El Vaquero Loco 50K -
I call this race, "The Revenge of Jon". After the thrashing I gave Jon at Logan Peak he was forced to quit his job and run full time logging 100+ mile weeks just to beat me at this race. He may claim it is all for the bear 100 that he wants to run, but it is a lie. In-fact, he even did a 4 day cold turkey taper so his legs could be rested. He claimed some phantom pain that magically disapeared on race day. What to believe?
Seriously, though I am glad that we were able to race the final in our two part series. We picked an awesome course and a great day to do it. Ty Draney (Race director) put on an excellent race. The course was an out and back 25K each way starting at ~7000 feet climbing to 10,000 feet, dropping to 9000' back up to 10K then a long down to 7000' before turning around and doing it all over again the opposite direction. The start finish was at Cottonwood Lake just outside of Afton WY. Absolutely beautiful terrain.
The race started in the morning dawn and was quite dark for the first mile or so. I was able to see Luke Nelson ease away from our lead pace group on pace to destroy his own course record again. Jon, a guy named Micah, and myself made up the chase pack with another group of 4 or so not too far behind. Jon set a solid pace up the first 4 mile climb (2800') and I hung on for dear life. I was fine as long as the trail was runnable. Once it got too steep and we were forced into a powerhike, I slipped back a few steps. That tendency would turn out to be a factor later on.
As we finally hit the saddle at 10K' we caught a look at what we would descend into and it took our breath away. The most beautiful mountain valley with a large cloud nestled into the bottom of it. An awesome sight. We made our way down the steep / rocky switchbacks and were soon running through the clouds. Jon faded into a fuzzy green and red blob due to the visibility (or the altitude affecting my brain). As we climbed another hill, we stumbled onto a lake. It was amazing. I have a hard time describing the scene and would have given my left shoe for a camera.
More climbing ensued and we hit another lake and another steep climb out the bowl. I lost a bit of ground on this last climb and Jon and Micah put 100 yards on me. I didn't fret and tried to relax on the downhill just running my own pace. I heard an animal in the bushes but it turned out to be Jon taking a pit stop. He caught me easily and worked his way up to near Micah as he had pulled away from me too. The turn-around was interesting as we were able to see our competition and see the time gaps. Luke was way ahead (10+ mins), Micah 2-3 mins and Jon 1 min ahead. We also had the 25K runners start as we approached the turn-around so we were forced to get past them in one direction then work our way through the entire pack (or those that we could) and get past them. It actually turned out to be not a big deal as they were kind to step off the trail when we asked to get by.
The turn-around was the low point of the course and it was a long 8 mile climb to get back to the lakes. I stuck to my low (aka slow) gear and ran all I could on that climb. I enjoyed having roadkill the whole way to motivate me. About 4 miles up the trail I caught and passed Micah who was in a bad place both mentally and physically (went out too hard?). Now I only had to somehow catch Jon who was both climbing and descending better then me. My only hope was that he was falling apart worse than me. I finally got my first glimpse of him a half mile up the mountain at about mile 24. I timed his gap at 5 mins.
This section of the race was a blur as I worked through my fatigue and focused on hydration and fuel. I stopped at most of the creek crossings to pour water on the head and cool off. The cool morning clouds were long gone and the sun was beating down. The lakes were pretty in the mid day sun, but didn't hold a candle to what we saw earlier in the day. As I hit the last aid I saw Jon hiking up the nasty 500' climb to the summit. I timed him twice on that climb. First at 5 mins then at 6 mins. Shoot. He saw me and sped up. Or I slowed down. Or my power hike speed just plain sucks.
Once at the top, a deep breath and a big plunge down the 2800' descent. I knew I wouldn't make up 5 mins on the descent and really only wanted to keep the gap decent. I knew it was going to be close so I pushed as hard as I could and tried not to fall on my face. The finish finally approached and I was quite happy to be done. I finished and looked for Jon. He was smiling and showed my his watch which showed the time difference between him and I. It read 5:39. After a combined 60 miles of racing less than a min seperated us. Crazy. Oh, I suppose I should mention that the 30 seconds or so is in MY favor. HA! Luckily I am not running the Bear 100 or he would take over the lead by a few hours.
Luke broke his won course record again, with Jon being the second fastest person to run the course ever and I following as the third fastest ever. Cool. Micah finished about 30 mins later with Leland Barker not far behind.
Sport Tracks stats:
9000' vert climbing and the same descending. I spent 59.2% of the race (time-wise) climbing, 33.1% descending and 7.7% on the flats. Kind of cool. Slowest mile was 19:54 (net gain of 889 feet). Fastest mile was 6:51 (mile 29). I guess I was going so slow at times that it thought I had stopped. It showed 41 mins of time stopped. I think I spent 5 mins max stopped at aid stations. ** Weekly summary 65 miles 11,900' vert
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