Running Across Colorado

It was this time last year that me and 11 other clowns jumped into 2 different mini vans and ran from Breckenridge all the way to Snowmass.

This year, I did it again. The only difference is that this year there's not a lot of hard evidence since I forgot the one and only most important thing one is supposed to bring to a relay race: my camera.

The weekend started off with the Broncos-Ravens game. Let me tell you: IT WAS AWESOME. Yes, we CRUSHED the Ravens. That always feels good. We arrived at Randy's house in Frisco for the 4th qtr to some amazing dinner and to get to meet the whole team. I, the team captain, went over some rules and gave my team their tshirts and goodie bags.

Go Broncos! 

Friday morning started off at 10am for us with our first runner heading out. My brother Antonio, myself and Linds were runners 1, 2 and 3 and we all struggled with heat.  It was hot and we ran our longest runs. The other 3 runners had nicer weather with some cloud coverage. After that we handed the baton (slap bracelet) to the other half of our team and we stopped at Bob's in Avon for food. Service was... bad. But we were hungry, so we put up with it.

Start line in Copper Mountain

After dinner we went to Edwards to try and nap for a little while and at 11pm we started our second legs. Brother Antonio and I had our shortest runs then. It was mid 60s and it was slightly drizzling so we both had some great fast runs. I was pleased with my run. Our other runners had great runs at night as well, but we were pretty tired afterwards and just drove out to Glenwood to sleep once more.

Antonio getting ready to start his night run

At around 4:30ish in the morning we got a call from our other van saying they were almost done. The early wake up call is horrible, but Antonio got ready fast and was ready to go. Even though his last leg was mostly uphill he had a killer run and showed up 5ish minutes ahead of schedule and I wasn't even ready. As I finished putting on my reflective vest I sprinted off on my run.  I had done that exact same leg 6 years ago on my first relay ever and it was horrible. I was dreading it, but I was passing people left and right and ended up having a killer run. Even better than my night one EVEN THOUGH it had 800ft of elevation gain... I still managed to maintain an average pace under 10 minutes per mile. I felt great. And then I immediately had a beer.

Beer at 9am tastes better

Lindsay chose coke...

...lots of it. 

The people in our van finished their runs strong. And we handed the baton to the last 6 guys. We had breakfast in Basalt and then headed over to Snowmass for a nap and to meet up with the rest of the team around 1:30pm on Saturday. Once our last runner started his run, we headed to Snowmass Resort to wait for him, we enjoyed a couple drinks and had our champagne bottles ready.

Team, this is your captain speaking. 

Robb finished strong and we followed. And we celebrated. With champagne, with pictures. We then drove to Aspen and celebrated more. With beer, pizza and a pool party. We then went out and celebrated more with dinner, drinks and deep fried oreos. That's right: fried oreos.

Finisher's picture with fake medal

And since there's NOTHING better than fried oreos. I think this is where I stop writing and I let you daydream about the fried oreos.