8th run at the long course at Burro Days in Fairplay. Jack and I came away 2nd for the third year in a row and the fourth time overall.
It was an interesting race morning, with the usual craziness of setting up burros, catching up with the burro family, and then seeing over a 1000 people watching this affair at the start line. 89 teams lined up with 20 planning to go long. Jack’s saddle had not made it from LVR, so Brad W did his magic and came up with an alternative saddle config (some stress there but Brad is a wizard at this stuff so we were fine).
Early on, I knew it was going to be a slow day. Jack and I were probably the 20th team out of town and as we climbed 9 out towards Alma I could see long coursers Kirk/Mary Margaret, Bob/Yukon Jack, and Shad/Action Jackson leading a charge over short course mini teams. With the long views that we get through those sections early I could see Jack and I were down as much as 90 seconds around miles 3 and 4. I knew this meant little so early in the race given our history but felt a bit anxious back so much so early. As we swung up through Billy Carter and to the power station at 9 and CR 12 we were cutting the lead down significantly. I was sort of surprised because Jack and I were running pretty slowly – which meant those guys were going even more slow.
The race always changes significantly at the short course turn around. Suddenly it was just the four of us and things really slowed down. We reached the dead white limousine split in 93 … a huge difference to some of the times in the past. And it was pretty much a hike after that uo to American Flats. Hal W/FTB came barreling up and gave a bit of a clinic for a few miles, even taking the lead for some. Joel P and his burro made chase in the background and so now there were six teams across 200 yards in the game.
KC/MM moved across the Flats as I would expect Jack and I would – meaning not running but at a good walking clip. Jack and I fell farther back and were moving slowly across the meadow. There was nothing I was going to do (or be willing to do) to make Jack move any faster and accepted our fate of some stops on the rock climbs and watching KC/MM walk up to the top about three minutes ahead of us in about 3:07. We hit the summit post in 3:10, about a minute behind Bob/YJ and Shad/AJ team. KC/MM started a bomb of the descent and very quickly they were out of sight as the rest of us (including Hal/FTB) regrouped for a slow trot down through the London Mine.
As we passed some folks watching I’d ask how far behind we were and I was getting feedback of 10-12 minutes. This was a lead built up in about a mile or two so I pretty much figured unless something went wrong it was just a fight for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places. Shad/AJ had saddle trouble and disappeared in the rear. Then Hal/FTB were gone and so Bob and I started the 8 something minute trot down the long dusty road of Mosquito Pass. Our pace was never aggressive but it was steady. Yukon had no interest in leading but would come up on us, and then back off. And again. And again. I smelled a tight finish between the two of us in town coming and so hoped that I could do a bit of the same sort of thing we did in 2015 with Justin and Yukon by sneaking away in the curves of the reeds of the paths below the power station.
As we came into the power station, JZ let me know we were 19 minutes down. Jack started his thing of absolutely knowing every where to turn on the course and steadily jogging it at 8-10 minute pace on the way back to town. Suddenly Bob and Yukon were well of view. We pass some short coursers.
On the final climb up the silly hill at the end I looked up and saw another short courser. As it turned out it was Kirk but I did not know it. We were probably still 45 seconds behind them at that point but we had apparently eaten almost all their lead. Had I known I probably would have been more aggressive in trying to catch them but at the same time I really don’t think it would have changed the result given how we finish coming into town. We finished about90 seconds behind in 6:08. There was a big crowd coming into the town so I hooped it up for Jack and did some screaming to make it a bit fun. As we crossed the line I asked Kirk how long they had been waiting for us because I thought he had been there for 20 minutes … I only realized then that we had nearly caught them.
It was fun to be out there, and I think I got everything out of Jack that I was going to get … but I’d be lying to state I am overjoyed with our third in a row finish as the bridesmaid there. That said, no burro has been more successful on that course over the last decade than Jack.
More later with results and pics. Thanks to all that made this happen. It is not trivial and I know that.
Headed up to Fairplay Friday night to get some altitude sleep in and to get some donkey prep time in before the race on Saturday. There was the typical set of donks, related donk community over at the Fairgrounds as Brad and his team set up saddles, etc.
It was pouring hard most of the morning. It had me seriously wondering how challenging the Sunday race was going to be as folks were predicting an all day rain fest. The rain did break a bit mid morning and that gave the llama racers a bit of break. 
I jogged with Greg, discussed doping (as that is what every runner talks about these days), and then did some strides in the parking lot with the kids. The boy decided to buzz by me on the strides and told me that my days of giving him a lead were done, but he’d be okay with giving me one now. I added on some miles once I got back to the house. 10.3 miles.
