back to my roots, and the MAS50 re-cap

the wknd was nice. Snowmass was a blur for the Instant Software conference. I learned a lot, but as usual our particular business model has very unique needs that are not adequately addressed by the new versions.

Thursday afternoon we drove from Snowmass to Moab. It was awesome to have sunny warm weather, esp. since we were leaving 2 consecutive evenings of heavy rains and high mountain snow dustings here in Breck. It was about 82 degrees in the Roaring Fork valley and into Glenwood Springs. Grand Junction was in the upper 80s, and an hour and half later we were enjoying the 90s in Moab! A lot has changed since my time in New Orleans, wishing for a cool front that would maybe stay around for 24-36hrs before Gulf moisture pushed it back, and brought more humidity and overcast skies.

The town was booked due to the race, a music fest, a century bike ride and many other events. Plus, the desert heat this time of year has subsided from the 110s of mid-summer down to the 90s. So we had to settle for a mom-and-pop camp site, the Slickrock Campground. Montana (our Siberian husky) and I slept in my tent, and Helen and Alina slept in the back of her car. Luckily that was the setup, as Alina wasn't too cooperative in going to bed, and she ended up screaming and crying for a few minutes. The extra sound insulation of the Explorer helped a bit. At 3:15a we were up and rearranging the car and child seat for our short drive up to Sand Flats Rec Area and the Slickrock Trail parking lot, where Helen would hop on a shuttle bringing the runners to the start line. The start line was in the LaSal Mtn foothills, at about 6,400' elevation. The race started at 6a, and hopped around and over the LaSals a couple times over 50mi before descending back down to the Slickrock Trailhead. Helen defended her win from last year, placing first overall woman, and 3rd overall. That means only 2 guys out of the 30 finsihers didn't get "chic'd" by Helen. Funny. Since it was much hotter than last year's race, Helen's time was about 20min slower this year, but she still had a great race.

Alina and I were lucky enough to check in the Super 8 motel a bit early. What I didn't realize was that the hotel was NOT pet friendly. I thought all Super 8s were. Oh well. I didn't tell the front desk girl we had a dog, since the whole town was sold out. I didn't want to not have a hotel room/bed/shower for Helen after her 10hrs of running in the mtns and hot desert sun. I also wanted a TV with ESPN for the LSU-Auburn game! I read in the hotel policies that having a dog could result in a $50 fine. i was fine with that, if it happened. Luckily at check-out I had no extra charges. We took Montana's dog collar off at night, so if she shook, the metal tags on her collar wouldn't sound the "we have a dog in our room" alarm.

Sunday morning I let the room early to ride Amasa Back. A great classic ride.

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MAS 50 2008 - Overall Finishers
Time
Place Name hr:min Class
1 Golden Harper 9:12 1st male open
2 Shane Martin 10:02
3 Helen Cospolich 10:05 1st female open
4 Mick Jurynec 10:13
5 Nathan Haws 10:17
6 Jason Halladay 10:42
7 Suzanne Lewis 10:50
8 Megan Morrissey 11:00
9 David Pease 11:02 1st Male Masters
10 Brooks Williams 11:04
11 Sam Meziani 11:08
12 Chris Gerber 11:40
13 Derrick Gunther 11:46
14 Doug Newton 12:07
15 Joy Robertson 12:12 1st Female Masters
16 Andrew Wittner 12:16
17 Sean Cunniff 12:20
18 Craig Burger 12:22
19 Deanna McLaughlin 12:27
20 Sean Kute 12:39
21 Mark Ellison 13:15
22 Sara Nelson 13:20
23 Michael Rearick 13:20
24 Nancy Hendrickson 13:23
25 Marc Christensen 13:23
26 Paul Hart 13:33
27 Krissy Smid 13:43
28 Kirk Dyches 13:43
29 Daniel Bertch 13:52

2nd annual Ryan Gaul Open race report

started off a bit ominous. the last hour of work, Cole and I were just looking out the office up towards Baldy Mt. It was either cloaked in black clouds or getting struck by lightning. Not good. By the time the whole crew showed up, we had about 16 guys who were ready to race the RGO. Driving up through town and onto Baldy Road, the rain was heavy. Just before Iowa Mill, there was accumulating snow on the ground. after leaving treeline and headed up the switchbacks, the temp gauge in Ryan's Tundra was showing 35 degrees. Another 500' or so to the ridge and the weather stations, and the snow was about 2" deep. We waited for the others and soon began our epic journey. It was not at all a great place to wait around, as there was a mixture of snow and thunder, with the stray lightning bolt several miles off to our northeast (towards Park Co. and Clear Creek Co.). Soon our driver tossed the trucker hat into the air and we were on our way. I slipped a pedal asap, but soon was watching the guys ride 2-3" of new snow at about 20+mph...without flinching. The snow actually provided nice traction in and of itself. However, when you throw in 12" deep v-shaped ruts, the off camber sections were next to impossible to ride straight. It seemed to me like we were sliding from one side to the other, trying not to go off the road or lay it down. After all, the new snow was hiding some gnarly rocks, which was in a way good, b/c I didn't think too much about the potential. Down on the lower dirt section of Baldy Rd, Dan, Mark and I were just holding on to our bars as best possible. On the paved section of Baldy, I passed Ray just before hopping on Juniata. Once on the Juniata trail, I pinned it for about 1/4mi, passed Greg and caught Kevin who was in the lead. We descended down to the bridge together for the next planned stop, the mandatory 12oz beer chug, as judged by Jeremy on site. After hitting the bridge with a high heart rate, chugging that beer was pretty disgusting. Nonetheless it went down and soon I was chasing Soller down through B Line, Moonstone and Carter Park. We crossed Main and exchanged the lead a couple times by the Blue River, but ultimately his heavier bike took its toll. I passed him one last time behind Kenosha, cruised by the Riverwalk, past Jalapenos, RML, US Bank, the covered bridge stairs, and down the bike path and on to the back of GA. Victory! I had my money on Kevin or Greg. Not a real xc or 'cross race, but a win still felt good. Best of all, the sweet medal I have (pic coming) and prize money were quite good for a grassroots event. 6.3mi in just over 20min. it was a blast. bummer the old-school DH guys like Dennis, Troy & CNBall couldn't make it out.

Pics later. Gotta get Helen's car ready for our drive over to Snowmass tomorrow night. One day of work there, then on to Moab for Helen's Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race. ouch. Alina and I will have it much easier, except for our 3am wake-up on Saturday morning to get Helen out to the shuttles leaving for the start line, which is way up in the LaSals.