Notes
Headwaters Day 1
After a hectic night of finding a campsite, we woke up before 5 to get to the 5:30 starting line. Here is my day:
9:30am: Warm-up; nearly a mile of easy jogging and stretching.
10am: Leg 9; I was granted the longest leg of the relay, sort of the iconic leg to do. It was the only singletrack so it was "unsupported" (no cars nearby, I had to bring my own water). It also had the biggest climb, and biggest descent of any other leg, 1900ft up, 2800ft down (though "only" at ~6000ft altitude). I started conservatively, but that didn't matter, it was a long uphill. Thankfully it wasn't constant climbing, I had respites of a few downhills, though I stopped cruising on those pretty quickly.
The penultimate climb was the hardest, all out in the open and just constant switchbacks. But I never walked and made it to the false summit (though the rest of the climb was fine). Almost 40minutes to reach the top, 3.5 miles. I did retrace my route some to make sure I was going the right way, since the directions said to not go left at the top and I could only find 1 option, but I seemed to be on the right path.
The first 3 miles of the downhill were much like the uphill, steep and rocky singletrack. It of course felt amazing to go downhill and I sprinted as much as I could, but the rocks made it difficult and I did twist my left ankle a few times (though it didn't seem to swell today or any other day). The final 3 miles were rocky, gravel roads that I was more confident in. I was cruising close to 5min pace and maybe wondering if it was worth it as my quads would certainly be hurting tomorrow and my abs hurt now. Finished in 1:18, for about 8min pace.
12:30: Leg 12: Miler's Revenge; I didn't have another leg today, but this one has 7 people doing a mile each so I was drafted. My mile was slightly hillier than others but not bad, nor was the heat. I ran about 5:05 supposedly, which wasn't easy but not terrible. Might have done some cool-down.