The idea sprung from a Facebook posting on Matt B. Davis Runs' page, when he ran 3 in a single day. I was browsing our own events page and noticed that August 10th had a lot of races that day, including a night race. Could we do 4 races in a single day? Below follows the trials and tribulations of that quest.
In the beginning...
I wrangled up my 2 friends, Dave (33), Billy (40) and my teenage son Kellan (13) to join me (39) on this ridiculous quest. The catch phrase of the day would be "Interesting choice." This is what you say when someone does something dumb or ridiculous so you don't have to call them an idiot. Like so: "Wearing your boxers under you running shorts, huh? Interesting choice."
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| Billy, me, Kellan and Dave. |
I had a really solid lineup planned. 3 muddy obstacle races and one 5k fun run. Our 1st event would be the REI Muddy Buddy run in Boulder. 2nd, a rough looking new 10K obstacle course called Thunder Challenge, not too far away from Boulder. 3rd would be the Wipeout Dash in Longmont, also fairly close by. Then we'd have ample time to finish at the Neon Splash Dash in Denver.
Dave drummed up some sponsors, while I contacted race organizers for help. We had already signed up for Muddy Buddy several months before, so there was little they could do to help. Thunder Challenge hooked us up with some free entries and a discount code to pass along to our friends. Wipeout dash gave us a nice discount, and both they and Thunder Challenge allowed us to register for open heats, since we had little idea of how long it would take to get from event to event. Neon Splash Dash also hooked us up big time with some free entries. Dave had us locked in with GoalZero and Grimm Brothers Brewhouse for sponsors and we got specialized training from Ultimate Fitness Lab 5280. Heat times were perfect, with Thunder Challenge having heats until 12:30 and Wipeout Dash going all the way to 3:30. It was all going smoothly.
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| Our great sponsors! |
Then I noticed that Thunder Challenge changed their event date on the website. I had been warned that the venue might change, but this was unexpected. I began scrambling. We found a couple early morning races, but our best bet was a small 5k-10k called the Holy COW (for City of Westminster) Trail Stampede. Muddy Buddy was nice enough to let us move to their 9:30 heat, so we could get in the Holy COW at its 8:05 start time. Whew that was close!
Then Wipeout Dash cancelled all together, 2 weeks before our race day. Panic sets in and I begin to stress trying to find a replacement. There's several races that day, but they are either too long (6:00am triathlon), too far away, or they all start at 8:00. Finally I find City Solve Urban Race. It's more of a scavenger hunt, but it is a race, with a purse even, and it'll have to do. It starts at 11:30 and is about 45 minutes from the Muddy Buddy. This is going to be tight, but we resolve to do it.
Go time.
We decide to meet up in a parking lot near where the Neon Splash Dash will be later that night, so we can go our separate ways afterwards. It's 6:00am and most of us got little sleep the previous night due to the excitement. We get our greetings in and jump in the truck to head to the Holy COW Trail Stampede, fiddling with the GoalZero solar equipment on the way.
The Holy COW is a pretty straightforward race. It's a down and back 5k, with a 10k option as well. We opted for the 5k to give us the maximum amount of time to get to event number 2. The race went well with Billy out front, followed closely by Kellan and Dave and I bringing up the rear. We all finished under 30 minutes, giving us a full hour to get to the starting line of the Muddy Buddy. We hopped in the car and off we went, eating a banana and forcing is some electrolytes along the way.
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| Passing by Dave just after the turn around at COW. |
Dave had picked up our race packets the day before and parking went smoothly, so we had a couple extra minutes to stop by the GoalZero tent and chat with our sponsor. We filed in towards the front of the starting line, just at a point where they decided to break up the heat and stagger our start 45 seconds behind the first portion. This race was tough for me. I began to get a stitch in my side on the back half of the course and slowed our pace down a bit. I was able to breathe it out without stopping and we finished the 4.65 mile course in 55 minutes with Dave and Billy right behind us.
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| Muddy Buddy arrival. Shirts still nice and white. |
Now we're in a tight spot. We have our next race starting in 60 minutes and we need to get to the car, clean up, and drive 35 miles to City Solve. It's a slow process and we hit some traffic going into downtown Denver, eating a chicken sandwich along the way. We're going to be late, but I had talked to the guy at packet pick-up about such an eventuality, and he told me that they would have the first clue up until about noon.
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| We're going about 20MPH here. |
We get to the venue at 11:40 and I hobble (can't hardly run at this point) to the table and get the first clue so we can begin. It's slow going, we're tired and using our mental powers to solve the clues is tedious. We expected this to be a cakewalk, but it turned out to be a grueling 4 hour, cramp inducing, frustrating, hungry, dehydrating 9+ mile trek all over Downtown and Capitol Hill in the hottest part of a sunny August day. If we had come in dead last, I wouldn't have been surprised.
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| City Solve checkpoint. We don't smell too good by this point. |
It's now 3:30 and we're starving and thirsty. We eat at City Solve's host bar and head to Billy's house to stretch out. By the time we get there it's almost 5:00pm and we only have a little over an hour to rest before we need to head out again. At this point my toes are raw and I opt to tape a couple of them up. We stretch out, regroup and think about how awful it's going to be to run yet another race.
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| Checking out the GoalZero goods during the break. |
As we drive to the Neon Splash Dash, we watch a thunderstorm roll in. I surmise that it will probably hit us right when the race starts and wonder if it's a "rain or shine" event, thinking we may get screwed at the last minute in our 4 race attempt. I'm a bit off though, and it hits right as we line up to register. They herd us into the stadium and we wait it out for about half an hour. This actually works out OK for us, as we beat the mob back to the registration and breeze through what was a huge line of people.
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| This event was huge. |
We all talked about how we would probably be reduced to 12 minute miles at this point. But adrenaline kicks in and we knock out our 4th race of the day under 30 minutes. Much like the first race, Billy is first over the line, followed by Kellan, with Dave and I finishing together last. We snap a few pictures and chat with a few fellow racers. Two gals who, oddly enough, were also at City Solve and recognized us by our filthy 4inOne jerseys. We drink our victory beer, supplied by our sponsor, Grimm Brothers, revel in our glory and call it a night.
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| Well deserved. |
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| Victory! |
Post.
All told, we covered almost 20 miles. Our day began when we hit the road at 5:30am and Kellan and I got home just before 10:00pm. No one was injured beyond some cramps, bruises and strains and we actually managed to be competitive. Billy finished 22nd overall while I took 2nd in my class at the Holy COW. Kellan and I took 3rd in our heat with Billy and Dave in 5th place at Muddy Buddy. City Solve was a nightmare of epic proportions where we pulled in at 53rd with only 4 teams between us and the DNFs. Neon Splash Dash wasn't timed, but Dave's stopwatch clocked him as shaving 3 seconds off his first 5k time of the day. We may have even set some sort of record for number of races run in one day. Not bad, not bad at all.
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| The spoils. |
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