Jason gets hairy at EPIC MT CHALLENGE

Gecko's Epic Mountain Challenge in Pagosa Springs turned out to be an amazing even with an overwhelming amount of support and organization.  But the real story is the amount of muscle that showed up to compete for the $60,000.

This event is a 2 day stage race combining 4 races.  Day 1 is a half marathon trail run in the morning and a 20 mile mountain bike in the afternoon.  Day 2 is a 10k road run followed a few hours later by a 4k mountain bike hill climb. I only completed day one.  2 days of racing with Xterra Worlds just 3 weeks away probably was not the best training.  So I told myself if I was in the running for top 5 I would keep racing day 2 otherwise I would call it early.

Lining up for the start of the half marathon was a small group of maybe 60 or 70 runners but 50 of them felt like they belonged in the front row. And when Morgan started us off I realized immediately that they all did.  It was like racing a 400 up the first hill.  The entire front end of the group was flying.  I stayed back and tried to keep a steadier pace.  After about a mile I started passing a few people and after 3 or 4 settled in with 2 other solo racers, Kyle Leto and Ben Allen.  We went back and forth for a while, Ben and I railing the ups and downs while Kyle would just real us back in on the flats.  Some of the downhills were very loose and steep along with some of the uphills.  But the course was a good mix of hills and flats.  Unfortunately the scenery wasn't there but I was staring at the ground for the entire 94 minutes anyways.  On the final techie decent and climb Ben and I dropped Kyle until about a half mile left and we see Kyle flying through the switchbacks to run us down.  We both put in that final kick to finish Me, Ben, Kyle only about 7 seconds between each of us.  Such a great time racing with 2 guys at the same level. Josh Merrick, Jason Donald, Josiah Middaugh, Howard Grotts, Brian Smith was the order of  solo men 1-5.  I came in 8th.  There were 3 duo guys ahead of all top 5 solo men. These guys were crazy fast.

After the run Alexis and I took Edgar for a walk and then headed to Farrago's for lunch (so good we went back for dinner, even better for dinner!).  I used every bit of fortitude I had to not eat the entire basket of sweet potato fries that came with my panini.  Then we headed back to the hotel to put the legs up and read for an hour.  2 o'clock came and I was out the door pedaling around trying to loosen up the legs the best I could.  I put in a few short hard efforts only because I was worried about getting stuck behind a crowd by the first single track.  The start line was the same as the run.  One small group all gunning for the front.  Morgan started us off again and same as before it was a sprint up the hill.  I managed to tuck in behind Greg Krause and Brian Smith which left a nice wake for me to cruze up the hill in.  I hit the single track in a good spot but still got stuck behind some guys on the first two descents.  The 2 lap course only had 2 techie downhills and couple of tough steep climbs per lap.  The rest was a flat power course on single track.  The first lap I had absolutely nothing. My legs were as flat as could be.  I struggled on every uphill and flat.  But about a 1/4 the way through lap two I suddenly felt amazing. I was standing on every hill, I road away from the guys I was with on lap one.  Passed a few spread out guys and finished with way too much left in the tank.  Not sure how that works but I obviously did something wrong between the two events.  Howard Grotts, Dan Hugo, Josiah Middaugh, Brian Smith, Thomas Spannring was the order 1-5.  I was 12th.  Believe it or not there were 2 duo guys ahead of Howard Grotts. Sorry, no individual names only team names listed.

We ended up leaving early Sunday morning because of a family issue, but I had told myself that if I did not have a shot at the money by the end of day one I would cruze through day 2.  I had Xterra Worlds coming up in 3 weeks and I didn't think it was wise to race 4 events in 2 days just for fun. 1 day was great anyways.  My run was fantastic and my bike felt strong.  It gave me great motivation for Maui.

After I left day 2 went on but the results did not change much.  It was a battle for first place with Josiah Middaugh 2 minutes ahead of Howard Grotts, followed by Brian Smith, Jason Donald, Bradley Weiss, Josh Merrick, Dan Hugo, Travis Macy, Kyle Leto, Ben Allen and 12 more guys.  I didn't mention it mostly because this is already a long post but the women's field was just as impressive with Emma Garrard putting in a dominating performance.  What an insanely competitive field.  My hats off To Morgan, Mike, and the rest of the Gecko crew who managed to pull off such a unique and AMAZING event.  I'm in for next year 100%!  

 

4 passes run

Killer 28 mile run around 4 passes loop! Casey, Jason, Luke.

