But I took off the puffy jacket and started in short sleeve+long sleeve.Īll of the timed races started together, and certainly when we lined up for our 7pm start, there weren't that many people total in all 3 timed races. I put on my long sleeved shirt, and then my puffy jacket over that, and I was VERY reluctant to take off the puffy jacket when it got to be race time. But while we sat there chatting, we were FREEZING. I expected to wear a short sleeved shirt, and maybe later in the night put on a long sleeved shirt over it. From looking at the forecast, we expected it to start a little warm, then cool down as the sun went down. Initially she thought that bibs 30-39 meant there were 9 people registered. Well, we can CERTAINLY manage to podium under those circumstances! Of course, we had no idea if we were reading it right, and probably more people would sign up on race day, so we just kinda laughed about it and continued getting ready. ![]() ![]() Then Trista noticed that she'd completely misread the sheet, and that it implied there were exactly 2 people signed up for the 9 hours. Tiny field, but given how undertrained for 9 hours we were, and how tough the course was, we really didn't get our hopes up about placing. That gave us a chance to set up our stuff in a premium location and then stroll the grounds a little, checking out the course.īeautiful venue! We got to enjoy it as the sun went down before the race, then never again.Īs we were picking up our packets, Trista snuck a look at the registration sheet, which she said seemed to imply there were only 9 people doing the 9 hour race. We drove out to Burnet mid afternoon on Saturday, arriving a little early, basically just as packet pickup was beginning. Gotta wear our dorky shirts whenever we're together, man.Īnd as a delightful bonus, Matt decided to go out with us! He signed up for 6 hours of running and 3 hours of taking care of us when he was done running. Running a tough trail together in the dark for 9 hours seemed like a good way to see if our relationship could survive something as hard as Rockman! AND amazingly, the first run event Trista and I would ever do together! We've done swimruns, and we've done the same triathlons, though not "together", but we'd not yet managed to actually ever do a run together. Trista's first night race, Trista's first night trail run, and if things went well, Trista's first ultra. Oh, and also it's a night race, starting at 7pm. And because Spider Mountain is normally a mountain bike park, there's a chair lift, which you're allowed to use twice during the 9 hour event, either going up or going down, whichever you choose. For the timed races, you just do as many loops as you can during the time you're allotted. It's a looped course, 4.3 miles each loop, and each loop has two massive ascents and two massive descents. Here's what we knew about Spider Mountain going in. We figured it might make sense to do something like the 12 mile, then maybe also the 4 mile? Get some good distance in on the hills? Or maybe the 6 hour event, which would be much longer than we've trained up to, but a nice stretch.Ĭoach said we should do the 9 hour. And then there's a group of timed events: 6 hours, 9 hours, and 12 hours. ![]() There's a group of set-distance events: 4, 8, and 12 miles. The only thing left was to select which event in particular at Spider Mountain to do. After offering both things up as possibilities to Coach Kristen, she selected Spider Mountain. We looked at our options, and the two that might have worked, schedule-wise, were J&J (formerly Nueces) and this weird new race called Spider Mountain. When Trista realized she wouldn't be able to come down for Bandera, Tejas Trails said they were happy to transfer her registration to another upcoming Tejas Trails race.
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