Runs With Mascara: TransRockies. A Brief Check In.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

TransRockies. A Brief Check In.

It's been three days since we returned from Colorado and while Dana jetted off directly to Penticton, Canada to meet up with her boyfriend, Brian, who was chasing his own goals at Ironman, I came back to San Francisco to nurse my newly dead toenails and the accumulating blisters from the final 2 days.

(Registration pick-up day, Buena Vista, CO)

For both of us, it's still going to take some time to wrap our heads around describing all that we saw and felt and experienced, and everyone we met.

(Day 3, Leadville, CO)

But for those of you who hate suspense, in a nutshell: we rocked it...relatively speaking.

Goal 1: Have fun. SO DONE!
Goal 2: Make it to the starting line each day. SIX OF SIX!
Goal 3: Make it to the finish each day. SIX OF SIX!
Goal 4: Run strong when we can, do our best when we can't. DONE. DONE. DONE.
Goal 5: Finish strong. OH HELL YES.

(Day 2, top of Hope Pass, 12,000+ elevation)

Dana provided a quick synopsis of our stages:

Stage 1: Sam feeling okay, Dana good

Stage 2: Dana in pain cave, Sam on fire

Stage 3: Sam and Dana both have a good day, phew

Stage 4: Dana feels great, Sam on top of world beating Dana up and down hills. Awesome!!!! Want to barf at forced sprint to solidify 5th place in stage finish.

Stage 5: Both okay to start. Bit of nausea for both. We pass our competition, they pass us back, repeat x7 at least!. Sam has worst blisters I have ever seen. Sam finds f**k you blister gear and we run in at 8 min miles. Flying high with hope. Unsure if we will be able to walk tomorrow!

Stage 6: Sam tapes all her toes. Try to find reserve strengths. Sam pulls start. Dana pulls middle. Together we make it up final death march of endless hill to final 2 mile ripping downhill into Beaver Creek. We pass yogis in final 300 yards. Hugs. Tears. Awesomeness.

(Big air)

Final numbers: 28 hours+ of running; 6th place out of 14 in our age group; 2 5th place stage finishes (technically giving us a Top Five spin)

(Day 6, the finish at Beaver Creek)

So much more to share and show but will have to wait. Oh, and yes, we did wear mascara the whole time. And we looked damn good. Stay tuned.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Runs with Mascara

Who is Team Runs with Mascara?

Runs with Mascara is Dana Katz and Samantha Pinney - training partners and friends for the past 3 years; adventurers with a flair for musicals and running skirts, and a generous respect for looking good when sweating hard. While they’ve had many adventures across the West, one of their more epic spans was a week they spent racing from the Bizz Johnson trail marathon in northern California to rappeling in Arches National Park, to biking the White Rim Trail in southern Utah to running the Moab Half Marathon. This is their first race endeavor as a team under the name RWM.

Samantha Pinney overcame the malls of her New Jersey youth for an obsession with the outdoors that carries her from skiing to ultra running to outrigger canoeing and whatever adventures she can find. She can’t imagine life without running skirts, flip flops or beanies and wields a kettle ball as deftly as she does a mascara wand. She competed in the 2010 Crossfit Team Games, has multiple top 10 finishes to her name but can’t throw a softball to save her life. She’d like to be a better surfer.

Dana Katz is a recovering triathlete and cyclocross racer turned ultrarunner. She eats hills for breakfast that she doctors with homemade concoctions of flaxseed and ginger granola in her ongoing quest to create ridiculously healthy and delicious meals. Dana is a globetrotter who in a recent span ran a ½ marathon in Brazil, a trail run in Sweden, a marathon in northern California and a harried loop amongst the monuments of Washington D.C. before boarding a plane. She doesn’t leave home without her running skirt and snacks. Don’t let Dana’s easy-going, amicable personality fool you: she trains like a warrior and competes with a vengeance.