Another Epic-PCP2P

Although I've been taking some serious time off the mountain bike since Leadville, I am still super excited for the upcoming Park City Point to Point, a 75-mile singletrack dream race September 5th. I completed the old E100 twice and truly believe this race is going to blow that one out of the water. The E100 was the hardest 100 I have ever done (yes, I have done the Creampuff) and was just waaaaay over the top hard. Stupid hard. Like "why would I ever want to do this race again" hard.

I did the E100 on a hardtail and it darn-near killed me, so I am endlessly grateful to Joel at Tomac for getting me hooked up with this new carbon hottness to race: The Carbide SL

My build weighs in at 22.6 lbs, locks out if and when I want it to and rides like a dream. How could I not race this bike?

The PCP2P is going to nail all of the greatest parts of Park City riding without making it a death march. Plus, the race organizers have this thing absolutely dialed. They are giving away tons of quality schwagg, are holding a post-race concert and are pretty much doing everything necessary to make racers smile. Nate and I are so stoked for the race we are planning an extra trip down there this weekend to "preview" the course. Honestly, we just want to ride Park City it is that good. If you want to register you have to do so by the 31st of August, so get on it! If you're not up for the entire thing there is team option, too.

One random shot for ya: my "podium" pic at Leadville. Ken and Marylee are the heart and soul of Leadville. This duo have enthusiasm oozing out of them every minute of every day. They make Leadville what it is.

Home Sweet Home

This past week has been nice. Really, really nice.

After what felt like 2 months straight of living out of a car, I have been home for over a week doing lots of anti-bike racer things. Staying out late, drinking summertime cocktails, catching up with the many friends I haven't seen all summer and not opening the training log for any reason what so ever. It's also been a nice change to do my school work in the comfort of my hammock on my deck, rather than in the front seat of a car, fighting off car sickness as Nate and I trade driving shifts to get to all of these far away races.

With no training agenda it's been a week of exploring. I had to go confirm the rumors of the new, super-secret singletrack in my neighborhood...near that other not-so-new secret singletrack. I had a great late night of exploring, getting lost, viewing enormous black bear tracks and discovering the awesome work my pals, who will remain nameless (wink wink) have been doing over there. Here's the view from where I came out (our house is along that ridge to the right)

I've also been cruising around the valley on my cross bike. Victor and Driggs are pretty much made for cross bike riding. We have so many more dirt roads than paved and the exploring potential around here is endless. The valley is full of these types of roads:


You also never know what kind of agricultural/wildlife experience you will run into in Teton Valley. I was on my ride home the other night and ran into a herd of about 40 horses running down the Cedron Road. The nice, older man who was there to block traffic told me that I should come over some time to ride his horses. He assured me that it would be much easier than riding a bicycle, but that was just his take.


Speaking of experiences, I figured out who the heck came thundering through our yard the other morning at 6:00am. Our house is up there on the ridge. Seems these 4 trouble makers busted free, came up the hill, left a few piles on our lawn and continued to have a great time for a few hours running around Edgewood Lane:


I wish I had the photo to share, but there has been an enormous mountain lion hanging out in our neighborhood in the last 2 weeks. It has already taken a few sheep and a goat and is rumored to be not at all afraid of humans. We're keeping Maddy inside at night and I have been doing a lot of singing out loud to myself on trail runs and rides. I love living in the mountains-you never know what you are going to see next. But, we are keeping the dog-door closed just in case so that my laundry room doesn't become a super-sized litter box!

Leadville Bridesmaid Once Again: 2009 Edition

This spring, my mom and dad gave to me a magnet that is the only magnet on my refrigerator at home. It reads in huge, bold, black and white lettering the famous Winston Churchill quote "Never, Never, Never, Never Give Up. That pretty much sums up my Leadville 2009 experience. I gave everything I had to give and I never, never, never, never gave up. Even though I could have. And at times I wanted to. But I didn't. Quitting lasts forever. Bike races don't.

Knowing how clearly disappointed I was with how the day went, Coach Eric told me that I am allowed to be disappointed that I didn't win-that's what makes me a pro. But, I am not to be disappointed with my effort or in my ability. I clearly gave it my best, totally emptied the bucket and it just didn't work out.


First things first: The Leadville Crew sure knows how to put on a killer event! Nothing gets by the LT100 staff and it makes for an incredible race vibe and overall experience. My sincere appreciation goes out to the organizers and to the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that make this event so awesome and for keeping us safe out there. We all know it is not an easy thing to do, so thank you!

