Lander Biathlon

Mountain Bike Biathlon

Beaver Creek XC Ski Area (South Pass- above Lander)

August 28th, 2010

The mass start for this race was a bit smaller than Leadville.

Off to the races.

Guns and bikes... count me in! Hard to find local races. With nothing else on the agenda for this weekend I thought it'd be fun to try out the Lander Biathlon again. Had great fun doing it a couple of years ago.

Didn't have a clue where I was going- so I followed the herd.

The route was about a 3 mile loop that you road three times (10 miles total). There was a shoot bout of five shots after the 1st and 2nd laps. Each time you missed they added a minute to your time.

My first shooting bout was prone. I missed twice.


You shoot at metal targets that clap shut when you hit them.

Seamus wrang the cowbell!

My second round was standing (off-hand). Last time they wouldn't let me shoot off-hand... a rule for begginers. I missed once or twice last time. This time I had four/ ten misses.

Had I had more time to zero the rifle I was shooting, I may have done a better job of shooting- it was off (high) and I had to compensate because of it... which kind of threw my consistency off. Still great fun!

Running to my mount.

Off to ride my 3rd and final lap.

Web cheering me on, yelling... "No sand bagging- we wanna see you puking at the finish this time!"

After it was all said and done I completed the race in 45 minutes or so. I missed four times- so my overall time was 49 minutes. It was pretty fun. I'd encourage anyone that like to ride a little to give it a whirl some day. Good stuff!

2010 Leadville 100

Leadville 100: The Quest for Sub Nine

Outbound on the off the Powerline descent- on pace for sub nine.

Nearly 3,500 miles and 250 hours of training, and a few races is what I did to prepare for Leadville this year. This was the Silver Rush (50 MTB race in Leadville);

Finishing at the Silver Rush.

It was toasty out.

The "Head Quarters" climb at the Enduro

I did the Enduro again this year as well- much faster too. It's a great Wyo race!

Around 6:ooam at the Leadville 100 start.

I had to get up at 3:30am to get down to the start line at a 4:45am in order to haggle for a starting position near front. There were 1,230 riders that showed up (1,500 plus registered).

A little closer to 6:30am, I donned the spandex and awaited the shotgun blast that would signal the 1,230 rider mass start (down hill on pavement)!! Really... perhaps the scariest part of this whole race.

Outbound, crossing the bridge near the bottom of the power line descent. I was on pace for sub-nine at this point... and pretty much to this point inbound. It was the 1500 foot inbound ascent of the powerline that put the squeeze on my sub-nine hopes this year.

Having fun... at this point it was early.

Chuck and Karla weren't too far behind me.

The ended up with their 3rd best time in ten years, taking 4th overall in their class.

I placed 188/ 900 plus finishers. My time was 9:18... not sub-nine. Bugger!

Guess I'll do it all over again next year (more miles/ more intervals)--- arrhhhgggg!

With one race left to go, I had to keep my training up. The weekend after Leadville I pedaled into Christina Lake... about a 30 mile ride round trip from the highway. It was a good ride- I hadn't ridden up there in the summer for quite a few years.