Leadville 100 run, Leadman (luke jay)

 

Luke Jay wrapped up Leadman 2013 with a solid 3rd place overall in series. The last event was the epic Leadville 100 mile run. He finished 14th overall in 20:14.  Read his report here!
http://lukejay.blogspot.com/2013/08/leadville-100-run-report.html





                   SEEK AND ENJOY

 

LEADVILLE 100 MTB

Such an amazing race that has turned into a legendary high profile event. Leadville is at 10k feet so the air is thin and racing 100 miles on the mtb there is no joke. 2000 people started the race and 1300 finished. Great day for the adrenalin project!

TRAPPER rode a phenomenal  time of 7:15 (that's really fast) to place 23rd overall with a huge pro field. He also got some great shots on cyclingnews.com.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/leadville-100-2013/100-miler/photos/276124
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/leadville-100-2013/100-miler/photos/276015

LUKE JAY rode a solid 8:10 to move up to 3rd place in the Leadman competition. He is racing the final event which is the 100 miles run this sat in Leadville. Both earned their "big buckles" ! Luke's race report:  http://lukejay.blogspot.com/2013/08/leadville-trail-100-mtb-report.html

Huge Thanks to CHAMPION SYSTEM for our kits. GIRO for shoes, helmets, gloves. SWIFTWICK for socks. LIFEPROOF for the best adventure phone cases. ADRENALIN CYCLES for keeping us rolling strong.

silver-rush 50 and updates

Leadville silver rush this last weekend...Trapper, Luke, and honorary project racer Wade. Cool race a big field. Not the best luck, as Trapper had a gnarly crash and had to go to doctor to check out his bleeding face/head/lips/legs/back.... He got away pretty lucky but could have been really bad! Flat legs and a couple flat tires later Luke finished in 4:28 and Wade finished in 5:37....we backed it up with a great time at the local distillery tasting some fine moonshine mules and sausage!

Check out Luke's blog here http://lukejay.blogspot.com/ to see his full race report as he racing the full Leadman.

Big race coming up next weekend! We  will have Will Kelsay, Hairy Jason, Patrick Valetine,and Jason Hilgers all toeing the line at beaver creek for the XTERRA Mountain Chapionships. Stay tuned.   

Bailey Hundo Race Report (Jason Hilgers)

The Bailey Hundo is a 100 mile mountain bike race in the Bailey/Buffalo Creek area of Colorado. It’s by far my favorite race of the year. Buffalo Creek is one of my favorite places to ride and I try to make the hour long commute to ride there at least once a month. The race included 6 miles of dirt road to start followed by 50 miles of trails. The final 40ish miles are on mostly dirt roads with some pavement thrown in. This is the third year I’ve done the race and was my second time on the single speed. 100 miles, 10,000 feet of climbing, on a single speed: Let’s go. The Spot Rocker belt drive was souped up with some carbon Reynolds wheels pre-race thanks to Adrenalin Cycles.





