Hello everyone! I had so much FUN running this years Pepsico TransRockies Run that I decided to go on one more Mountain Adventure a few weeks ago...I ran the Inaugural Devil On The Divide 50K Ultra Marathon. This was my first 50K Ultra Marathon and it will go down as a very rememberable race! There were less than 100 of us that went up and over the Continental Divide and it turned out to be one BEAR of a race. The first 14 Miles took us up and over the Continental Divide which hit a High Elevation of 13,200 (or 13,270 per another runners GPS watch). The views from on top of the Continental Divide were just INCREDIBLE! The first 14 Miles of the race were relatively easy compared to what we encountered during all 6 of the Stages of the TRR. But then REALITY set in with the 8,400 feet gain in elevation kicking in towards the middle of the race. WOW...The single track suddenly went VERTICALLY straight up and I soon found myself traversing very NARROW trails that ran parallel with Interstate 70. I was traversing at around 12,000+ feet and I was so high up that you could not even see the cars on the highway. I must admit, at times I was very SCARED as my back was pinned against the Mountain tip-toeing across very narrow and slippery trails. Yikes! Once I made my way into the middle of the course I encountered ENORMOUS open Basins where you could see for miles. What made this part of the course very challenging was that there were no defined trails, just Orange Flags placed on various objects (Ground, Rocks, Trees) so you had to play Find The Flag for several miles during the race. The Terrain I encountered during this race was quite EXTREME but it was an AWESOME feeling being able to finally cross that Finish Line! So next year if you want to run one a VERY challenging 50K Ultra Marathon after running the 2015 TRR, check out the Devil On The Divide 50K Ultra Marathon. I guarantee you will encounter some very SCENIC and EXTREME terrain! Also, At the start of the race I ran into 2 TRR Alumni! One Alumni ran this years 3-Day Solo and the other Alumni ran the TRRs first 2 races! Sounds like one is going to attempt the 6-Day Solo next year and the other wants to return to the TRR race after taking several years off. I was also asked by several other runners how I liked this years TRR and I told them all it was An Event Of A Lifetime that they must run! Below is a short video of me that I captured with my GoPro Camera making my way through a Rock Field as I made my way to the top of the Continental Divide Trail. Make sure that you CLICK on the video HD Button to watch the video in High-Defintion otherwise the video may appear blurry. I am also continuing to post more photos of my Continental Divide Adventure on my new Facebook Page Smile Each Mile. You can access my new Facebook Page by clicking on the Smile Each Mile link that is located right below the video image. Happy Running Trails To You™ Darin Lewandowski 6-Day Solo / TRR Class Of 2014 BIB #638
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 04:21:12 +0000
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