What a day! Yes it was cold. Yes it was long. And I heard the hills were relentless, but I already knew that. I let some 200 plus other trail runners enjoy those hills on Saturday at the first of let's hope many Quad Rock 50 and 25 mile races.
As soon as race directors Pete and Nick informed me that this long-overdue event was about to become a reality, I couldn't wait to be a part of helping to show off some of the best running trails around. It was nice to hear all the positive comments from the runners about our trails that we probably take for granted. It was also reassuring to hear how difficult they thought the course was, making me think these are also pretty good training grounds. When world-class ultrarunner Dave Riddle tells me post-race that he's never raced anything close to this difficulty in his life, it puts a smile on my face. I then inform him that many of us search for bigger and steeper mountains on the weekends. Kudos to Dave for gutting it out to a 5th place finish.
What was most awesome about my day, however, was teaming up with some great people and providing support to the runners at the Horsetooth Aid Station. We got to help both our 25 and 50 mile runners early in the morning at 10 miles in, then for the many brave folks making the return loop, we got to see them again at mile 40. Since running in my first ultra event, I have always been amazed by the support of the volunteers. It is what really makes these events special. So I was more than glad to try to return the favor.
Thank you Kevin, Chris, Lisa, Molly, Ashley, Betsy, Dale, Beth, Shana, and Dick (our awesome LCSAR rep). We had over 200 pass through our aid station in the morning. We then had 99 come back to mile 40 in the 50 mile race. What is most cool is that all 99 made it to the finish line. Great work team!
All of my photos from the Horsetooth Aid Station can be seen here
Race Results here
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| Your Quad Rock 50 Winner! Ryan Burch defends the home turf. |
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| All prepped for a long, cold day. Bring on the runners. |
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| Horsetooth Rock is up there somewhere. |
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| Dick and Lisa fixing up some warm goodness. |
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| JT better bring his "A" game to Hardrock or drinks will be on him. |
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| Make yourself comfortable at Horsetooth Aid Station. |
Great aid station, thanks so much for being there.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the motivation to keep charging at Mile 40. Great race!
Did Dick get you thinking about joining LCSAR? That's certainly a noble and necessary service that seems intriguing.
Thanks for the beer!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being out there Rob! It was good to see a familiar face on the course. Definitely some tough trails, but well worth the trip down from SoDak.
ReplyDeleteMike: You hardly looked like you were working at mile 40. Glad if I was able to kick you into "racing" gear.
ReplyDeleteBrownie: You know there were no issues keeping the beers cold either. Anytime.
Chris: Nice job. Thanks for coming down and I hope to return to run those Black Hills again soon.
Oh yeah Mike, and Dick did have me pretty interested when he was describing the training that most of his fellow SAR mates were at that day.
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