Late Cheq weekend report

The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival.... probably my favorite weekend of the year.  Every year I look forward to this race more than any other.  Its more an event or tradition than just a race.  2010 was the 7th time in a row I got into the race via the lottery.  Most are not so fortunate.  This year Erik Arentzen entered the lottery with me and made the trip.  We drove to Eau Claire Wisconsin to meet Jim Parman and spin around for a while.  The trails at Lowe's Creek are pretty fun, though not to technical, and they provide a nice tuneup after a long and very boring drive.  My parents came out to meet us for dinner, where they surprised me with an official Aaron Rogers jeresey!! 

Friday morning greeted us with rain.  Boo, I don't like riding in rain and sloppy conditions, and this was even more of an issue since I had a Stans Raven front tire and a Crow rear tire-very little if any traction.  I would most likely die if I rode those tires in Colorado.  I decided not to change them as I figured that if it stopped raining early and dried out, they would be fine for 95% of the course.  We drove to Hayward to meet the rest of the group, find the cabin, register, and eat a large dinner of pasta.

Race day started at 4AM.  Jeremy, Justin, Jesse, Erik, and I drove to the start to stage our bikes and were awarded first and second row, which was behind all of the preferred starters.  I warmed up on the Fuel in the frigid temperatures of the north woods and was feeling good.  The gun went off and the start was hectic, picture 1800 mountain bike racers starting, slowing, and dodging road furniture.  When we hit 77, the pace opened up quite a bit.  I was riding with a few friends at the time, and decided it was time to drop the hammer.  I hit Rosies field and was passing people like crazy.  Shortly after we hit "trails" my rear tire seemed like it was going flat.  I asked Jesse how it looked, and he said low, great..  By mile 12 I was dinging my rim if I went over bumps.  I thought if I could make it to OO (first aid station area 16 miles in) I might find a pump and save time and a Big Air canister.  Even though I was on a flat tire for 4+ miles, I was 168/1800 at OO, which I thought was ok.  I found a pump, filled my tire extra full (40psi) and rolled off in an attempt to reel in the riders that passed me.  At about mile 25 I hit a patch of wet mud funny, and crashed.  I noticed I ejected a full water bottle after I was off and riding again.  I just emptied my other bottle and swapped them out.  Jeremy Vogels caught up to me again (he passed me three times while I was off my bike) at this point and handed me a water bottle.  I don't typically drink much, but it helped a lot, Thanks Jeremy!  I middle ringed the Seeley Fire Tower climb, which is the crux of the race and felt great still.  At the top of a climb at about mile 33 I shifted from my big chain ring to the middle chain ring, and got a bad case of chain suck.  The chain was doubled over between my large chain ring and front deraileur.  I could not move the crank in either direction, shifting the deraileur did not take pressure off the chain, and pulling on the chain did not do much either.  After maybe 3-5 minutes, I got the chain unstuck.  I pretty much pulled the plug on racing at this point as I was quite frustrated and WAY behind where I could have finished.  I kept a decent pace, but it was less than my race pace.  I ended up finishing 225 out of about 1800 in 2:44.  The course was much slower than last year.  I told Erik he would get somewhere between 2:55 and 3:15.  He split that and got 3:05!  How about that for predictions!  After the race the group went to Famous Dave's for some post race BBQ.  Beers and fires rounded out the night.

Garmin race stats
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49885286

Sunday Erik and I headed up to the Rock Lake trailhead.  We rode a lot more trails this year.  CAMBA does an AMAZING job of working on these trails.  There were a bunch of rock features-some even had an alternate route as they were difficult.  This is easily the best trail cluster I've ridden in Wisconsin.  Lunch at the Sawmill Saloon provided recovery burgers and a place to watch the Packer game.It was great seeing a lot of friends and my parents, getting a short vacation, and going back to the great north woods of Wisconsin.

Labor Day weekend and some pretty good feets

Stories to come tomorrow as I have time.  Thought I would post some pics for now.  18,040 feets climbed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

38 miles to our destination

At the top of the first climb, segment 11, Colorado Trail

The Lev and Aspens

Eric S, aka, Road Training Rabit, wow he can climb

The final push up Cottonwood Pass

Its amazing where my bike can take me!

Work

I don't usually talk about work much.  Most people probably don't really even know what I really do most of the time at work.  The article in the link below is one of the main projects I worked on the first half of 2010.  It is the largest deal in my companies history, the largest services deal in Cisco history, and the largest deal financed by Key Bank.  I was one of three people that were very instrumental in winning this deal.

Article

Breck 100 opening climb

Courage Classic: Riding for the Children's Hospital

The weekend of July 31 to August 2 I will be riding in the Courage Classic, which is a 3 day bike ride . The Courage Classic is a fundraiser for Children's Hospital here in Colorado. Global Technology Resources Inc. (where I work) has always been very involved with the hospital and has actually had some families who have spent time at the facility with their children. For this and many other reasons, Children's Hospital is near and dear to us at GTRI. As such, we have started a team to raise money for the cause. Donations can be made using the link below.

