Recap of The Road

I have been on the road since last Monday, so that makes 10 days total.  We drove from Leadville to Wilmington, NY, and back again in that time.  In them middle we put on a mountain bike race.

This is a map to give you a little perspective on how far we traveled.

That is pretty much the path we took as well.

I'll recap our stops, and runs, then move on to the race.

We did not really get on the road until Monday afternoon, and we made it to North Platte, NE.  I had run that morning (see the pictures in the last post), so I did not need to run in Nebraska.  The next night we made it to Morris, IL.

That night I ran 12 miles on paved roads around corn fields.  It reminded me of running at home a little because of running around fields, and it was really flat.  Also, the nice sunset reminded me of home.

Sunset in Morris, IL

I was glad to be getting miles in wherever I could find them.

The next night we made it to Pembroke, NY.  A quick look at Google Maps showed there was a high school about a mile from the hotel.  I used the mile run to the school's track as a warm up, and then did a Tabata workout (4 minutes of alternating between 20 seconds pretty much as hard as you can go, followed by 10 seconds of slow jogging; this makes 8 rounds of punishment).  These workouts don't feel good, but they are over quickly, and the research is showing that they can be as affective, if not more, than long runs.

The next afternoon we rolled into Wilmington, NY.  I had never ventured into that part of the country before, it is quite beautiful.  The traveling crew decided to look for a mountain hike, and we found this little gem:

Even though the peaks in upstate New York are not high in comparison to Colorado, I am not yet in top climbing shape, and this trail was rather steep.  It turned out to be a good workout, and I even jogged on part of it.  It ended up being about 7 miles roundtrip from the hotel.

That evening we met the rest of the team that had flown in at MacDougal's.  It is local restaurant that has an incredible view from the deck:

That is the Au Sable River, and yes it look awesome in real life too.

The next day we killed it.  We were able to get nearly all of the start/finish/expo area set up within a few hours.  The volunteers were great.  The layout was basically such that the race finished at the bottom of the sky run, under the gondola.  To get all of our equipment to that location easily, I got to do something I have never done before.  Although driving in 4 wheel drive is not new to me, driving a 4 door, Chevy 3500 dually with a 32 foot enclosed goose neck trailer down a sky slope certainly was new to me.  These trucks are awesome however, and they handled the task with ease.  See:

That night was the pre-race event that they hold in the ski lodge.

The Mayor of Wilmington wore a button that said "The Mayor," and a top hat all night.  He also, wore a hawaiian shirt.  Pretty awesome dude.  He was a hard working, fun loving mayor, and was extremely helpful throughout the weekend.  The entire town was great come to think of it.

I spent most of the next day marking course with our logistics guy, and one of the guys (Johnny) who works for the olympic group out of Lake Placid.  He was a huge help, and a great guy.

They also needed the usefulness of my long arms to climb the start/finish structure, and then to hang the clock.

Side note:  The name of the mountain is Whiteface, the town is Wilmington, and it was the mountain that was home to the Lake Placid Olympic games in '62 and '80.

At the very end of the day we marked some course down by the river, and found another good photo op.

Finally, Sunday rolled around.  The race got off to a great start.  Then the rain started.  It was cool, but not cold, and it rained for hours.  Just as the race concluded, the rains let up, and we began the arduous task of breaking the event down.  It went much more smoothly than I had been dreading, and we were off the mountain before dark.

The next morning, we reversed course, and headed back for Leadville.

The first night, we stopped in Wauseon, OH.  It was sort of your stereotypical looking small midwest town.  I did find a walking path to run, so that made things go a bit more smoothly.  The sunset here was pretty nice too.

I was able to bust out 8.5 miles that night.

The next night found us in Grand Island, NE.  Directly across the interstate from our hotel was Mormon Island State Park.  I again used the distance as a warm up, and then knocked out a Tabata workout around the lake.

The next night is this one, and it finds me writing this blog right now.

Goodnight