Birthday Weekend

The tradition of riding on my birthday continues. 28 years means I have to go 28 mph (or faster) for at least 28 seconds and go at least 28 miles; this is going to get tough when I'm n my 50's.

Friday was my birthday, so I met up with BT and we had Trail Ridge Road in Estes Park on the schedule. We started at 7:30 to hopefully avoid all the RVs that will be going up the road later in the day.

Plenty of wildflowers along the road at the end of July.

Overall, Trail Ridge wasn't as hard as I had built it up in my head. It only was about 6% grade the entire ride, but it's the 12,000+ feet above sea level that makes it a challenge.

Nice views of Longs Peak

This was the coolest looking section of the road, just beautiful

Day two was a ride up Devils gulch via drake. I rode with Chris and Derek and had a great time going on a ride with friends that I don't get to rid with often.Enthusiasm is always high when I'm out riding.

The descent into Drake was fast, fun and scenic.

Making our way over to Devil's Gulch.

At the bottom of the crux of the climb, Chris' computer was saying 11% grade in some parts.

A nice steep switchback

Making our way to the top

Yup.

2008 Silver Rush 50 Race Report

July 19, 2008
John and I made the early morning trip to Leadville for the Silver Rush 50 Mile Mountain Bike Race. The start was crowded and the air was crisp, but the sun was shining and it was going to be a great day.

The start is the "Silver Rush"; we all run up the ski hill and the first guy and the first gal that make it up get a silver coin. It's madness, and a great way to start the race. I take it easy up the hill, but after getting going I realize that running hard up there is smart; everyone is jamming up on the singletrack.

I settle into my pace and when the climbs come I'm passing people, per my usual ways, us tall and skinny guys do better on the climbs than the flats. This course is pretty tough, no flats really, you're always going up or down.
The first half of the way out is pretty wet, there's no way my bike is going to stay clean through this race. After a seriously rough and rocky section we pop out on a road and the speed increases, it's all just fast miles and smiles to the first aid station, I go through at 1:27 and 54th place.
The race then dumps back onto singletrack and the roller coaster terrain continues. We go around Ball Mountain on a trail that the Marathon took as well so at least I knew what was coming up, and thankfully the snowfield had melted out. The descent down to the turn around point was treacherous, a lot of babyheads and steep terrain and a narrow trail. I was stuck behind a rider that was a bit timid so the going was a little slow as he smoked his brakes, nothing like the smell of hot disc brakes in the morning! Near the bottom the leaders were on their way up, looking strong and fast.
I get to the halfway point feeling okay, I top off my bottle and way hi to John and get back on the way. At that point I was 49th and turned around at 2:43. Maybe 1/2 a mile after turning around my stomach began growling, not good. I had been eating, but I guess not enough, lunch time was approaching. I slowed my pace a little and ate the rest of my food, I was passed by a few people, but I had to make sure I got food in or the end would hurt.
By the next aid station the food had perked my energy level up a bit and I was moving quickly again. John surprised me by cheering me on at this point too, that was unexpected and very cool, having friends cheer me on really helps me out. I came through with a head of steam ready to tackle the last climb and with a goal of catching the second place female that had passed me a little earlier.

The final climb was not the kind of climb that I excel at. I like the long steep climbs, the stuff that most people cringe over, this was my cringing climb, a long relentless false flat climb. The climb was always a middle ring affair, but man it sapped energy; the false flat energy made it seem like you should be able to go faster so you'd push harder. I passed a few riders during the climb, but I saw my target ahead and couldn't quite reach her, she was in a group of 6 people or so trading pulls up the climb, I was an island trying to chase them down, wasn't going to happen.
Finally, the climb ended and the technical descent began. I knew being on the hardtail would make me a little slower on the descent compared to the guys with the full-suspension rigs just behind me, this was all about damage control now. I went as fast as I could safely and was only passed by two riders and one was while I stopped at an intersection looking for the right way. A third rider caught me just as we were leveling out, the terrain was now rolling all the way to the finish. He was faster on the downhills, but as soon as it went up or flat he started cramping and I easily would pull away. Near the finish, while he was cramping, I went by and gave a cordial "Just spin it out man, almost there" and proceeded to create a gap he couldn't close on the last descent.
Once again I came flying towards the finish and then took a wrong turn! It's kinda becoming my signature move. Thankfully, this time the guy right behind me did the same thing so I didn't lose a spot like the last time.
Final Time - 5:13:29
Final Place - 38th out of 309
Place in class - 6th

Standing in the trough of the wave

Sunflowers, 2000 Tour de France, by Graham Watson

Photo Copyright © Graham Watson

I'm sitting here staring at the tsunami headed my way, it's my calendar.

