Chapter 1 – A Fun Day in the Mountains.
Last year, Brian competed for the first time in the Warrior Dash- a 3-mile adventure race at Copper Mountain ski resort, that includes obstacles, jumping over fire, climbing through mud pits, just to name a few. We made a long weekend of it, and had a great time. I decided to take the plunge, and do it this year as well! Copper is also our favorite skiing vacation, so we were happy to get to spend a few days here again in the summer.
We drove up late Thursday night (8/16), after Lily had dance class and Brian had a meeting. We hate driving late at night, but there was no way to get out of town any earlier. At least it’s only a couple of hours away! We arrived, just before the front desk closed fortunately, and made our way to our condo- in the same building as last summer. We prefer the newer buildings closer to the slopes (that we always stay in during our winter trip), but this makes for a more affordable summer trip at least.
The next morning (Friday – 8/17), we hopped on our bikes and headed out to explore! Last year we rented bikes and did a bike trail from Frisco to Keystone, but by now we all had our own bikes and were ready for another adventure. We followed the bike trail from Copper all the way into Frisco – about 7 miles. The ride there was super easy – almost al downhill, but gently so, and the weather was just perfect. The mountains next to us, a lake often below us, there is just something so peaceful about biking here! I can never get enough.
Once in town, we sought some lunch, and quickly found the Log Cabin Cafe. After lunch, the Frisco Museum was just across the street and we spent quite a bit of time exploring here. It was really neat – they have a collection of historic buildings that you can go inside, and then a recording tells you about the people that lived or worked there once. And of course lots of historic artifacts to look at. I thought it did a very good job of immersing you into the time period and making you feel a connection to some of the town’s early citizens.
At last, we were ready to make the much more challenging (uphill) trek back. We were more than a little concerned about Lily – she has a tendency to become quite the drama queen when something involves more than a little work. We’ve had many meltdowns on less difficult trails. However, she pleasantly surprised us and took it like a champ! Her and I pulled over to rest several times, but overall her spirits stayed high, and the ride back was hard but enjoyable.
Owen had been napping in the bike trailer most of the time, so once back at Copper he was ready to wake up and play! We went into the village to get checked in for our race the next day, and the kids spent some time on the playground. I was excited to finally have my first warrior shirt and helmet, and my own timing chip!
We ate dinner at our favorite pizza place – Tuckers Tavern, which is only a short walk from our building. We mostly eat at the same places every time we come to Copper, guess we are creatures of habit! The it was off to bed, need our sleep for the race tomorrow!
Chapter 2. Warriors Away!
We woke up bright and early, and fixed breakfast in our condo – the advantage of having a kitchen is that we don’t have to face the crazy crowds to eat, if we don’t want to 🙂
I was going in an earlier heat than Brian, since one of us had to be with the kids at all times. And I wanted to go before it got hot and muddy. Or muddier, at least, ha! The atmosphere at Copper had definitely changed overnight – the place was already buzzing with people and excitement at barely 8am! Each heat was lining up as soon as the one before it took off, they were separated by 30 minutes.
Brian and the kids waited nearby on the playground while I stood in line – at last after our Warrior Countdown – we were off! I had been a bit nervous about how this was going to go – my arthritic joints can be unpredictable, and while I had done everything I could to give myself the best possible chance at a “good day”, I knew it was still going to be tough.
The very first part of the race reminded my immediately of why I had been nervous! It was just running to start, but along the base of one of the ski slopes – over very uneven and rocky terrain. And since we had just left the start line, everyone was still bunched up, making it very crowded. It seemed like a recipe for a mass-dominio-effect disaster, but somehow I stumbled my way through, mostly unscathed.
From here there would be a series of various obstacles, things we had to climb over and under, a giant wall that we had to scramble up, then slide down the other side (and with CONCRETE underneath us, yikes!) The run itself was challenging to, often being uphill, and of course there is even less oxygen here than we are used to in our relatively high elevation Colorado Springs.
