UltraRob's Adventures

Unlike last year, the weather at the 24 Hours of Moab was perfect today. Of course now that it's night the temperatures have dropped.

A couple bummer's in the solo classes. Chris Eatough was here but was sick and didn't start. Defending womens champion, Jari Kirkland, crashed on the 2nd lap. She cut her knee open and had to go to the ER to get it stitched up.

Local Colorado Springs Pro Men's team from Pro Cycling have a lead over the 2nd place Hammer Nutriton team. For up to the date results go to Granny Gear's website and follow the RealTime scoring links.

I have uploaded some photos to Flickr. Since the internet connection isn't very good, I'll upload the higher resolution ones to SmugMug later. Update: I've uploaded photos to SmugMug here. Many more photos to come. I've also uploaded the photos to the UltraRob.com fan page on Facebook.

- UltraRob

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Labels: 24 Hours of Moab, endurance racing, mountain biking

Update: 2009 24 Hours of Moab Day 1 Photos

This weekend is the 15th annual 24 Hours of Moab. This year it is the USA Cycling 24 Hour National Championships. This should bring out a lot of the top riders both in the solo and team categories. Chris Eatough will be there but has announced he is retiring after this last race.

I've always done better and longer races but the 24 Hours of Moab in 1997 was my first ultra endurance bike race. I showed up and had never intentionally ridden at night except commuting on the bike path in college. The only bike light I had was barely bright enough to avoid sticks and junk on the bike path.

Fortunately Schwinn loaned me a set of good lights for my first 24 hour race. I was in 3rd after 12 hours. I had been sick earlier in the week and was still congested.

Soon after midnight it started snowing. With the cold, I got even more congested and had to stop riding for 7 hours. I was so congested I had to stay sitting up to breathe. Even then I'd start choking if I feel asleep. Once it warmed up, I went out and rode another 2 laps to finish 8th.

Since then I've raced the 24 Hours of Moab 3 more times solo. Like last year, I'll be back this year but shooting photos instead of racing. Depending on the internet access I can get out in the desert, I'll be posting updates here and/or to twitter.

- UltraRob

Related Links

• 2008 24 Hours of Moab Photos
• 2008 24 Hours of Moab Day 1
• 2008 24 Hours of Moab Day 2

Yeti 303 RDH Bike 2009 Price: $4700.00

Yeti ARC X CX Bike 2009 Price: $2350.00

Yeti ASR 7 Bike 2009 Price: $4440.00

Labels: 24 Hours of Moab, endurance racing, mountain biking, Utah

I'm not a runner. I've tried but just haven't been able to get in to it. I admire those that do 100 mile runs and sometimes wish I could do one. With cycling you can coast and recover a bit but not when running.

The Hardrock 100 Endurance Run was July 11th-13th last year. Our local paper did a good article and video on it. I've meant to post about them but didn't get it done until now.

The Hardrock 100 is a brutal running race in the Colorado's San Juan Mountains. It climbs 11 mountain passes and one 14,000-foot peak for a vertical gain of 32,962 feet. It's in the area where we camped and I did some long training for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race last year. The last day when we four-wheeled the Alpine Loop, we were on part of the Hardrock 100 course.

Two locals ran it last year. Jon Teisher and Neal Taylor are 2 very different runners. I've met both of them and they're both nice guys.

The Hardrock 100 Run is July 10th and 12th this year. A lottery is used to select 140 runners. Jon made it back in this year and Neal is 45th on the list.

Jon, more commonly known as JT or brownie, attends the Manitou Incline happy hour that I do. JT likes to eat double cheeseburgers and he likes beer. He even will drink beer during long races.

Just over a week ago, JT ran rim to rim and back of the Grand Canyon. He ran 42 miles with over 11,000 vertical feet in 13 hours. His write up is well worth the read.

Neal is the caretaker at Barr Camp and I've chatted with him a few times when I've hiked to Barr Camp. Neal is a strict vegetarian and rarely drinks. JT thinks Neal would drink more if it wasn't so hard to get alcohol to Barr Camp.

Mental toughness is a huge part of doing an ultra whether it's on the bike, running, adventure race or something else. One thing Neal has learned is it will get bad, you will suffer, but you're not going to die, so keep going. Leadville 100 organizer, Ken Clouber, says finishing hurts for a few hours but quitting hurts for 365 days until you can do the race again. Lance Armstrong said it even stronger by saying pain is temporary but quitting lasts forever.