I don't have a free weekend until September 13th (and yesterday I just stumbled across an event for this weekend). With work travel coming up the last week of July I'm really going to have it crazy (leave Sunday night, come back Thursday night, race Friday and Saturday).

I'm looking forward to August, the rest of July is going to be the tough part.

Some good news though, it looks like I've got a team started for the Adventure Xstream Expedition Race in September, I'm really looking forward to that.

At least I have the Tour de France and cute cats to distract me.

Mt. Evans, you're my Everest

Evans, Everest; they're the same right?

I have a nemesis, Mt. Evans.

I have tried to roll my wheels atop it's summit on three separate occasions only to be denied each time.

June 24, 2006 - Attempt 1. Andie and I set out from Idaho Springs, by Echo Lake Andie had decided this ride was a little too much for her considering she had only been riding a few times that years so far, too much time running. We had some delicious pie and then descended.

July 17, 2007 - Attempt 2. I roll out from my house at 6:30 a.m.. I roll through Evergreen and pick up John and we head out to Evans via Squaw Pass. We get over Squaw and to Echo Lake where we're denied, the Mt Evans Hill Climb bike race is going on and the road is closed, drats!

Vietnam Memorial in downtown Morrison, CO

July 11, 2008 - Attempt 3. I checked the calendar, we're clear, roads open. BT and I roll out from my house and we start up.

Making our way up Bear Creek Canyon

We make it to Evergreen and everything is looking good, spirits are high.

The smiling didn't last too long after this

We began up Squaw Pass with energy high and beautiful skies.

Squaw Pass Road, not much traffic on a Friday.

Then Mt. Evans lashed out and said "Nay, not today Nick. I shall never give in." BT, while doing a little mock-attack about 2/3 of the way up Squaw Pass broke a spoke. Dang it.

After inspecting the spoke, classic fatigue failure at the bend.

We get the bike to a point that we think he can ride it down, but as soon as we start out two more spokes break. Now on an 18-spoke wheel this is significant, 3 spokes is almost 17% of your spokes. The wheel was totally unrideable, BT began pushing his now skidding wheel along as I rode down to get help.

More broken spokes, these looked more like tensile failures, the extra load they were carrying after the first spoke broke was just too much.

Three tries and zero successes, only makes me want it more. I'll be back real soon to get it. At least I climbed it on foot on 6/25/06, that makes these spouts of bad luck a little easier to take.

BT, trying out the 650c wheel solution to get down the mountain, we opted for the 700c even though it was 10-speed and he needed 9-speed. Brakes are good.

I don't know about you, but I'm staying away from low spoke count wheels.

Leadville Trail Marathon 2008 Race Report

Yeeehaaaw. That was fun and by far the most difficult marathon I have ever done. Here's how it went down.

BT (left) and me (right) at the start, both still happy.

The weather was clear and the temperatures were in the 50's for the start. I chatted with BT while we were waiting for the start, he was running the Heavy Half and I was running the full marathon.

The two courses followed each other for the first 1.5 miles, but I lost sight of BT within 150 yards, dang he's fast. I eased into my pace and after watching all the ultra-runners around me I employed a walk strategy, walk most of the hills. I found that on the steeper hills when the walk strategy came into play my "walk" was faster than most and I made up time on everyone then. I kept chugging away through the first aid station and felt good. The aid stations were definitely not your typical marathon aid station, these were ultra-running aid stations, a lot of m&ms, PB&J, chips, coke, sprite, etc.

BT rolling through Aid Station B at the base of Mosquito Pass in third place (but really close to second).

My legs were feeling decent considering my effort 8 days earlier, then came the first downhill. Ahhh, this is where I screwed up. My effort on Grays Peak hadn't hurt my uphill performance much, but downhill I was much slower than usual. I descended at a 9:30/mile pace when I usually would've been around 7:00/mile. the course quickly got above treeline and we were going through some interesting historic mining areas. At 10 miles I reached the third aid station and was able to see my friends there. BT also had to go through there and I asked them how he was doing; BT was in second place and had just gone through about 5 minutes earlier on his way back to the start! I was excited for BT, but bummed that I wouldn't see him on my way up Mosquito Pass.BT coming down Mosquito Pass, now in second place, still no sign of me.

