Collegiate Peaks 25 mile and 50 mile

We drove up to Buena Vista after work the night before the race. We met some friends at Cottonwood Lake Campground.  They already had the campfire going and camp set up when we got there.  We got up there a little later than we had hoped because we got a little lost driving in the dark. 

The Runner's Roost Crew at the start line.

Sean ran the 50 mile and I ran the 25 mile race.   We both planned to start out slow, but we both got a little caught up in the energy of the race and started out the race running too fast.  I tried to slow down to prevent the inevitable crash. I'm not sure if I crashed from going out to fast or just from my lower back pain, but I did slow down quite a bit after mile 15.  Although, my time was much slower than I had hoped, I did finish and felt good later and didn't stir up any injuries and was good to run again later that day.

The 50 mile course consisted of 2 loops with the 2nd loop run in the opposite direction.  As soon as I saw the 50 mile course leaders, I walked the course in reverse to meet Sean.  I met Sean about 2 miles from the finish and ran with him into the finish. 

Me attempting to take Sean's signature shot with me in the lead for once.

Sean was still smiling in spite of the pain of running on concrete at the end of a 50 mile run.

Our friend Matt finishing the 50 mile course.

The camping crew: Fred, Sean, Laura, Ryan, and Liz

Although neither of us ended up finishing quite as fast as we would have liked, we both got some good miles on our legs on beautiful trails at altitude and we had a great time camping with our friends. 

One of the highlights of the trip was our friend Liz's great cooking! She was able to cater to our vegetarian needs and to our vegan friend Ryan too! Best camping food ever with vegan green chile, homemade tortillas made in the snow, and vegan brownies! Beautiful mountain running and awesome veggie eating were a WIN WIN!