WWR Day 1 (I): The ascent begins.

So 5am we all stumble out of the hotel. We were supposed to be at the start at 5:30am (an hour before our wave) to check in. I put directions in the binders in everyone's car. But apparently at that hour, north and south were confusing concepts. Caroline, Jessica, Anna, Melissa, and I arrived at the start just at 5:30. Then we waited. Then it was 5:45. I call the others and apparently they are ten miles south of Fort Collins. The start was two miles north of Fort Collins. Well, maybe at like 6am, we were all finally together at the start. After doing all the various check-in things, we were ready to roll about ten minutes before the starting time.

And in a somewhat anti-climactic moment, Teresa and the seven other runners in our wave were off! I will leave it to a member of Van 1 to talk about the first six legs. In Van 2, our morning consisted of getting lost several times, Pete warning he might become belligerent if there was no coffee soon, and finally finding our way to the route and hanging out at the little restaurant at the Red Feather Lakes junction for a few hours. That is where we met our companions for Legs 6-12, 8 Hos and Their Joes. They were very nice folks.

In the meantime, Caroline (yet another saint on our trip), was driving down to Denver to pick up Lisa, who I later found out, after calling her dad, was on a plane to Chicago, not to Denver. Stupid. Fucking. Terrorists. Caroline got to do a lot of scenic driving that day!

Next up: The ascent really begins.