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Imogene Pass Run: the most fun I've ever had while wanting to throw up!
Saturday was the Imogene Pass Run: 17 miles (plus two blocks) from Ouray (7810 ft) to Telluride (8820 ft), over 13,120 foot Imogene Pass. That's over 5000 vertical feet up in 10 miles, followed by over 4000 feet down in 7 miles, most of it on a rough and rocky 4WD road. It was the most awesomely fun race I have ever run.
On Friday night I rode up to Ouray with my friend Kristin. We had dinner with Karah, who I had met through the Runner's World website and who I was sharing a room with, and then went to the orientation slideshow. Afterward, Karah and I soaked in our hotel's outdoor hot springs tub and scarfed down our dinner leftovers. Cold pasta, mmm.
Saturday morning was cold but mostly clear, and the forecast was for perfect weather. Ouray sits in a steep-sided bowl of mountains so we were still in shadow at the 7:30 am start; I don't think I was in the sun until about mile 6. I wore shorts, a thin technical t-shirt, a thin silk long-sleeve shirt (which I removed around mile 7), and the chip timer that Karah and I immediately nicknamed the "LoJack" for its similarity to a house-arrest ankle bracelet. I wore a small hydration pack with about a liter of water, three gels, some dried fruit, toilet paper, a hat and gloves (which I put on at the summit but took off after maybe a mile), and my rain jacket (which I didn't wear on the course but needed on the bus on the way back to Ouray). Some people had stranger things in/on their packs.
The gun sounded, and off we went - all 1100 or so of us. This is the largest race I've run so far, and it was a kick to be surrounded by so many people! We poured out onto Highway 550, then cross-country up a steep hill to the Camp Bird Road - whammo, not even a mile in and already I had to slow to a walk. Fortunately, once we got to the Camp Bird Road the grade eased. Relatively speaking; the first 5.5 miles have an average grade of 6.8%. Of course that average includes flat sections as well as 11% grade hills! I think I ran about 75% of this section, with an average pace of about 13:30 per mile. I had hoped/guesstimated that I could make between 12 and 15 minutes per mile, so I was happy.
More photos, climbing Unconformity Hill around mile 4: the ants go marching three by three, hoorah, hoorah!
Then we crossed a bridge and turned sharply uphill, past a lovely old Victorian house that was the Camp Bird Mine's superintendent's residence, and started to really climb. We switchbacked through the forest and came out into the sun. We crossed the board that had been laid over Imogene Creek as a temporary bridge, climbed some more, and finally reached the Upper Camp Bird aid station at 7.7 miles and 11,235 ft, which was pretty much treeline.
The 2.2 miles between the Victorian house and the aid station climb nearly 1500 feet - an average grade of 12.7%. I walked probably 75% of this - my average pace for these miles was about 17:40. Still, I had wanted to reach Upper Camp Bird in less than 2 hours, and I got there in 1:54 by my watch, yay. (Anyone who doesn't get there in 2 hours 30 min after the start is DQ'ed and turned back.)
At this point, the climb gets simply ridiculous: the easy bits are "only" 15%, interspersed with 20%+ sections. Of the 2.3 miles to the summit, I think I ran maybe 50 yards, in the single flat spot around mile 9.3. My average pace here was about 26:30. Pretty much everyone around me was walking. Interestingly, during the first part of the run I found myself passing people while running but getting passed while walking. Up above 12,000 feet I was passing people while walking. I think I was just more adapted to altitude because of all the backpacking and thirteener climbing we did this summer. Still, I felt like I was going to puke - partly because I hadn't felt like eating early, and then made the mistake of grabbing the M&Ms at the aid station near mile 5. I ate one M&M and my stomach said NO.
And then...all of a sudden...I was at the pass! Amazing! You know that wonderful feeling you get when you've made it to the top of a mountain on your own steam, either hiking or bicycling, and you're at the TOP and you DID IT and WOW? It was fabulous. I felt fantastic. Suddenly I didn't want to puke anymore. I grabbed a cup of hot chicken noodle soup from the aid station volunteers, and it was the best thing I'd ever tasted. (They also had Twizzlers, which I took some of, cookies, pretzels, M&Ms, and gigantic bottles of ibuprofen and aspirin.) I looked down at the switchbacks I'd just ascended and felt all goosebumpy happy. I'd done it! I was on top of the pass!
Despite the gorgeous weather, it was windy and chilly on the pass. I put on my long-sleeved shirt and my gloves before heading down. I had wanted to make the summit in less than three hours, and I had done it with about six minutes to spare.
Now it was time to go down. It was 7 miles downhill to Telluride, at an average grade of 11%, and let me tell you, steep and rocky downhill is just as hard (in a different way) as uphill. I didn't take any photos on the way down, because I was too busy trying not to fall on my butt, but the official photographer got a shot of me here just after the summit. You can also see a lot of the descent route on the large size picture of this shot I took from the Telluride mountain gondola after I finished.