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The fire jump was actually pretty fun – there were two sets, separated by a few feet, to leap over. Two guys just ahead of me seemed to be taking their time, and knowing that I wanted to be able to just make the jump quickly, I held back a bit until they finally cleared it. I sprinted straight toward the fire as fast as I could and gave it my best leap, easily clearing the flames, though I could feel the heat beneath me as I jumped! The second one would be a little harder because there was no time to re-gain momentum, but I surprised myself with another great jump, and then I was clear! No permanent burns to show for it 🙂
At one point, one of the obstacles was to climb through one of three tunnels. Unfortunately, this was very poor planning on the race’s part – as a long line formed behind them, really slowing everyone down. Anyone racing for time would surely be frustrated, and it let others behind them catch up while they waited. Personally, I was a little grateful for the chance to catch my breath 🙂
Shortly after this, came the once obstacle that I had pretty much known I wouldn’t be able to do -it was a vertical wall that you had to climb up and over, using a rope to pull yourself. My grip strength is almost nonexistent because of my arthritis, and after a very brief attempt, it was obvious that there was no way to scale it using just my feet. So I shouted to the race worker nearby that I was skipping it, and they were free to “disqualify” my time if they so chose. I was just here for fun anyway.
Several more obstacles, i can’t remember them all exactly, but at last I was nearing the mud pit. It was much longer than I was expecting it to be, and COLD! From the moment I first set foot in, I thought there was no way I could get my whole body across this see of gooey ice! But I took the plunge, most of my body going numb immediately. At first, I tried to push with my feet off the bottom, and crawl with my arms. But my feet sunk down in the mud so much that after a few steps like this, I realized it was more efficient to let me legs float up the the surface, and swim with my arms. Somehow, I made it across, and the finish line was nearby! That last little bit was awkward though – most of my body was still numb from the cold water, and I was so weighted down with mud that moving at all was a challenge. But, here I was a real Warrior! Wohoo!
I didn’t see Brian at the finish line, so I headed back to the start area, and finally met up with him there. Some of his friends from work (who were also racing) had arrived by now – it was almost time for them to face the race!
After successfully getting Brian, Nick and Beardo off in their heat, I headed back to the room – not being able to stand being so covered in now-drying mud. They have a Warrior Wash area, but having the kids with me, it seemed easier to just go back to the room. Hopefully I didn’t get the elevator and halls too muddy 🙂 Back in the room, I stepped into the shower fully clothed, not even knowing how to go about getting anything off while it was so layered in mud.
Finally feeling human again, we set off to see if we could see any of Brian’s race. I guess I didn’t mention it before, but he and the kids had watched me at the mud pit and fire jump. We missed his fire, but saw him go through the mud and finish. His coworkers were soon behind, and after everyone cleaned up a bit, we hung out in our condo for a few minutes before going in search of lunch.
The crazy crowds here today were going to make finding lunch in a timely manner difficult especially with a large group (by now we had 6 adults and 4 kids), but we finally ended up at Chubs, and had some lunch-crepes. Afterwards, the kids all played together outside and did the bumper boats and race cars.
But now everyone, the kids especially, were wearing out, and it was time for a much needed break. So we all went our separate ways, and relaxed in the room for a bit. Afterwards, we walked over to the Athletic Club and went for a swim! In all the times we’ve been to Copper, I don’t know why we’ve never used the pool. But it was lots of fun, so we’ll have to start doing it more often.
For dinner, we went to our other Copper-staple – Salsa Mountain Cantina. The wait is always long, and the food is never good, I have no idea why we keep coming here. Every time we say it will be our last, but it never is.
But, what an awesome day it had been! My first Warrior Dash, and I ended up finishing in the top 1/2, which had been my goal. 2,133rd place, out of over 5000 participants. And Brian did even better, finishing 279th! Definitely a new tradition has been started for August.
Chapter 3. Time to Head Home
We spent a lazy Sunday morning hanging out in the room and around the resort, there were more waves of Warriors racing today, so we watched a bit while the kids played on the playground. I had begged the front desk for the latest possible check-out time, and got them to agree to 1pm. So finally, it was time to pack up and bid Copper farewell. We headed on into Frisco, and had lunch at a nice little deli.
There was another bike trail here that we hadn’t done, so we unloaded the bikes and took off on one last adventure. Lily was definitely a little more tired this time, but still she did pretty well and we all had a great time. We rode until we got to a dam, and decided to turn back because it started going downhill again, and we didn’t want to make it too difficult on ourselves coming back. There were a few parts of the trail that went along the bike lane in the road, which made me nervous since it was a busy highway, but at leas the bike lane was wide and we made it just fine. As usual, the scenery was just breathtaking. What an amazing weekend, and a very satisfying way to end it!
