Day 2 begins in Vickisburg after a 30 min drive on the bumpiest gravel roads on old water rafting busses. It was fun though, you get to meet more people and not be out of breath when talking to them. The day starts with a 2 mile "flat" stretch before hitting hike mode for 4 ish miles, 3000'ft and ~ 45 minutes. We got off to a little bit of a slow start but once you hit the top even though it's ~ 8 miles to go,'it's 8 miles of some of the funnest trail running you could ever do.
So we picked things up again and had a super time through the second half. Poles we thought were an essential piece of equipment today. I find it takes a little load of the legs and also inhibits the tendency to start leaning forward to much making for an achey back. I find them as useful on some of the downhills to. I would use them like downhill skiers on the turns and they can help with the breaking to on the steeper sections. I was looking forward to Leadville, it a neat little gold mining town. Many of the shops still look like they are in original buildings. Being near town also let's you get away from camp for a while, we grabbed burgers and beer and now trying to write how great this is in a nice coffee shop. Day 3 route was my favorite last year, it was long at 23 miles but a nice mix of undulating terrain with no sustained climbs like today. It s funny , 300 runners walking around like post marathon runners do yet they will all get up (in zero degree temps) to run another one. It's very cool and inspiring to see so many runners do this day after day.