Mudslides, flash flooding and thousands of lightning strikes defined a dynamic low-pressure system in La Plata County last week. Likewise, athletes in the Valkyrie Relay on Saturday were measured by their perseverance through the storms.
Hundreds of athletes and spectators braved the vicious weather as racers competed in the approximately 80-mile, eight-hour multisport relay race that consisted of trail running, mountain biking, road cycling, paddleboarding, swimming, kayaking and road running across La Plata County.
Their determination paid off, said Erin Hughes, Valkyrie Relay co-director, at the finish line at Santa Rita Park on Saturday afternoon. By about 3 p.m., dark thunderclouds above the park had given way to blue and sunny skies.
“Thank you to the racers. Give yourselves a round of applause for sticking around in this weather,” she said through a microphone. “... It was a rough day. It was really touch and go, wasn't it? You guys are amazing.”
Before the closing ceremonies, as the last racers were still pounding pavement toward the finish line, Hughes had breathed a sigh of relief. Early Saturday morning, she was sure the weather would force her to call off the relay altogether, she said.
The first leg of the race, a nearly 10-mile trail run through the Rocky Road, Extended Ridge, Sugar, Cuchillo and Horse Gulch trails, was initially scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. and was delayed about an hour.
For the second leg of the race, mountain biking, race coordinators had to readjust plank bridges and shorten portions of the MTB course, adapting to morning rains carried over from the night in the final minutes before the relay began.
La Plata County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Chris Burke said the most significant mudslide last week occurred at 5:30 p.m. Friday along La Posta Road (County Road 213). Other county roads impacted included 210, 330, Buck Highway (County Road 521) and East Animas Highway (County Road 250).
The La Plata County Road & Bridge Department deployed graders, backhoes and dump trucks to clear the roads, he said. The listed roads are the most mudflow-prone routes during significant rain events.
During such events, the Road & Bridge Department will provide alternate routes to motorists and deploy crews to divert traffic from areas impacted by mudflows.
“Standing water, you never know how deep it is. I would take an alternate route and turn around,” Burke said. “... We’re glad to have the moisture, but hate to see the debris flow like this.”
County crews must wait until the debris has dried enough to cut and scoop for removal, which is anticipated to be completed next week, he said.
Lucas Boyer, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said a total of 3,316 lightning strikes occurred across La Plata County from Sept. 10 through Sunday.
Of all the lightning strikes, 1,595 were cloud-to-ground strikes and 1,721 strikes remained in the clouds, NWS data showed.
Luckily for participants, weather at Lake Nighthorse where the relay’s swimming and paddleboarding segments took place was limited to periodic light drizzles between stretches of sunny skies throughout the duration of the race, coordinators said.
According to data from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, Durango received 1.98 inches of rain between Sept. 7 and Sunday - over 1 inch of which fell on Saturday. NWS data recorded at the Durango-La Plata County Airport recorded 1.13 inches of precipitation over the same time frame.
Commenting on the weather, some race attendees said they haven’t witnessed so much consistent rainfall in the two decades they’ve lived in Durango. But historical data from the NWS showed a four-day stretch of rainfall last week did not make the top 100 historical rain events in Durango.
“The record was in September back in 2003, and over four days they had 3.69 inches,” Boyer said. He said that record was set over Sept. 9 to 12, 2003.
He said the series of storms last week were brought on by a wet pressure system traveling from the Great Basin northeast toward the plains, which brought about flooding, hail, rain, lightning and even tornadoes – an atypical weather phenomenon for Southwest Colorado that was observed in Montezuma County.
Race coordinators said they lucked out at the lake and over the course of the day in general.
Participants reflecting on the race said the rainy day did nothing to dissuade them. Some had traveled from out of state. Some Durango-area residents have long attended the relay, while others were new to the event.
Durango resident Tamra Fenberg, who entered the relay with her daughters and their friends, said she was grateful for the sunshine, as well as the camaraderie, support and joyful people at Santa Rita Park on Saturday afternoon.
“(The Valkyrie Relay has) such a great spirit of coming together and enjoying everything Durango has to offer all in a day,” she said.
She said the relay race offers an opportunity for people to take a risk and try something new.
“There’s college kids who come down together, there’s families who come down to visit their family and do it together,” she said. “There’s businesses doing it together. It really does give you an outside opportunity to really do something good together.”
Full race results are available online at brooksee.com/dur/results.
cburney@durangoherald.com
