On Larimer County Road 103 near Wyoming border on the Wild West Relay Friday evening shortly before sunset.
After I ran the first Wild West Relay from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs in 2005, I wrote that it was the most fun I’d ever had while running. Nine years and several relays later, including the most recent edition of the Wild West Relay this past weekend — part race, part adult sleepover — I still look forward to my team’s relays as the high points of my running season.
It took my 12-person team 26 hours, 26 minutes to run the 198 miles from Fort Collins to Steamboat, beginning Friday morning. I had three legs totaling 18.7 miles, or two hours and 54 minutes of racing. The other 23 and a half hours was filled with laughs, great camaraderie with friends, gorgeous Colorado scenery and, oh, maybe an hour and a half of sleep.
We ran through barren but beautiful rolling hill country northwest of Fort Collins, west through the Roosevelt National Forest and north into Wyoming. I got a sunset on my second leg that crossed into Wyoming, and it was divine.
We ran south through North Park overnight with temperatures in the 30s, getting a welcome shower and hot soup at North Park High School in Walden in the middle of the night, and I got a sunrise on my third leg as we approached Rabbit Ears Pass. I felt so blessed to get both the sunset and the sunrise.
My team has lost interest in what used to be the Colorado Relay since Ragnar Relays took it over and changed the course so drastically that it’s no longer the Colorado Relay so many people once loved. We believe Ragnar ruined a Colorado institution.
But the Wild West Relay remains a great race and a fantastic asset for the Colorado running community. I’ve done it on 12-person teams and six-man “ultra” teams and loved them all. Kudos and thanks to race director Paul Vanderheiden for putting on another awesome Wild West Relay. Putting on a relay is a massive undertaking, but Vanderheiden does a great job. He pours his heart into it. It’s personal for him.
If you haven’t done the Wild West Relay, I highly recommend you consider doing it in the future. It just might be the most fun you’ll ever have while running.
