Photo: Race director Paul Vanderheiden and volunteer Kate Muldoon.

I had always heard Steamboat Springs described in wonderful terms, but despite good intentions, I had never visited the popular mountain town. I would have thought that when I finally made my way there, I would have driven. As it turns out, my first visit involved running there. August 17th, 2005 marked the inaugural Wild West Relay - a 195 mile, 24 hour relay race from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. I was lucky enough to be a member of No Small Feet, one of the 59 teams to participate.

The event was the culmination of Paul Vanderheiden's two year vision. The Englewood resident, a relay junkie who has participated in the Colorado Relay, Hood to Coast, Providian Relay, and Wasatch Relay, decided to focus his passion into the creation of his own event. He plotted the route hoping that the popular destination city as well as the playful tagline "Get Your Ass Over the Pass" would draw runners. Not only did he sign up more teams than he had hoped for, he attracted a couple of out of state teams as well.

The typical relay teams consisted of twelve members who would run three legs each with a total mileage ranging from 11.4 miles to 19.1 miles. The masochistic runners who needed a bigger challenge had the option of forming six member ultra teams - choosing either to run six consecutive legs (the 6 x 1) with an average length of 35.2 miles, or six alternating legs (6 x 6).

I waited until the last minute to look for a team but found that, as with most relay races, there were many teams missing runners due to last minute injuries. Keeping the entire team healthy before the event is probably the greatest challenge of a relay team leader. I was not only picked up fairly quickly, I was picked up by the team projected to win the event. Dennis Vanderheiden, the captain of No Small Feet and the brother of the race director, was known for recruiting fast runners for his teams.

The event began in waves at the Budweiser Tour Center with start times determined by a team's average 10K time. Although I had done several 24 hour relays before, I had never been on such a competitive team; the experience was somewhat solitary for the first few hours. The bustle and energy at 6 a.m. when the first teams started was strikingly different from the feel at 11 a.m. when our team began. We were the only team in the last wave and it was strangely anticlimactic as Tom Carminati stood alone at the start line while the DJ kept announcing to the nearly empty parking lot. We gave Tom a hearty cheer as he raced down the road, the closest runner already an hour ahead. It would be almost five hours before we would catch up to another team.

Photo: Brad Pace hands the baton off to Todd Mellinger at exchange 19 in the middle of the night.

The day was beautiful and hot - a little too hot. As we cheered our first runner down the mercilessly unshaded Owl Canyon Road, just north of Fort Collins, I was thankful that I was in Van 2 and wouldn't be running until late afternoon. Each team had two transport vehicles, Van 1 carrying the first six runners and Van 2 carrying runners 7-12. The vans would leapfrog throughout the relay, meeting at van exchange points to handoff our baton, a yellow Livestrong bracelet.

By the time Brad Pace, the first runner in our van, began his leg at 2 p.m., we were all antsy to get started. Most of our first legs involved running uphill at altitudes between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. I had a few pre-race jitters worrying about racing at altitude - something that usually lays me flat on my back. Brad kept repeating his warning, "Don't go anaerobic." I guess I listened because I felt surprisingly good on my leg. But that could have been the result of the pit bull chasing me down the road, frightening away any sense of pain or fatigue I might have felt. Later, I realized he was friendly. The foliage lining the road was vibrantly fertile from the recent rains and the pit bull and I enjoyed a couple miles of beautiful scenery before he decided to go home. But before I could get lonely, I heard my teammates cheering me on and I finished exhilarated by the exercise and the camaraderie of our team.

A friend of mine had opted not to do the relay because there were no trail legs on the race, but the dirt and paved roads did not disappoint. The course wound its way through the scenic prairie of Owl Canyon to the open rolling pine forests of Red Feather Lakes. After our van completed its first legs, we drove through the Roosevelt National Forest over the thickly forested Sand Creek Pass (Elevation 10,269 feet). At dusk, we broke out of the forest with the sweeping Laramie River Valley below us. The setting sun cast a breathtaking orange glow over the grasses below. The runners spread out on the dirt road ahead looked like a Nike poster, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by open country.