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Labels: Colorado, endurance racing, running

Every year about this time, there's a 350 mile mountain bike race. No, it is not in the warm, sunny southern desert. It's in a desolate part of Alaska where temperatures can be well below zero and the snow deep.

It's a race that I've dreamed of doing at times in my life. I then have unpleasant memories of sleeping in a tent in sub-zero weather and decide it's not for me. The race is the Iditarod Trail Invitational and uses the first part of the Iditarod dog sled race course. Jill Homer finished the race last year and didn't get enough. She'll be riding back out into the snowy wilderness this Sunday, March 1st.

The race takes about a week and the equipment and supplies aren't cheap. Last year I donated some of this site earnings to help Jill with expenses for the Iditarod Trail Invitational. I'm helping her again this year.

When you search for cycling and outdoor gear on UltraRob.com and then buy from partner stores, I receive a small commission. Starting today through March 1st, I'll be donating 20% of my earnings to Jill. If you've been considering buying some cycling or outdoor gear, now you can buy it and support an endurance athlete. You can also go to her blog and donate directly through PayPal.

Jill wrote the book Ghost Trails about her experience last year. I hope to post a review of it sometime while she's out on the trail. Check the sidebar on her blog to see the different ways you can buy a copy of Ghost Trails.

In addition to mountain bikers like Jill, there will also be runners and skiers racing the Iditarod Trail Invitational.

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Labels: Alaska, endurance racing, mountain biking, snow biking

Last weekend saw plenty of endurance racing action. Mountain bikers were turning out laps at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo. Ultra road riders were racing a RAAM qualifier in Florida and snow bikers were racing the Susitna 100 in Alaska.

Solo 24 Hours of Old Pueblo Race Results

Solo Men
Place	Name	Laps
1	Evan Plews	18
2	Ian Leitch	18
3	Tinker Juarez	17
4	Steven Yore	16
5	Todd Carpenter	16
6	Chuck Wheeler	16
7	Gattis Tyler	13
8	Dominic Laroche	13
9	Zachary Stanford	13
10	Sean Mcdevitt	13
Solo Women
Place	Name	Laps
1	Sarah Kaufmann	15
2	Terri Wahlberg	13
3	Mary Metcalf	12
4	Michele Bliss	9
5	Melissa Newbrey	8
Solo Men Singlespeed
Place	Name	Laps
1	Dejay Birtch	15
2	Sean Sullivan	15
3	Tom Ament	13
4	Chad Brown	12
5	Leonard Goodell	11
Solo Women Singlespeed
Place	Name	Laps
1	Lynda Wallenfels	16
2	Rebecca Tomaszewski	14
3	Chelsea Mcgowan	10
4	Amy Thomas	10
5	Stacey Kielman	9

Full results

24 Hours of Sebring

No one broke 500 miles this year in the men's non-drafting RAAM Qualifier race, but David Holt came close with 490.4. I crewed for David for the Race Across America last year. I must say over 400 miles on a handcycle is impressive.

Non-Drafting Men
Place	Name	Miles
1	David Holt	490.4
2	Andrea Tosolini	486.7
3	Bryce Walsh	449.1
4	Marshall Reeves	434.6
5	Dave Rudnicki	430.6
6	Gunnar Ohlanders	419.5
Non-Drafting Women
Place	Name	Miles
1	Carolyn van den Bulk	385.9
2	Lori Dailey	370.8
3	Sharon Stevens	362.8
4	Vickie Tyer	359.4
Recumbent Men
Place	Name	Miles
1	Troy Timmons	427.2
2	Gary Carter	419.5
3	John Schlitter	408.7
4	Allen Duhm	382.6
Handcycles
Place	Name	Miles
1	Thomas Lange	403.8
2	Keane West	351.7
3	Viko Merklin	303.3
4	Patrick Doak	292.2

Susitna 100

Jill mentioned on her blog that it rained at the Susitna 100 and the trail was churned up into mashed potatoes. That doesn't sound like much fun to me.

Men Bike
Place	Name	Time
1	Bill Fleming	16:15
2	Greg Matyas	19:17
3	Joe Pollock	21:02
4	Josiah Freeman	21:02
5	Christopher Wrobel	22:45
6	Jim Jager	23:14
7	Paul Lester	26:33
8	Dave Byers	26:42
9	David Hart	27:16
10	Jacques Boutet	27:24
Women Bike
Place	Name	Time
1	Janice Tower	21:02
2	Jill Valerius	30:53
3	Kristin Wolf	30:53

Full Results

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Labels: Alaska, endurance racing, mountain biking, snow biking

Roan Exelby on lap 16

Update 10/27: I've created a page for my 2008 24 Hours of Moab photos.