Mosquito Pass was tough, a little over 3 miles and 2000' of elevation up to 13,118'. I ran as far as I was comfortable and then began the power hike. I kept looking for marathoners descending, but only saw the heavy-halfers. Finally the marathoners started trickling down and I began counting. I reached the summit in 54th place, filled my bottle up and grabbed a few potato chips and started down. My descending was now atrocious. The powerade that I had started drinking at mile ten coupled with the the greasy potato chips meant I was having issues. My stomach was cramping a little, a bit nauseous and my legs weren't feeling to up to anything while my stomach hurt. I descended at a blazing 12-13 min/mile pace, pathetic, I was being passed on the downhill.

Late to the party, five minutes later I roll through having taken the longer scenic route.

I reached the next aid station and got rid of all the powerade in my bottle and only went with water. On the next climb I ate the last of my Jelly Belly Sport Beans and downed some water. I was still in a funk when I arrived at the next aid station at mile 19. I kept moving though knowing I was on the home stretch. Then at mile 20.5, after copious amount of plain water and electrolytes the light came on. Literally over a span of about 60 seconds I went from feeling lousy to absolutely fantastic.

BT crossing the finish line, second place in the bag.

I cranked up the pace and I could run decently again. I started to catch some people and kept going. I caught one guy at mile 22 at the end of the last major climb.
"That was the last big climb right?" I said
"Yeah I think so" he said
"Great, I'm going to rip off some sweet 12 minute miles from here on out" I said sarcastically
"Yeah, lay down the hammer man" he continued the sarcasm.

I entered the last aid station renewed, filled my bottle and was gone. I had a mission, I needed 11 minute miles to stay under 6 hours and I wanted to get as many places back as I could. The downhill began and I just let it go. Time to let it rip and see what I had. Well I had a pretty good amount apparently, I easily rapped up to 7 minutes/mile at times. I was passing people and feeling good.

Soon enough I was on the home stretch, BT came up the road to cheer me on and give me the high-five we missed out on at Mosquito Pass. I crossed the line at 5:48:42, not bad for a marathon entirely above 10,000'.

I call this picture, "300 lbs of Speed and Fury". Actually, I'm positive we weigh more than 300 lbs put together.

BT finished in second place, running with the fear of third place nearby the entire time. That was a huge accomplishment considering that he had just come to town from Hawaii a week before.

I showered at the hostel and then went to the dinner where I collected my finishers mug and BT's second place gold-panning pan. I was 65th out of 244 finishers.

Uhh yeah, that Gray's Peak run was a dumb move.

So it's 6 days after running Gray's Peak and my IT bands are still a bit tight and sore and I only started walking normal yesterday. 2 more days until the marathon!

Oh well, I'm still gunning for a sub-6 hour finish time. Then I'll probably be pretty useless for a couple of days.

I've haven't done any running since Gray's to help with recovery, but I have biked about 9 hours. No more biking or running planned before the race so that my legs get themselves in order.

Maybe not such a smart move

Ok, so I thought it was a good idea to run up Gray's Peak (14,270') 8 days before the Leadville Trail Marathon. Riiiiiggghhht.
Well it was fun, but I'm paying for it now, sore and tired legs for sure. At least I've established a time for me to later beat, 2 hours 7 minutes to the top and 3 hours 11 minutes round-trip. Stats are roughly 13.3 miles and 4500' of elevation, I started from I-70. I also power-hiked the last mile to the summit, so I can work on being able to run the whole thing too. The camera's battery died a little over 13,000' feet so no summit pic, but I swear I was there. I have a GPS track to prove it! This was the 4th time summiting Gray's Peak for me.
As an aside, if you want to feel good about yourself, run up a 14er. There were a lot of hikers out and every one of them was flabbergasted that I was running and they all were cheering me on. I had more people cheering for me than the Steamboat Half-Marathon did.

Gearing up to get on the trail


Typical section of the 3 mile road up to the other trailhead.


Still enjoying myself.


There's a couple of interesting old structures still left over from the mining days.


Getting close to the Gray's Peak TH and almost to treeline.


The bridge at the gray's Peak TH, only about 4 miles and 3000' elevation to the top.


It's almost July and there's still snow around, I crossed 4 snow fields. Gray's Peak (14,270') on the left and Torrey's Peak (14,267') on the right.


My favorite part of the trail, the water is crystal clear.


The trail gets rougher as you ascend. This was the last shot before the battery died.