Stage 2- a better day!

Sept 4, 2011- Stage 2

I was so nervous last night, after having such a horrible day running yesterday, at what Stage 2 would look like. I had a good sleep, not great, as Saturday night in Hirschegg is party night!!! When I got up at 5am, I could still hear people partying..... We stayed just outside of Hirschegg in a great guesthouse set right into the mountain!
I think we were 13th out of 36 womens teams heading into day 2 ....this doesn't mean much to us, as our biggest goal is to finish this race, and to take each day as it comes.
So today was our biggest day- 54km with 2500 meters of climbing. Daunting at the best of times, scared to death I was after yesterday's disaster.
We started off in overcast skies and a nice, easy pace. Our goal was to take it easy the first 4 stages and simply survive!! We had a great day running- some ups and some downs but nothing out of the ordinary for such a long day!

We had a lot of fun, and our day went by as planned and surprisingly quickly!! There was an amazing rock descent on the edge of a gulley, some gorgeous views, and got to run through some beautiful private land where the owners were outside cheering us from their decks!! So much fun!! There was a horribly humid, very steep climb at 45km, followed by some fun single track downhill, then some undulating pathway running to the finish. All in all, it was a great day and I got my confidence back!!! Now actually looking forward to tomorrow's run:)
Did I mention that Rene and I are starting to get a reputation as "THE CANADIANS", and that some teams know to pull over when there's a descent to let us pass? Yes, we love running downhill, we're not afraid of mud, and we can be loud!! We're having fun out there!!!