Day 95

We survived our road trip and made it to Leadville, Colorado around 10:15 this morning. Preacher caught a little sleep, but the rest of us stayed up chatting and singing for the rest of the night. Texas took forever, and it was too dark to see much of New Mexico, but we will see it when we trek back. We made a brief stop to run the Manitou Incline, which turned into only running a portion of the Manitou Incline due to scheduling, but we all agreed that we want to return and do the whole thing someday. 

Our first stop in Leadville was a pre-race meeting, which we were late for, but we still arrived with sufficient time to get pumped up with the runners. Then, there was a meeting for the crews, and we headed out to explore Leadville a little bit and purchase souvenirs. After that, we left for Vail (where we are staying) to drop our bags off. The hanger/hangry level of our collective group was skyrocketing (I was doing okay because I was the only one comfortable with eating boudin balls that I’d bought 20+ hours earlier in Louisiana) so we went for a delicious Italian dinner before going to pick up last minute supplies and going back to relax at our villa. 

It’s currently 8:19 pm, and we are preparing for bed. The race starts at 4:00 am and lasts until 10:00 am Sunday, so we have a busy Saturday leading into Sunday. I have more pre-race jitters than I have had in some time, largely because if I fail, I will feel like I failed another person and our whole crew. I am reminding myself to trust my training and abilities and realize that I would not be part of our crew if everyone else thought I could not do it.

Something that made today great: Sharing a delicious pre-race meal hi had and talking together about how much we are looking forward to this weekend’s race.