Vail Hill Climb Race

Earlier this week, I received an email from Colorado Runner Magazine letting me know about a trail race series in Vail. The second race in the series just so happened to be a hill climb race at altitude and over the upcoming weekend. Thus far, my altitude training for Imogene has included one run above 9000 feet. Period. Needless to say, I need a lot more high altitude training under my belt before I attempt 17.5 miles and over 5500 feet of elevation gain. This run seemed to fit perfectly into my training schedule with a little over two months of training left: a 7.5 mile hill climb starting at 8,250 feet and ending at 10,335 feet (gaining 2100 feet). So, on Saturday morning Ben and I woke way too early and drove up to Vail so I could run the race. 

The day was ideal for racing: a cool 50 degrees and a little sunshine. I was surprised to hear that there were a little over 400 competitors, including some of the top trail runners in the state, signed up for the race. Not knowing how I would fair on the course, I was comforted knowing there would be plenty of competition to help me up the mountain. After a five minute delay due to moose (a mama and baby) on the trail, we left Vail Village to climb to the top of Vail Mountain.

I sat back from the lead pack, unsure of where I should be racing but very sure that I did not want to start off too hard only to be found later wandering off the side of the mountain, delirious from oxygen-debt, altitude sickness and exhaustion. In retrospect, I probably should have started off a little stronger with a pack of girls I was about 100 meters behind when we started the ascent. 

Ben was able to ride the gondola up to the finish line while I raced. He had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery before the first finishers came through and snapped a few pictures including Mount Powell and Mount of the Holy Cross while he waited. Meanwhile, I was crawling up the mountain watching the mile markers as I slowly moved passed them, praying for that last turn to the finish line. The course was pretty tolerable in that along with the hill climb came a few level sections of road leaving some room for recovery. My goals for the race included 1) finishing, 2) running the entire course, and 3) not to develop any altitude sickness symptoms (or pancreatitis, which unfortunately happened to me once during a trail run in La Crosse). I guess I had little, if any, control over the third goal, but I knew that hydration and self-restraint (pace!) would help. Fatigue came in waves and presented itself in many forms. There was the general cardiovascular fatigue (lungs) which, admittedly, I didn't experience all that often, the leg fatigue including a little cramping in the calves and hips (I felt like a PAD patient), stomach cramps, dizziness and plain old exhaustion. The worst of it was the leg fatigue: I just couldn't turn them over after 6 miles. I let two females (probably both in my age group) pass me in that time with no hopes of catching them again. The last mile and a half dragged on and on as we climbed up and up. Of course, the trail was generally more difficult at the end because of the high altitude, but I'm also fairly certain the hill grade was the steepest in the end. Many, many people were walk-running intermittently and I gave in on one of the very last climbs to the finish and walked. I was dizzy and near complete exhaustion. Those are my excuses, anyway. I walked for about 30 seconds and started back up the final stretch. I had nothing left to give and you can see that in my finishing photos. 

I took a very long time to recover after I finished, but I did it! I ran the 7.5 mile race in 1:12:34, which is 9:40 pace. It seems so slow to me, but to put my pace into perspective, the winning female (who you can read a little about here) ran 8:46 min/mile pace. The results show that I was fourth in my age group and the 12th overall female. After the fact, I'm cursing myself for letting those two females get so far ahead of me at the end of the race. Easy to say now that it's over. 

Overall I'm very pleased with my performance. With zero high altitude race experience, I think I managed to keep myself in the competition fairly well. I was never all that cardiovascularly fatigued - in fact, most people around me were breathing much harder than I - which tells me I just need a little more training at altitude and stronger legs and I'll be pretty competitive. If I'm still in Colorado next summer, I'd like to give this race another go and compete with the top females.

Finally recovered enough to move around again:

You can see the results here.