Sunday 081014Buena Vista Gold Rush Days

Sixth today, and so obviously short of any Triple Crown.

But Justin nailed the win.  That was incredibly satisfying.  Justin was the guy who nudged by hand to get into the sport.  Along the way, he has had tough times:  a lost saddle, uncooperative donks, burros that get away from him …he has had a lot of reason to walk away from this nutty game given those frustrations,  but he has stuck at it and kept coming back.  He raced hard today (he actually went on his back UNDER a 800 pound donkey while we were racing), worked for the win and got it.  It is fair to say the fastest runner and burro on the course today got the win.  Well done man and congratulations.  It will be interesting to see what the game to come will be with this team!

Jack and I just did not have the wheels to compete today.  That said, Jack ran more of this course percentage wise than he has run the last two weeks.  And he ran well.  It is just that there were faster burros out there today. 

We got out in our slower fashion, which has been fine this year, but with the course closing up quickly to single track above the Arkansas, we quickly lost ground to the faster racers.  I am not sure even if we had got out as quick as they did that we would been able to have held the pace that the younger donks had going on – Jack is just not that speedster anymore.  Justin and Yukon Jack, Patrick Sweeney and Scratch, and Hal and Full Tilt Boogie were operating at a better gear today.  Kudos to them.

Picture from Caleb Wilson:

Once we had hit up to the road / old rail bed grade above the river (Justin’s report on the lower chaos covers it well), Jack bridged us up nicely over about a mile and a half to a group that was about 200 yards ahead.  This group included Bobby Lewis and Barb Dolan – multiple time winners in this sport.  At the other end, a 14 year old girl, Lynzi  was right in the mix with us and her burro Dakota.  And we had a couple of others.  We had a pack and it would stay this way for all of the race. 

It felt wonderful.  I was enjoying Jack moving well as I had been concerned about him after last week (he seemed tired!).  I was enjoying the views.  I was enjoying the back and forth between our peleton.  Everyone led at some point (well mostly Barb but still we all had a shot) and we all brought up the rear at some point.  I realized about half way into the race that we had no shot at rolling up the leaders – they were gone and were not going to make any significant mistakes to bring them back. 

I really had no issue with this today.  If Jack and I were in it, we’d look to win it, but it was not playing out that way and I was not surprised.  This course did not play well to the strengths we had leveraged in the prior races – long climb to altitude (the BV race’s high point is lower than the low points at Fairplay and Leadville), long drops back to town, a significant distance (12 miles today versus 29 and 20), and broader trails and roads (you can get a bit more stuck in the single track).  I knew that I could look to “drive” Jack hard, but that felt wrong to me.  I was not certain he’d respond well to it, that it might not make much of a difference anyway, and it would seem spiteful in light of the great runs he gave us the two weeks before.  I realized I could finish 4th or 11th or somewhere in between but it was all going to be fun today.  And it was.

On the way home today with TZ I was sharing why I do this burro race thing.  It is for a bunch of reasons.  First, it was something couched in an activity that was familiar to me.  Running was incredibly familiar.  This was not like I had to learn something completely new like riding an animal.  But it was a bit unfamiliar too.  I had to learn how to work with this animal that really had no idea that it was going to travel 29 miles on some day.  I had to learn the saddle, the rope, the communication and subtle cues given by this quiet but strong creature.

I got into it because it was close.  I mean if this was in Durango, I’d probably not be doing it.  But it is in Fairplay.  My in laws live there.  I love the South Park region, and this triangle of Fairplay, Leadville and BV is truly a wonder of Colorado. 

I do it because my family enjoys it.  It is not just another race I go off and do but it is one my family immerses themselves in and laughs at. 

I do it because I have had some success.  To deny that would be a lie.  Heck, I have raced Jack in 8 burro races and we have won 4.  We have always finished in the money and have never finished worse than 7th. 

But I also do it because it has this ridiculous element:  you have competitive people engaging in a competitive team event and so they want to do well.  However it is a team sport and sometimes that team member does not give a crap about how bad you want to win or run or do well or beat that other person or burro team.  They really don’t care.  It sets up for an activity that is actually ridiculous because when things are NOT going well you as the human can be really frustrated with that.  And what I see is that I can get then FRUSTRATED with be FRUSTRATED.  This was Leadville for me last year.  I was irked that we were not moving.  But I could see it was all an exercise in folly – why was I getting pissed at this.  And that really irked me.  How foolish could I be?

But in that moment comes a touch of clarity.  It brought me to a moment of seeing what I wanted, how I reacted, and how I wanted to react and what I really wanted.  Why it takes a long run in a race to realize this with a donkey is probably a better question, but we can pose that another time.

I felt like I struck a touch of that clarity today.  A win would have been nice, but I had a run where I could see the gifts I had been given, and I could truly enjoy those and where I was and what I had, versus grasping at something else, the next thing.  Yeah, I know it sounds new age namby pamby to say that it was not a Triple Crown, but a prize that I could really enjoy.  But I mean it.

We descended back into town and I had the lead on the trail and the bridge as we came in.  As we hit the road, the WHOLE pack went by Jack and I.  Out pack had splintered a touch so we were just down to five of us, but we now were in the read with about a quarter mile to go.  Jack rallied a touch however and we were able to move through and grab sixth, with Lynzi and Dakota, and Bobby and Wellstone slipping ahead of of – and with all of our places being just a couple of seconds apart. 

Picture from Caleb Wilson.

Picture from Patrick Sweeney.

It was a fun day.

It has been a blast for burro racing season, and again, I thank Jack, Bill, Hal, the Wanns, the whole racing community, my family, and all that came out to support us.

Oh – a little hail on the way home through Fairplay …