When I woke up Sunday morning, it was cloudy and cold but none of the wind from the day before. It's always cold there first thing in the morning. Even the year I raced when it was in the 80's Saturday afternoon, it got cold at night.

Breakfast at the 24 Hours of Moab
I headed over to the the big check-in tents to check the RealTime Scoring and get something to eat. The lead solo riders of Josh Tostado, Tinker Juarez and Roan Exelby had continued to hammer out the laps while I slept.

Just after I posted my Day 1 report, I checked the results and saw that Chris Eatough hadn't headed out when he came in at 10:21 PM. I had seen him on that lap. He looked good and had opened a couple minute lead over Tinker. The lap before I had seen both of them riding together.

I heard that Eatough had gone to the medical tent and that he wasn't feeling good. I never heard what they thought was going on but he was feeling better in the morning. On Tostado's last lap, I heard a couple guys riding with him saying it was probably because he was so far behind Tostado. Some riders are that way but I've never heard anything about Eatough being like that.

Jari Kirkland, Women's Solo winner on her 13th lap
After breakfast I headed out and spent a few hours on the first part of the course. Not surprisingly most of the team riders still looked fairly good. Even the top solo riders were looking good. Some of the other solo riders looked like zombies which is at least how I felt Sunday mornings when I raced there.

Tinker Still Looking Strong on Lap 16
Although Tinker was still looking good on his last lap, he said in his race report that he was beat up. His knee was hurting and he took way too many Advils. Because the top guys make it look so easy, it's easy to forgot that they suffer too.

This was the first time I've been to the 24 Hours of Moab since I last raced it solo in 2001. It's a good course for me in a lot of ways but all 4 times I raced it I had an asthma attack. It didn't seem to be so much from all the dust but from the campfire smoke. I'd do fine until I'd come through the pits around day break. By then there was always plenty of smoke and my lungs would shut down.

Being there this year certainly made me want to go back and race it again. Since I started taking Xolair, I haven't had any bad asthma attacks. Maybe I'd be alright racing there now.

The best I've done at the 24 Hours of Moab is 13 laps. Since 2001 I've learned a lot about staying awake and how to eat. With more experience and being able to breathe better, I think I could do 14 laps. As competitive as it's gotten, it probably wouldn't get me in the top 5 but I might be close. First I have lots of weight to lose and lots of training to do.

Ben Sonntag of the winning Men's Pro team making it look easy

Related Link: 2008 24 Hours of Moab Day 1

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Labels: 24 Hours of Moab, endurance racing, Moab, mountain biking

Travis Histed from Fema Response Flying Through Sand

Update 10/27: I've created a page for my 2008 24 Hours of Moab photos.

I've been busy going through all the photos I took at the 24 Hours of Moab. I uploaded over 1100 photos to my Photrade account. Although there were things I liked about Photrade, I ended up deciding there are too many things missing to keep using. At least for now I plan on leaving the Moab photos there.

It's in beta so hopefully it'll turn out to be a good service. The biggest reasons I've decided not to stick to it are that it's difficult to organize the photos, the displayed image quality isn't as good as other photo sites, no way to view large images and no custom cropping when ordering photos. It also hasn't helped that I sent them an e-mail a week ago with some questions and I haven't heard back.

I know I've already used a few different ways to display photos. I've now set up a customized SmugMug account. So far I'm really excited about the way it looks and everything that can be done with the photos. The thumbnails look good and the navigation is easy. You can view the photos in 7 different different sizes. If they're geotagged, you can also view where they were taken on Google Maps.

So far I've uploaded over 400 photos from Saturday. The 1st album is from the start and the riders coming into the check-in tent. The 2nd album is from out on the course at sunset. I manually geotagged them so the locations aren't exact but will give you a pretty good idea where I was when I took them.

I've found a couple other good albums on SmugMug. My favorite one is from Xavier Fane. The other is also very good and is from Jen Curry.

Superhuman Magazine also produced another one of their great videos. It shows how rough some sections are. It also shows a great shot of a rider riding down Nose Dive.

Related Links: Video Preview of the 24 Hours of Moab | 24 Hours of Moab Day 1

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Labels: 24 Hours of Moab, endurance racing, Moab, mountain biking