Another RTO down! This year was fun. Smooth despite being a colder RTO. (It’s been a strange year for weather.)  But despite the times we showed, we had a slow year. We anticipated a fast year with the times everyone put down for their estimated 10k, but some runners were quite a bit slower than where they wanted to be. This got us quite behind and made it a very lonely RTO for the first two legs; we were running with only fast runners who were quickly passing us by. We could not keep up.

During our legs, no one was around outside of being passed up by few and far between fast teams. By the time we got to Homewood, the festivities were gone and they were starting to shut down by the time we arrived. This did though open up some views I hadn’t seen before. When we got to Genoa, the sun was rising, and there was a beautiful fog that draped the Carson Valley landscape as Bridget ran her leg. That was cool to see with the morning colors tracing along the mist of the valley. However, when we arrived in Virginia City, we were asked to start before Van 1 arrived to ensure we would finish in time. Our van got started before Van 1 got to Virginia City by about 60 minutes.

As a team, here was our official (but not accurate) times:

TOTAL TIME:  26 hours: 30 minutes
(but probably closer to 27 hours : 30 minutes)

  • Overall | 54th Overall (but probably closer to 85th)
    • Division | 12th Place (but probably closer to 28th)

This year’s leg went pretty smoothly as well. I trained for it quite a bit. Each leg was roughly about 5-6 miles each and downhill for two of them. I do remember the first leg was deceivingly uphill for about 1/3rd of a mile on a trail. I raced up that trail hill which no one passed me until I got to the top… then some lengthy runner passed quickly by me. The rest of the run though was pretty quiet. Same thing with the second run. That was all downhill going as fast as we could, listening to the little waterfalls on the way down.  The last run though was fun. I switched on my trial shoes which was a smart decision. I then sprinted down hill through the trails for the six miler. I passed quite a few people taking it slow. The trails you have to balance going fast and risk eating dirt. Luckily I was able to make it through fast and unscathed. That was one of my favorite runs with the beautiful views on the way down that came from coming down from Virginia City.

Another year down, and now we only have legs 5, 6, and 8 left to do.

Here were my times:

  • Leg 9 | 42:11 TIME, 5.28 DISTANCE, 7:59 MIN/MILE, 
  • Leg 21 | 23:28 TIME, 3.64 DISTANCE, 6:27 MIN/MILE
  • Leg 33 | 50:37 TIME, 6.62 DISTANCE, 7:39 MIN/MILE