Notes
Overall: 73rd team out of 149 teams. Stage 6 is the final leg of the journey of the 2013 edition of the TransRockies Run. One final push through the mountains surrounding Vail and Avon and then up (and finally down) into the finish line at Beaver Creek. At 8 AM sharp the runners departed Mountain Plaza in Vail for a short stint on the south side of the valley. Crossing over I-70 delivered the field to the North Trail. Two miles down, twenty to go.
The weather this week has been nothing short of perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. This morning, the runners spent the morning hours fully exposed to the overhead sun. As they criss-crossed their way up the North Trail and Buffer Creek, along the hard pack singletrack, the temperatures would continue to rise. By Checkpoint 1, at mile seven, 70 degrees would feel like 90 under the hot sun.
Double track trail led the runners to Checkpoint 2 at mile eleven. From there it was a technical descent down the Buck Creek trail, crossing the creek several times, followed by a short road run into Avon to Checkpoint 3 at mile 18. One last challenging climb up Elkhorn trail on pristine singletrack placed the runners high above the Beaver Creek finish line. At the top, with 1.6 miles to go, they descended down Lost Buck trail and across the Beaver Creek Resort bridge. Exhausted and elated, one-by-one, our Trail Striders finished with arms held high.