Where the money goes

http://www.couragetours.com/site/pp.asp?c=tmL0KbN0LxH&b=6041715


Donations

http://www.couragetours.com/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=tmL0KbN0LxH&b=5612731&sid=ihLUIXODKjISL6PNItF

Breck 100 Race report

Last Friday Amy, Ben (finished 6th in 30-39 B68!), and I departed for Breckenridge to find a campsite and to get to bed early.  The reason, a 6AM start for me for the Breck100.  I woke up at 4AM and started the day off with a box of Smores poptarts, a coffee, bannana, and some orange juice. 

The race started a couple minutes after 6 and all the Breck 100 racers left Carter Park to take on the challenge of the National Ultra Endurance Series most difficult race.  The first climb went from about 9,600 ft to the top of Wheeler Pass which is 12,460 ft.  Before reaching the summit the race crossed a gulley with snow.  The first 1/2 mile of the decent down Wheeler Pass was very sketchy.  The trail was similar to a hiking trail with lots of scree, about 2ft wide at most, and rutted.  Several people crasshed, myself included. I had to straighten my handle bars after the crash.  The rest of the descent from tree line to Copper mountain was probably the best singletrack in the whole race.  The Lev handled great and I passed several people.  I caught up to Ryan and Andy from Twin Six who I met the night before.  It was great finally meeting them and riding with them throughout the race.  The rest of loop one took us up the Peaks trail, which was more fun then I would have guessed,  and down to Breckenridge. 

Loop 2 started off with a switchback climb of about 1,200 ft.  I got caught up with the back half of the B68 and B32 riders which was kind of frustrating.  The second climb in Loop 2 was where I started feel tired.  4.5 hours into the race climbing the rocky fire road was taxing.   A long climb up the Colorado trail led to another amazing descent.  I finished up Loop 2 with what I figured to be plenty of time to get to the cutoff point at Boreas Pass....

During the pit stop before loop 3 the announcer said that time had passed for 100 mile racers to head out.  I knew this to be wrong, but the news still infuriated me.  I went to talk to the announcer, and he was corrected as I was talking to him. The cutoff for the race was 4:30 at the top of Boreas Pass.  Relieved, I tried to eat some food and frantically head out.  All I could stomach was a Coke, a bananna, and a handfull of rasins.  I was not sure if I could eat more based on the way I felt, and this came back to haunt me.  Mark Hansen  and I took off at the sametime to find the checkpoint.  We had no idea what was in front of us nor how far we had to go.  We pushed on as reasonably hard to get there as there was no way I was going to accept the defeat of being told I did not meet the cutoff point.  After about an hour of climbing, the trail spilled out onto a gravel road which lead to the top of Boreas pass.  I got to the checkpoint at about 4:20 with 10 minutes to spare!!  I was beginning to bonk hard though.  I ate 6 orange slices upon reaching the top.  Solid food did not seem appealling at all.  The next 1.5 to 2 hours were very difficult for me.  I felt like I could have taken a nap anytime.  Its to bad, as I the singletrack to Como seemed really fun.  I was far to tired to enjoy it and was wondering if I could carry on for another 20 miles.  At the Como aid station I ate two Honey Stinger Ginsting gels.  About 5 of us left the aid station and I was immediately dropped.  I knew it was about 10 miles to the top of Boreas Pass, but the only thing I knew for sure was its elevation.  11,444ft.  Finishing the race was all that was on my mind.  I watched the elevation and distance slowly tick away.   About half way up the climb I got my legs back.  I caught back up with Mark and we pushed hard to the top passing a few riders along the way.  I got up over the pass and blew by the aid station as I felt strong again.  After a couple miles of fire roads we entered the final sections of singletrack.  Mark and I bombed the singletrack with enthusiasm knowing we overcame the highs and lows and lows of endurance racing and were on our way to the finish.  The trails were really fun and pretty loose which made carving in and out of trees exciting for many reasons.  We put over 4 minutes on one of the riders we passed near the top of the descent by the time we got to the finish! 

I rode in at 13:54.  I felt great crossing the line.  Finishing the Breck 100 was quite an accomplishment.  As of a week before the race, 72 riders were in my age group.  I finished 46th.  I am sure if I stayed on top of my nutrition I could have knocked probably 30 minutes out of my lap 3 time and possibly avoided a major bonk.  While I am glad I finished, the competitive peroson inside me is trying to determine how I could have been faster.  The race was really difficult and included a lot of great technical descents-definitely a mountain bikers course.  I now know of a nice free place to camp near Breckenridge and look forward to riding and camping there again.  This race will most likely be on my calender next year!  Much thanks to Amy for being there between laps. 

Garmin track for the Breck 100.  I think my GPS did not record a couple miles of loop 1.

     

Breck 100

So it is now official.  I've registered for the Breck 100.  This will easily be my hardest day on the bike.  The goal: to finish.  I am both excited and nervous.  I've put a lot of hours on the bikes over the last year and a half, so I am hoping I am ready for this.  I will not know until 7/17 at about 6:30 PM though, which I should either be done with the race or very close to finished.  Game on.