7/12 - Leadville Silver Rush 50

I had a goal this summer to qualify and do the Leadville 100 in early August, this Silver Rush race was a qualifier and a little taste of what I am getting into this summer.  I camped the night prior under the peaks and just south of Mt Massive and Mt Elbert the highest point in CO at 14,689’.  The race start was later in the AM, but a mass LeMans format running up a step hill, 300 meters or so.  I made it out with some of the leaders of the race for the first 20 miles or so.  The 12k’ altitude starts to get to you.  But I gradually fell back into the packs through the turnaround and the way back.  Climbs were loose and many had to be walked.  The last decent was the same long climb we made in the beginning.  Myself and 3 others missed a left turn at about mile 42.  We were ready to be done, not head back up and find the missed turn.  This probably added 10 minutes for all of us.  The rest was uneventful, but I was so tired that even the downhill hurt.  Great to be finished and proud to have earned a coin to make the Leadville 100 in two weeks.

5/19 Xterra Lory

This season I decided to skip the WTC races and try a few more Xterra races, the first one near Fort Collins CO in the horsetooth reservoir.  I came up early the morning of the race and had not pre-ridden the course at all, which proved to be a mistake.  The reservoir was beautiful with rock cliffs on either side.  It was still a small Xterra race so I was hoping for a decent result.  The swim went great and I managed to put 3 minutes into everyone else, onto the bike is where the issues started.  It was tacky single track so the conditions could not of been better, I was in the lead so I was taking some risks and cooking right along.  About 3 miles in I way over shot a right hand bend went into the wet grass and totally ate it.  Bike cartwheeling down the hill and all, I had a bunch of small scratches and a sore shoulder but appeared to be okay to keep going.  Hell I was still leading the race, I ran and got the bike back on the trail and kept riding.  Only a few miles later noticing the front rim was very badly bent (requiring a replacement), the disc was not rubbing so I kept on.  Two guys behind me caught me right as we started the 2nd lap.  They clearly were biking faster than I as I did not hold them.  The bike ended and run started right up to the top of a hill overlooking the lake and back down, the views were spectacular.  The run down was tough not to fall and crash, which a few did as the medic at the bottom of the run course attested to after the race.  I held of all but one more runner by the finish and took 3rd in the pros but 2 age groupers beat me too.  The finish line had a slip-n-slid which was pretty nice to cool off.  Some very cool ariel footage was shot from a drone at the race too.  Link below

Xterra Lory ariel footage -

CLICK HERE TO WATCH XTERRA LORY AERIAL FOOTAGE!