Survived the Trudge

Laura B. coming up on the Fence line Climb about 5 miles in

I just got back from the Trudge and my next stop is the shower then bed.  This year was by far the hardest of my four trudges.  My time today: 4:09.  Yep, nearly 45 minutes slower than last year and nearly 2 hours slower than 4 years ago.  Most of the course was covered in knee to waist deep snow.  On several occasions, I sank so deep in the snow that I couldn't pull my leg out and I had to resort to crawling out on my hands and knees.  When I made it to the top of the last hill to what I had hoped would be a somewhat runnable downhill mile to the finish, I came face to face with 25-40 mph head winds that I had to lean in to just to stay upright, so I trudged on.  I was relieved to see the cars that marked the finish line in the distance.  I crossed the line, shook Alec's hand and took the dixie cup of liquid that was handed to me.  It took me several seconds after drinking it to realize that it was whiskey and not Gatorade.  I stumbled to the car and got in, so glad to escape the punishing wind. Wow, that was hard.  I haven't finished a race feeling that wiped out in a long time.  Sam, Jen, (who won the men's and women's 11-mile) and Cherilyn had all finished earlier and Laura came in just a few minutes after me.  They all piled in the car and we joked and laughed about the difficulty of the day and severity of the conditions.  Brian came running in before long and climbed in too.  We all struggled to pull off icy gators and wet socks, then said good bye to Sam and Jen and drove back to the warmer climes of Colorado.  While out on the trail today, I seriously questioned my desire to ever go back and do this again.  Trudge #5 in 2013??? I'll let you know tomorrow.