This weekend I headed West....my friend K was competing in the Colorado Relay....a crazy event where teams of 10 or 5 run just under 180 miles (yes, that would be one hundred and eighty miles in case you think I added a zero by accident) from Georgetown  to Carbondale, via a number of very high mountain passes.  The team went off at 6.15 am on Friday, and their expected arrival in Carbondale was sometime Saturday morning.....I wanted to see part of the event and be there at the finish to cheer (see previous posts.....pom-pom's and cowbells are totally in with me...).  

Friday morning it was raining and raining...but that was on the Front Range....it was SNOWING at the higher elevations.  NUTS!  This team has been training all summer, and although foul weather gear was packed it didn't seem like much of a reality in our 25+ days of temps over 90 degrees just a bit ago.  Regardless, it was reality.   As I headed West I watched the sky, and it did look ominous.  Yikes...there were something like 280 teams out there....all trying to have a good time, accomplish something cool, and stay injury free, and now a blizzard?? 

When I got to Frisco I finally received word from K that the race had been delayed and things were running behind.  The teams were all without cell coverage for almost the first half of the event given the terrain they were covering.  I did my best to keep myself occupied, which included a trip to two different coffee shops, and some shopping.  Given the delays I was getting concerned that I would miss my previously scheduled spa treatments in Glenwood Springs.....so I finally decided to head to the start of K's leg. 

It all worked out....I managed to see K before the start of his leg, and then I continued my journey West, where I visited the Yampah Vapor Caves, indulged in a salt scrub, followed by a massage.  Once I was totally relaxed I crawled into bed, only to have the best night of sleep I've had in years, and to sleep past the relay's team arrival in Carbondale!  What kind of cheerleader and support staff am I?  Snoozing soundly through the night while these folks are running throughout the night?  (Some might call me wise...).  Anyway, I was only a few minutes late...and who was to know they would actually run much faster than projected? 

That afternoon I got my own version of exercise...while K crashed I did my own triathlon...I biked 20 miles along the Colorado, followed that with a 3 mile run, and then went to the hot springs pool for a 3/4 mile swim, with a quick visit to the miraculous vapor caves for a final visit. 

All in all it was a super weekend....my favorite kind.  Great company, weather extremes, wonderful exercise, good fun and just NO stress.  How can I not love Colorado???