The Barr Trail Mountain Race is not a qualifier for the Pikes Peak Ascent, it’s not part of the Triple Crown of Running series. In fact, when I signed up for the race, it was as a training race for the TCR/Ascent – a good way to run a portion of the trail with a crowd of runners and get a feel for how things might be like on Ascent day. So as this weekend approached, why was I so incredibly nervous about this race?
After running a status quo Seattle RNR, I came back from vacation determined to jump back into TCR training. On Thursday after our Tuesday return from sea level, Mark and I joined our running peeps on a training run for the Summer Roundup Trail Run 12K. It wasn’t my best day on this course – I felt the heat and was fatigued… just not as strong as I’d felt before our vacation.
Nevertheless, we kept going… tackling our first Barr Trail training run on Saturday, July 3rd – Mark’s 45th birthday. It was after this run that I began to doubt myself and consider the possibility of a DNF (did not finish) in the BTMR. The 10 mile round trip (we didn’t make it all the way to Barr Camp that day) took me 2 hours and 45 minutes. I was still feeling the fatigue (Mark felt it too) and in hindsight, I think that we were still acclimating back to running at altitude after spending almost two weeks in Seattle. It was particularly discouraging to me when I hit some of the flatter portions of Barr Trail and couldn’t seem to keep a running pace.
map of the BTMR, 3630' elevation gain to Barr Camp turnaround
BTMR has a cut off of 3:30 hours. I’ve already mentioned that the race is not part of the TCR or included as a qualifier for the Ascent but honestly, it would be a mental set back in my Ascent training to not officially finish this race. Plus I wanted my race shirt and medal! 
Feeling confident about the Summer Roundup 12K, I opted to skip the training run for that race the following week… opting instead to try the full 12.6 mile BTMR course. It was a better day – I made it to Barr Camp in about 2 hours and ran back down in a little over an hour. Unfortunately, my Garmin wasn’t charged that morning, so my time is an estimate but it was a little over 3 hours for that training run – which was a bit comforting.
Pikes Peak from Barr Trail.
Still, I was a bundle of nerves race morning. We got to the start about 30 minutes early and I used the time to hit the port-o-potty… three times . Once the race started, the nerves began to ease up. I followed the same pattern as I did during my last training run – a walk/jog combo for the first few, steeper miles until I was able to level off into a good jog up most of the flatter parts of the trail. I was so happy to find my legs did not feel heavy.
post race happiness
When I reached Barr Camp, a race official told me I was at 1:58 – giving me over an hour and a half to make it back down. I knew I was safe. I took a minute here to take a gel and also to fix my shoe – the top of my right foot was killing me. I loosened my laces which seemed to help a little bit and started my run back down. Besides the foot pain, the run down felt great. Julie was at the corner of Ruxton and Hydro – just before the turn off to run the uphill finish… it was a wonderful surprise and her support gave me just the push I needed to finish strong.
hardest earned shirt and medal
next up: Pikes Peak Ascent, final leg of the TCR, August 21, 2010
