The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It was fun racing, but the coolest thing was the people”
By Than Acuff
What started as a casual invite and was expected to be a sightseeing tour resulted in a race and eventually a podium finish.
Back in July, Dana Kracaw invited Janae Pritchett to join her and her race partner at the Dynafit Trans Alpine Run September 7-13 that starts in Germany, passes through Austria and Switzerland and finishes seven days, 170 miles and 56,000 feet of climbing later in Italy. The course winds through valleys, up over passes, along ridges and down scree-filled couloirs with a couple sections requiring runners to wear helmets as they both climb and descend exposed areas with fixed cables to grab if a foot slips or a rock breaks loose. It is essentially seven mountain marathons in a row through the Alps, and Janae was just looking forward to an Alps tour experience.
“I didn’t even think it was a race,” says Pritchett. “The idea was to walk uphill, run downhill and take pictures.”
While several racers, such as Kracaw, compete in teams of two, there is also a solo category, and Pritchett was able to find a solo spot for sale in the race that typically sells out much like the Grand Traverse race.
Once she was in, it was time to prepare and while Pritchett admits she was not concerned about her fitness level, she was concerned about the toll of consecutive days of mountain running might have on her body.
“I always go for all day bike rides, so I was not worried about my fitness,” says Pritchett. “I worried about how my legs, my knees and my joints would feel. I wasn’t sure I could physically do that.”
So she prepared by running as many peaks as she could in the two months leading up to the race, headed over to Europe and after the first day of racing “just trying to figure it out,” she continued to gain momentum and on the third day, things really started to click.
“On the third day we were running up on ridges in the freezing rain, wind and on slippery rocks and that’s my jam,” says Pritchett. “This is like Colorado, this is where I feel comfortable.”
She finished the day in third place and that’s when she decided it was go time.
“I was like, whoa, I can do this, I’m actually doing well,” says Pritchett. “I did not go there intending to race but once I saw I could keep up I was like, I got this. I spent my whole life racing, I can race again.”
She proceeded to place second, first, third and first place over the next four days and while the weather was great for a majority of the first several days, things got spicy over the final two days. A winter storm rolled in forcing organizers to change the course and while runners flirted with snowline on the sixth day, they were in the elements on the seventh and final day of running.
“We were running in inches of snow for at least 10 miles,” Pritchett says. “It was full winter conditions.”
In the end, Pritchett placed third among the Master’s women, 40 years and older, and fifth overall among all solo women racers. And while a podium result was great, the experience was more than just finishing with a top result.
“The organization of the race was like nothing I’d ever seen,” says Pritchett. “Aid stations were every 10 kilometers and were fully stocked with local meats, fresh fruits, cheeses, tea, coffee, sodas. The race director was at the highest point of every day with a huge cowbell with a ton of people cheering us on. It was fun racing, but the coolest thing was the people. Everyone was just so super kind, and I got to meet people from all over the world.”
