Leadville at 10,000 ft ~ TR -1

So i slept in a bit yesterday morning as i figured it would be my last good nights sleep in a bed for a while before my race. I wanted to make it to Leadville to help acclimate to the altitude a bit. The drive took about 5 hours from Moab, through some more amazing countryside. I took the longer short cut along the Green river out of Moab. It was 10 miles shorter but slower in that it followed the very muddy brown river, I don't know why they call it the Green River. I arrived into leadville just as the racers competing in the Leadville 100 mile trail race were checking. This race started at 4am on Saturday and i wanted to catch a bit of it before i had to get to Buena Vista to check in for the Transrockies. I camped out around the 40mile mark of the leadville course, at the base of Hope's pass, where we will race on Monday. The first runner passed through just after 9am and he had a 25 minute lead. It was 2 time winner Anton Krupicka attempting to set the new course record. Unfortunately he had to pull out later with over an hour lead. After a few more runners passed through i left to check into my own race.

Buena Vista is a small town about 30 miles south of leadville, at around 8000 ft it is the lowest elevation on the course. The registration was in an old museum filled with antiques from the area. One checking in they gave each runner a huge gear bag that included a bunch of free swag. Included were a brand new Windstopper running jacket, nice t shirt, A timex ironman watch, a mug, A running shoe dryer, and a bunch of food and supplements. Easily the contents of the bag and the bag itself were worth over $400. The most intimidating thing was how fit everybody was, i started to get really nervous as i looked around, Usually at races like an ironman, there are quite a few competitors who don't quite fill the image of an athlete, be it their shape and size or whatever, but here everyone looked like running gods and goddesses. What have i gotten myself into?

We had dinner at 5pm where they introduced a bunch of people and went over the course descriptions and the details of the week ahead. We would be staying at Arrowhead Campground at the end of stage 1 so i figured i might as well stay there tonight as well so i would not have to move my car the next day. Wake up time for tomorrow is 5:30 am, and that is mountain time, so in reality it is 4:30am Wish me luck!