d make an error with Jack and he’d stop and Hal would be right there. I was able to get a little day light as we came up to the pass, and I got there about 10 yards before Hal.
I was thankful for a couple of things at the pass: first we had beat any afternoon thunderstorms (thus far), and that Brownie and $100 were up there cheering me on. It was pretty cool to see them, and particularly up there as it is not easy to get to. There are some HAM radio operators up there too. In other words guys that sit up there with a large metal stick. Not sure about that.
Pix from JT. He also has some video up.
I did some quick liquid replenishment and started heading down with Hal. Hal was getting out ahead of me pretty quickly. His burro, Laredo, seemed much more at ease with this part of the road. I would not call it technical, but it is not smooth. Lots of rocks, and some rolling stuff. Jack was more cautious and so by the gap above London Mine, Hal had built about 100 yards on us. Things start to smooth a bit though as the road descends and Jack closed the gap.
And now I let my mind, some 3 and half hours into the event start to turn towards race thoughts. I figured if I had any chance, it would be on the 10 mile stretch of the Mosquito Pass road. It would be smoother, and so Jack would be comfortable in moving on that. I figured I could move better than Hal (as I am 10 years his junior), but I was not sure how long Jack would last. A burro can just elect to stop and … well, that is it until they decide to go again. As we were coming into the bridge where the road goes from pretty rough to pretty smooth, we hit the last switchback and BOOM. Hal took a big digger, and somersaulted over, all still while keeping hold of Laredo.
I stopped and checked on him. He had a gash on his elbow, but not too bad. I could see right away however he was tensing up and that his muscles were spasming. I could see a pretty big knot building out of his calf. Yes – I could literally see it. I immediately put my thumb into it to get it to relax. We took a few minutes to get him up, and then we got going again. I could tell he was a bit shaken up, but he said other than his hand he felt okay in the legs.
We crossed that bridge, and surprising the people here were all not facing the road or the runners. In the distance, and I could see it too, a moose was making its way up the hillside Pretty cool and a much better attraction to look at. As I had now committed, I got to work. I started to run a bit harder, but Hal was right there. I’d get a bit of a lead, and then some car would pass, Jack would slow and Hal was right there. But then I got ten yards, another ten, and then I could not hear him any more.
Coming back to the road split, my in laws and JZ had driven up. JZ jumped out and got me some Gatorade (other than Gatorade, all I had all race was a Cliff Bar and water. Four pieces of toast and some Powerbar “chomps” in the AM) and ran with me for a bit. I asked him if he could see Hal and he said no. I still was not convinced that I had enough of a lead. I knew a single stop could turn this around quick.
More running and Jack was moving well. He was periodically slowing so I would look to drive the pace a bit. I kept expecting him to stop and I figured I better take whatever pace he could give me while he had it. I looked to keep the pace under 8. I figured too much faster than that and Jack would start to cave, and much slower Hal would be back on my shoulder. Cloud cover helped here a ton.
JZ ran with me a bit more further down the road and I asked him about the lead again and he said that they had waited at the last checkpoint and I was about 3 minutes ahead. Damn. Still not enough. The road ran out and we came to the power sub station. Five miles to go and I was a bit worried about how Jack would do in this section. In 2010, this was one of the areas where he decided he was done and was going to eat. This year, he just found the trail and kept on trucking! With each stretch closer, I could feel the line and so excitement building, but also knew that a late pass by Hal would be increasingly a crushing blow. With about a mile left, with several long looks back, I started to think, “holy crap, this can really happen!” We started to pass a few of the last 15 milers. We climbed up out the river and started the run into town. Loads of people cheering, including the the Old Colorado City ambassadors who were at the local watering hole.
We crossed the line and Brad and his wife Amber were there. I gave them both a big hug. This was so awesome for all of us. I did some yelling about burros and Fairplay and not needing the Olympics to everyone in the crowd to vent my excitement and bowed to Jack in gratitude.
I realize how ridiculous this race is, but it felt so incredibly gratifying that I had won it. I realize that such a thing may never happen again, and I really tried to soak up the moment. I really did not know what to do other that. All sorts of people were coming up and congratulating me and telling me how awesome it was. My head was spinning: I am just a corporate weenie guy with a family out having a good time – but hell yeah, my name is going to be on that sign!
JZ and I spent the remainder of the evening watching the remaining burros and their runners coming in. In between we had great food at the Hand Hotel, enjoying conversations with the Pack Burro racing crew. I caught up with Hal (he finished second), and he admitted that he was a too bit shook up after the fall. He kept fighting as he knew that anything could happen, but he was clearly off his game after that. Curtis Imire was 4th – finishing his 40th year of this race. Read that: 40 YEARS!!! Bill Lee and an other runner came in around 11 hours. It was great to be there at their finish.
I have to thank Jack, the Wann family, Bill Lee for all their help. Thanks to anyone who ever gave me encouragement about this burro racing thing by laughing about it. I seriously did not take that as an insult, but really just as feedback as to how much it is better to do things while laughing about it. Brownie and $100 – thanks for coming out and I hope to see you guys racing it next year. Justin – thanks to you in particular for motivating me to get off my ass in 2010 and do this. And of course – my family! Thank you guys because I am pretty sure I was not going to do this one this year until you told I ABSOLUTELY HAD NO CHOICE AND WAS GOING TO. I love you guys and thanks all!
More pix to come once I get them from the fam.
