Notes
Today marked our last full day in Telluride and ever since my terrible performance at the Rundola race on the 4th of July I have been planning to do the "race" again on our final day to see if I had managed to improve in our five weeks here. The official race is a "go as you please" route, meaning you can pick any way you like to get to the finish line. It seems that nearly all the racers choose the short cuts but they are wicked steep and without extreme lung capacity I have become convinced that NOT taking all the short cuts might work out better.
I have been up this route several times since we have been here and taking the fire road is very hard but not the lung-busting activity that the short cuts are. The most direct route is 1.5 miles and the fire road is 2.6.
Today I chose not to take the very first short cut. It buys you little in terms of shaving distance off the course but it puts an almost immediate stake in your heart that will have you bleeding out long before the final pitch. From there though I took them all until the final pitch which has you hands in dirt and climbing to the finish line. I still had to stop four times and put my head between my knees to catch my breath and I also felt like fainting somewhere half way up the last climb I did to the fire road. I was half sorry for this but it did remind me that I was taking things seriously since I really did think I would pass out. When I got to the fire road I had to walk for half a minute but then ran the final half mile into the finish line. I had to sit for a good long time with my head down (just like race day) to recover before jogging down the hill.
I was super happy to shed 3 minutes from my race day time while adding a small bit of distance. I had to adjust the mileage on this log to 1.5 from 1.65 as it will only figure half mile increments. My actual time was 49 minutes for 1.65 miles compared to 52 minutes for 1.5 on race day. Yay. I guess ;)