I'm in Leadville at Provin Grounds....a great name for a coffee shop in a town known for its ultra sporting events. Tomorrow is the 3rd leg of the Leadman series where we will ride through the mountain trails for 100 miles. The race begins at 6:30AM, when the temps should be in the mid to high 40's and will climb into the 70's throughout the day. The course has a 4 hour cut off at mile 40, a 8 hour cutoff at mile 60 and 9 hour cut off at mile 74.......so there will be no slacking. Although it only takes an average of a 8.33MPH pace to complete the course in under 12 hours....it only take a split second to take your eye off the track and flip your bike and bust your ass up and have your race finished. The plan tomorrow is simple...ride a conservative race...finish in under 12 hours....anything over 12 hours...then I'm out of contention for a Leadman trophy.
So the picture above is my mountain bike, a Gary Fisher full suspension tubeless tire racing machine....actually with a real rider on it that would be so....but with my sorry ass on it...it's a means to an end.....the Leadman trophy and delivering my butt to the start line next Saturday for the 100 mile trail run.
Let's talk about preparation and training. My bike has only been ridden three times....the evening that I got it and took it to the local park....an uneventful ride....was thinking...this isn't too bad. There was hope after the first ride that I could tackle the 100M MTB. Then night two.....I took the bike out after work up to White Ranch, a very technical course....aka dangerous track. I actually took the picture just minutes before I wrecked....not cool. As I limped out of the trails that evening I swore off MTN biking, upset with myself on many fronts. Then there is time.....well time heals all or at least so the saying goes. My scapula, ribs, peck and shoulder have healed over the past 7 weeks and I've trained very very hard for the 100 Mile Trail Run. Unfortunately I've only been on the bike once, and it was in Leadville up Hagerman to SugarLoaf, a forest road that is part dirt and part rocky...not particularly easy....for me. I'd venture to guess that out of the 1,900 participants that I have the least amount of time on a mountain bike....perhaps 3 hours....EVER. Tomorrow's race is going to take everything I've got in my back of tricks to finish in under 12, yes 12 hours or 4X more than I've ridden that bike cumulatively. I guess that's what makes tomorrow pretty cool....it's going to be an adventure race for me.....after all...at the age of 44 there are few "firsts" that one gets to have....tomorrow is a first and I'm going to have fun with it....no matter the outcome..I'm out there to compete....and show those MTB's that wheels are for sissies, all you need is a pair of running shoes for 100 miles. We'll see. Start conservative....FINISH STRONG!
Going to hit the rack early tonight and get up at 4:30 to make a nice breakfast. Tim Engel will be crewing for me at Pipeline. For those of you who are interested you can go to http://www.leadvilleraceseries.com and hit real time race tracking box...my bib# is 344, Phillip Theodore...and you can get updates throughout the day.
By the way.....I know that tomorrow carries with it certain risks....I understand them, clearly....there's the starry eyed dreamers.....then there's those of us that will get out of bed tomorrow at 4:30AM to take on arguably one of the toughest MTB races on the planet. Cheers!!
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