It was a 90% pavement road from Fish Hatchery to Tree Line which is about 5.6 miles. I felt slight pain on my shin as soon as I hit the pavement road. There were still lots of people running, and I passed some, and then they passed me back later. After the Tree Line, we were on the Colorado Trail for a while. I like this section so much. The trail goes through the Mt Elbert trail head. There was a small aids station, and I saw a lady holding her leg and crying. She might have gotten injured. I reminded myself to watch for rocks, steps.... Finally, I saw the Twin Lake between the trees, and I could see my crew almost there! As I ran through loud cheering section, I found my crew close to the end of aid area. It was the best spot! The bathroom was right there!!
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| Team Junko at Twin lake |
I needed to do the gear check and eat at the Twin Lake aid station because from this point to the Winfield 50 mile turn around point was very steep and the elevation gets high up to 12,600ft. We had to go through Hope Pass (People call "Hopeless Pass") and down to Winfield. This is the toughest section on the course. I sat down and had few small rice balls and tiny slice of pizza. They filled me up very good. I had a great energy level, and still was in good mood! I knew I had to go on the creek crossing and was looking forward to dip in cold water. My feet needed to have ice bath at this point, especially my shin....
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| Creek crossing |
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| headed to hopeless pass |
I rested for about 15 min. and headed to Hopeless Pass( it is really Hope Pass!) . I know I was ahead of my goal split but I wanted to keep that. I used my light weight Black Diamond poles, and tried to walk as fast as I can. I thought I was a fast walker but everybody passed me??!! The poles helped me a lot! On the way to the pass, I saw few people sat down and hold their head, asking how many miles to the top... They were suffering from altitude sickness I believe.. I felt sorry, but I was fine luckily. Just my shin hurts, that was all!
Just about passing the treeline, the 1st place guy and his pacer were running down SO STRONG!!! Oh Boy! I said to him" great job!" He looked great!! I felt like I gained some energy from him. I kept going up on the steep hill. I see the huge tent" Hopeless Pass aids station" There were several llamas out there. They carried food, water, and equipment to cook for us. The Volunteers were so nice and cooked hot noodle soup, and mashed potato. I grabbed few potato chips and zipped through, knowing to stop on the way back!
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| Hopeless Pass |
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| Trail up to Hopeless pass |
There was a long steep decent to the jeep road after the top, and then the road continues about a couple of miles to the 50 mile marker Winfield where I could meet my crew and pacer! Yes!! I felt great on the decent. I probably went too fast with too much impact on my shin... I passed several people. I was so glad to seethe end of the trail and beginning of jeep road. " almost there" but it was not! It was long 2 miles. There were many cars on the Jeep road, and I had to run in the ditch time to time. The dust was not too bad as I was informed due to the rain night before. Finally, Here I was... 50 miles! Done half way! 10 min ahead of my goal split!!
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| Yukiko 1st pacer |
At this point, my shin was REALLY hurting, ugh!
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| Quick Break! |
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| Here we go! Back to Hopeless pass again! |
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