I averaged about 11 minute miles and made it to the finish line with a time of 4:10:42, 19th out of 73 finishers in my age group. I was hoping to get in under four and a half hours, so I'm really happy with that time.
All the photos on my Flickr page are here.
On Friday night I rode up to Ouray with my friend Kristin. We had dinner with Karah, who I had met through the Runner's World website and who I was sharing a room with, and then went to the orientation slideshow. Afterward, Karah and I soaked in our hotel's outdoor hot springs tub and scarfed down our dinner leftovers. Cold pasta, mmm.
Saturday morning was cold but mostly clear, and the forecast was for perfect weather. Ouray sits in a steep-sided bowl of mountains so we were still in shadow at the 7:30 am start; I don't think I was in the sun until about mile 6. I wore shorts, a thin technical t-shirt, a thin silk long-sleeve shirt (which I removed around mile 7), and the chip timer that Karah and I immediately nicknamed the "LoJack" for its similarity to a house-arrest ankle bracelet. I wore a small hydration pack with about a liter of water, three gels, some dried fruit, toilet paper, a hat and gloves (which I put on at the summit but took off after maybe a mile), and my rain jacket (which I didn't wear on the course but needed on the bus on the way back to Ouray). Some people had stranger things in/on their packs.
The gun sounded, and off we went - all 1100 or so of us. This is the largest race I've run so far, and it was a kick to be surrounded by so many people! We poured out onto Highway 550, then cross-country up a steep hill to the Camp Bird Road - whammo, not even a mile in and already I had to slow to a walk. Fortunately, once we got to the Camp Bird Road the grade eased. Relatively speaking; the first 5.5 miles have an average grade of 6.8%. Of course that average includes flat sections as well as 11% grade hills! I think I ran about 75% of this section, with an average pace of about 13:30 per mile. I had hoped/guesstimated that I could make between 12 and 15 minutes per mile, so I was happy.
More photos, climbing Unconformity Hill around mile 4: the ants go marching three by three, hoorah, hoorah!
Then we crossed a bridge and turned sharply uphill, past a lovely old Victorian house that was the Camp Bird Mine's superintendent's residence, and started to really climb. We switchbacked through the forest and came out into the sun. We crossed the board that had been laid over Imogene Creek as a temporary bridge, climbed some more, and finally reached the Upper Camp Bird aid station at 7.7 miles and 11,235 ft, which was pretty much treeline.
The 2.2 miles between the Victorian house and the aid station climb nearly 1500 feet - an average grade of 12.7%. I walked probably 75% of this - my average pace for these miles was about 17:40. Still, I had wanted to reach Upper Camp Bird in less than 2 hours, and I got there in 1:54 by my watch, yay. (Anyone who doesn't get there in 2 hours 30 min after the start is DQ'ed and turned back.)
At this point, the climb gets simply ridiculous: the easy bits are "only" 15%, interspersed with 20%+ sections. Of the 2.3 miles to the summit, I think I ran maybe 50 yards, in the single flat spot around mile 9.3. My average pace here was about 26:30. Pretty much everyone around me was walking. Interestingly, during the first part of the run I found myself passing people while running but getting passed while walking. Up above 12,000 feet I was passing people while walking. I think I was just more adapted to altitude because of all the backpacking and thirteener climbing we did this summer. Still, I felt like I was going to puke - partly because I hadn't felt like eating early, and then made the mistake of grabbing the M&Ms at the aid station near mile 5. I ate one M&M and my stomach said NO.
And then...all of a sudden...I was at the pass! Amazing! You know that wonderful feeling you get when you've made it to the top of a mountain on your own steam, either hiking or bicycling, and you're at the TOP and you DID IT and WOW? It was fabulous. I felt fantastic. Suddenly I didn't want to puke anymore. I grabbed a cup of hot chicken noodle soup from the aid station volunteers, and it was the best thing I'd ever tasted. (They also had Twizzlers, which I took some of, cookies, pretzels, M&Ms, and gigantic bottles of ibuprofen and aspirin.) I looked down at the switchbacks I'd just ascended and felt all goosebumpy happy. I'd done it! I was on top of the pass!
Despite the gorgeous weather, it was windy and chilly on the pass. I put on my long-sleeved shirt and my gloves before heading down. I had wanted to make the summit in less than three hours, and I had done it with about six minutes to spare.
Now it was time to go down. It was 7 miles downhill to Telluride, at an average grade of 11%, and let me tell you, steep and rocky downhill is just as hard (in a different way) as uphill. I didn't take any photos on the way down, because I was too busy trying not to fall on my butt, but the official photographer got a shot of me here just after the summit. You can also see a lot of the descent route on the large size picture of this shot I took from the Telluride mountain gondola after I finished.
I averaged about 11 minute miles and made it to the finish line with a time of 4:10:42, 19th out of 73 finishers in my age group. I was hoping to get in under four and a half hours, so I'm really happy with that time.
All the photos on my Flickr page are here.
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