Photo: The No Small Feet team poses at the finish line. The team won the Wild West Relay with an official time of 22:30:20.

As darkness descended, we headed north to the small Wyoming town of Woods Landing, just north of the Colorado border. This was the next van exchange point and we had a few hours to rest. We were surrounded by more teams at this point and the environment was festive. The full moon was brilliantly shining when Steve Santana came flying into the exchange and our van began our second legs through the Medicine Bow National Forest. As we drove from exchange to exchange, I wondered what the occasionally passing vehicles thought of the headlamps bobbing down the remote road. We were all tired but the nighttime legs are what make relays so memorable. It is a surreal solitary experience to run down a dark road at an unthinkable hour of the night and makes you feel like part of something crazy and adventurous.

I don't know how adventure racers go multiple days without sleep because, despite all the fun, at 2 a.m. sleep was the only thing I could think about. At the next van exchange, even without the missing sleeping pad I was too tired to search for, I slept immediately and blissfully for a couple of hours. It seemed like only moments later when our teammates in Van 1 arrived. Being on a fast team meant less rest - something I was not happy about when I was dragging myself out of my warm sleeping bag. Our speedy teammates had caught and passed every team ahead of them. We were now the leading team.

As Brad Pace chugged up Rabbit Ears pass (Elevation 9,680') on his third and final leg, the sunrise glowing behind him, we chatted with the volunteers at the next exchange who had been waiting since 4 in the morning. They had created a tropical theme with seashells, swirling kites, and bright colors to keep our minds off of the numbing cold. They were just two of the many race volunteers vitally needed to run each exchange point. Teams had the option of providing two of their own volunteers or paying an extra fee to have non-profit groups supply volunteers for them. The second option raised $10,000 for several local non-profit groups.

I appreciated the volunteers but was even more grateful when I realized that many of them were more sleep deprived than the runners. Kate Muldoon was one of the three zone coordinators, in charge of a group of exchange stations, and had not slept at all. When I saw her at 5 a.m. she was babbling in her exhaustion. Later at 3 p.m. she would brightly tell me she was on her third wind. "Third wind?" I thought, amazed. "What time did she have her second wind?" Despite her occasionally jerking head, which betrayed her true fatigue, she reflected the sentiment that seemed to be shared by all the volunteers - she was having a great time.

Photo: A member of the Thundering Herd team races the setting sun.

Our last legs followed Highway 40, crossing the Continental Divide and then descending steeply into beautiful Steamboat Springs. After briefly following the bike trail along the Yampa River, the course finished at the Steamboat Middle School track. Brian Giauque came running down the track at 9 a.m. and our team fell in behind him to the finish, our total time a little over 22 hours.

Teams continued to trickle in throughout the day. The runners' ages and ability levels varied as much as their names, including Phat Men Running, 2 Assess Smaller Passes, and the Rickety Chicks. Everyone seemed thrilled at their individual experiences and excitedly shared their stories. I was told that the first member of the ultra 6 x 1 team, The Over the Hill Gang, finished his 36 mile leg and then jumped on his bike and rode the 60-some miles home to Longmont where he had another engagement. There were also the two teams in the Flatlanders division with all 12 members living below an elevation of 2,500 feet. When asked how the altitude was for them, a member of the Dallas Hill Wrangler's emphatic, "Hard," said it all.

Paul Vanderheiden, the race director, looked exhausted from two nights in a row of only three hours of sleep; he had been phenomenally thorough, even including details such as the number of cell phone reception bars on each leg description and color coding the blinking lights that helped direct nighttime runners. His efforts were rewarded by the overwhelmingly positive feedback. It was a stellar event and many teams said they'd be back next year to get their "Ass over the Pass."

As for finally being able to explore Steamboat Springs... well that would have to wait one more day. First things first - I was going to get some sleep.

Author Marcie Glass wrote about her experience at the Colorado Outward Bound Relay in issue 12 of Colorado Runner. The Wild West Relay 2006 is scheduled for August 11th. For more information go to www.wildwestrelay.com.