Day 3: Kansas to Denver

Today was the last of the three big driving days I needed to get me out West, to where my actual running adventure is going to start. It took me another 6 hours to get from the park I stayed at in Kansas out here, to a town called Fort Collins, a bit North of Denver. Tomorrow is my first race, and it’s going to be challenging for two big reasons. One is running at altitude. It would have been nice to give myself a bit more time to adjust to these conditions, and I’m not really sure how I’m going to react. But the other is transportation/logistics. On Saturday, I need to drive from here up into Wyoming because my second race is there on Sunday. That’s why I’m staying here, North of the city, even though my race is South of Denver. I’m saving an hour of driving time Saturday, which I thought was important since it will be through the mountains, but that means I need to spend that hour tomorrow getting to and from the race. And since it is scheduled to start at 6:30 in the morning, that means I need to get up at 3:30 to be sure I don’t miss it. All of which means bedtime is going to be around 7 PM tonight, which is just as well because my brain is now two time zones behind and I am gassed right now after all that driving and two nights of sleeping outside. Once I get through the next 3 days, though, the rest of the trip get’s much smoother. Wish me luck!