I was lucky to have two of my brothers crew for me during the race so I didn’t have to worry about stopping at aid stations or bag drops. I have my nutrition dialed in for endurance racing, which consists of a bottle of water, bottle of grape First Endurance EFS, and a flask of First Endurance EFS liquid shot every two hours or so. I would be relying on nothing but liquids for the roughly 7.5 hours of racing and would be getting hand-offs roughly every two hours. I didn’t have high hopes going into the race as the single speed field was relatively stacked. I finished 2nd overall in the single speed category last year in a time of around 7 hours 42 minutes. The previous year’s winner (Jeff) was signed up (who bested me by 10 minutes last year), as well as the Rocky Mountain Endurance series leader in the single speed category (Carlos) and a handful of other strong riders (Dan et al). I also had to deal with old man Ed Oliver who decided to throw his He-Man legs into the single speed category. I had a 3:30 AM wakeup call Saturday morning to get some breakfast in me and make it to Bailey for the 6 AM start. I picked up Ed Oliver on the way and we rolled into Bailey just after 5 AM. After the gun went off (literally) there is about a mile of slightly downhill pavement that puts the single speeders in a bit of a hole. I spent the following 5 miles working my way through the masses to get near the front. I passed last years single speed winner just before the turnoff onto the Colorado Trail and the start of the singletrack. I figured I was somewhere near the top 25 overall at that point. Once on the trail if was difficult to keep the smile off my face. I love riding these trails. I tried to keep is smooth on the flats and downhills and push the hills. I felt pretty good early on and rolled through the first 40 miles with a pretty steady pace. After passing through aid station 3 I saw Carlos up ahead and new I was in relatively good position. Carlos is pretty damn strong (to say the least) and the fact I was near him was encouraging. I lost some time to him on some flat double track and when I stopped to swap bottles and EFS flasks. I rode with some geared riders through a long portion of the Colorado trail and then caught up to Carlos again on a steep climb. I dropped the geared guys to bridge up to Carlos and the made my way past him about 2/3 the way up the climb. I noticed the way he way cranking that he was probably had a bigger gear ratio than me. Once I went by Carlos I got a huge blast of motivation to keep pushing hard. I met my brothers near aid station 4 and they said I was the lead single speeder. This added to the motivation and I just kept pushing. I caught a geared rider at about mile 55 or so who said the next single speeder was less than a minute ahead. I realized that I was not longer running scared at the front but running in2nd. I just kept pushing and got a glimpse of the leader (Dan) on a steep climb. At the top of the climb it was about a 4 mile descent down the Platte River. I kept on it the best I could but the sandy descent was working me over. I hit the Platte River and met my brothers for a quick refuel and I was off on the 12 miles of flat pavement and dirt road into Deckers. I let my brothers know that there was still one single speeder ahead of me. This flat section was brutal on the single speed. Some quick 130+ rpm bursts with a quick coast, then repeat, for an hour. A geared guy caught me, which was a welcomed relief and I drafted him for a while. He throught the lead single speeder was up ahead but we could never see him, even with the long open roads. I was thinking to myself Dan must have one hell of a big gear on his bike. Another couple of geared guys caught us and three geared guys rode off into the distance leaving me all along once again. About 4 miles from Deckers I was caught by another geared rider who said there were two single speeders about a mile behind. Apparently, Dan was getting some nutrition from his drop bag when I passed and was now riding with Carlos. I was the first place single speeder. Shortly thereafter, my brothers came rolling by and said I had a 1.5 mile gap on the two single speeders. I knew Carlos and Dan were riding with a larger gear ratio than me so I kept the cadence as high as I could to keep them from closing the gap. I thought that if I could make it to the Stony Mountain Pass climb in first it would be tough for the two to close the gap. With the help of a geared rider I was able to make it to the base of the Stony Mountain Pass climb with the lead. It was all in my hands (or legs) now. I may not be the best technical rider (especially descender) but I can power up smooth climbs with the best of them. By the way, the Stony Mountain Pass climb is the most difficult part of the race. It starts at about mile 75 and 10 miles and 3,000 feet of climbing later you summit the pass. There are three climbs to get to the summit with a short descent in between each. They get progressively longer and less steep, with the first being a nasty, steep, loose, sandy, kick in the ass. I kept my butt in the saddle and kept pushing only having to stand for a few short segments. Near the end of the first climb it was getting hot and I was hurting pretty bad. My brothers rolled by and said I had a 6 minute lead. I told them it didn’t matter because I couldn’t go any faster if I wanted to. I kept my head down staring at my “Pedal Harder Sissy” stem cap and kept mashing. When I reached the summit I wanted to stop and kiss the ground, which probably would have made me cramp so I kept rolling along. The next 15 or so milers of rollers were a blur of pain, agony, near constant cramping, and absolute joy when I came to a downhill segment and didn’t have to pedal. I rolled through the finish in 7 hours and 13 minutes, 1st single speeder, 12th overall, and 4th amateur overall. I was floored. I took almost 30 minutes off my 2012 time. I stood in shock until by brothers rolled in. We exchanging some high fives and a bunch of hugs. It was probably the best result I have put up in my 6 or so years of racing. It felt pretty damn good. I have to thank by brothers (Justin and Jordan) for all the support and motivation through the day. Without them I never would have been able to put up the time I did. I also have to thank Luke Jay and The Adrenalin Project. All the fast guys have forced me to step up my game. Thanks to Adrenalin Cycles for being the best shop in Denver and knocking out my endless array of bike related issues as fast as they do. Also thanks to all of The Adrenalin Project sponsors whose gear helped power the way including Champion Systems, Giro, LifeProof, Skull Candy, Swiftwick, and Oakley.

new race reports!

Patrick Valentine took 2nd overall at the XTERRA Curt Gowdy. check it.
http://patrickvalentine.blogspot.com/

Luke Jay took 8th overall (4th leadman) in the Leadville Marathon.
http://lukejay.blogspot.com/