It has taken me a while to get to writing this post. Maybe, because, every time I think about the 2016 Red Bull 400, my legs burn, my chest seizes up, and I can taste iron filling my mouth. I smell the stacks of vomit buckets and see finishers sucking air from oxygen tanks, some lying on stretchers.
Still, I can’t wait to run/bear-crawl the Red Bull 400 again next year. (I may be a glutton for punishment.)
This fall, Red Bull invited me out to Park City, Utah, to participate in the U.S. Red Bull 400. While the race hits up spots all around the world, the Park City location is the highest and hardest one of all. A 400-meter sprint up the U.S. men’s Olympic ski jump slope, it takes place at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, and involves an elevation gain of more than 500 feet.
It took me 11:57 to make it up the freakishly steep slope, earning me 87th place in the women’s division. Among my female competitors, former CrossFit champ Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and U.S. Olympic ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson. (FYI, they crossed the finish line in 6:48 and 5:58, respectively. Crazy!) That’s one thing that’s so cool about this race: You are placed in the same heats as these awesome athletes. You run, climb, and possibly want to die together. Sarah said it best, “It is nothing shy of a max heart rate, calf cramps and hyperventilation.”
It was a physical feat I knew that I’d probably black out during, so I strapped a GoPro onto my chest and tried not to drip too much snot on it throughout the run. (I was sick on the day of the race, and the temps were in the 40s.)
I must have succeeded, because the next time I saw my footage, it was part of this awesome video. Check it out (look for my chin in the video above!) and, since misery loves company, head to redbull.com to sign up.