The start was absolute mayhem (cold, too: it was about 38 degrees and had been raining all morning.) I had heard that registered rider #s were up this year due to the "special invites" list. Typically, about 1,000 line up. This year, I heard it was 1,600. Good grief, this race has gotten big. Anyway, I was prepared for the chaos...sort of. 10 min. before the start I watched Rebecca Rusch walk through the front gate and plop her bike down on the front row. So, I knew I had a lot of riders to make my way through in order to get on her wheel.

About 5 miles in, there was an enormous herd of cattle running on both sides of us-super scary and funny at the same time. A guy in front of me plowed through a huge pile of fresh cow dung and flung a generous smattering of it-kid-you-not-into my right nostril, onto my lips, and completely covered the right lense of my sunglasses. Got it in my eye, too. I quickly wiped it off with my gloves (super smart move, Amanda) and rode without glasses until mile 60. I am almost 98.9% sure that I am going to come away from Leadville 2009 with giardia. Awesome.

The official LT100 Helicopter

Anyway, I had avoided a bunch of near crashes and buried myself up the St. Kevin's climb in order to make it to where there were about 10 riders separating me and Rebecca. Okay, phew, time to back off. By this time it had really started raining. I made it out to the pavement section for a long downhill to Turquoise Lake and started climbing on the pavement. Then, I got the "oh no" squish at mile 14.

All bike riders know that squish I am talking about. You bounce and squirm and look at your tire umpteen times while you try to figure out if you have a flat. Then you ride more. Then you bounce more. Then you deny your denial and get off and squeeze it. Then you finally figure out you have a flat. The epic story is that I tried to seal it twice, no dice. Then I took out the valve stem, dumped my stans, put in a tube, put the tire back on, borrowed a pump from someone that didn't work, finally found an air source, the tube had a hole in it. Had to hunt down another tube. Find more air. Fix it again. Blah blah blah this took about 20 min from the time I discovered the leak until the time I was rolling again. In the meantime, standing there dripping wet in the 38 deg. temps, I was quickly becoming hypothermic. Sucked down some gels and kept rolling.

The hardest part about this set back was that I was now placed into chase mode in the middle of all of the slower folks. I think hundreds and hundreds of people passed me while I was fixing my flat and I had to chase them all down, one by one to get going again. Let me tell you, I burned so many matches I had hoped to use later. It was an incredibly crowded course.

I stopped in at the aid station for a new wheel, made the change myself and tried to just keep my head in the game. Seems I have lots of experience with that this year: flat at Marathon Nationals, major almost-race ending crash at XC Nationals, getting lost and flatting at the Intermontane challenge...I was hoping that my bad luck streak was going to come to an end for my biggest race of the season.

Lance and Co. coming through the first Aid Station

There are so many things that happen in a 100-mile race. For brevity's sake, some quick details: it poured rain for the climb up sugarloaf and the powerline descent and because I had fallen so far back into the middle of the race pack, my descending skills couldn't help me like they usually do. I banged out the Columbine Mine Climb and tried to just laugh off the absurdity of riding in a hail storm. It was an incredibly windy day. I found myself alone in every flat section on the return trip when we were riding into the wind. Totally in no-man's land all day. That was a really tough thing to deal with because so much of this race depends on working with other riders. Lots of men sucked my wheel though. I heard the phrase "sorry, I've got nothing" many times today. But hey, you can't fault them for that - at least they were being honest!

Me, rolling down the red carpet. Final time 8:40. Still get a big ol' belt buckle, but I already have one of those. What I really wanted was the chance to be up there fighting for the win.

So my second Leadville is in the books. As much as I wanted to make this year my last attempt, something tells me I am going to keep havin' at it until I can put a good race together and not be the bridesmaid again. I still managed to come in 66th overall, so if I do get into the lottery again next year, I will get to line up in the front 100!

Is this recent string of setbacks going to affect my approach to racing? Nah. As the wise Churchill also said "Courage is going from failure to failure with enthusiasm." Mom, Dad, seems a new magnet is in order.

Count Down to Leadville

I made it to Kremmling Monday night just in time for Asher's 1st birthday party. Burgers, gourmet hot dogs, chocolate cake and watching a one-year-old dive face first into his cake made my miserable 9-hr drive melt away. I kept on truckin' to Frisco after the festivities so I could start sleeping at 9100 feet. After 3 REM caps and a scathing article about Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair I was out for 10 hours.

Tuesday I went up to Leadville for an easy out-and-back on the beginning and last 10 miles of the course. Did a couple of openers on the St. Kevin's climb and was amazed at how good my lungs felt. I guess all that high altitude racing in June and July paid off! I happen to run into my teammate Wendy and her pal Jill who is just out cruising around in Colorado. It was really nice to see some familiar faces. Headed back to the condo, walked the dog twice, ate, went shopping, did homework, slept again. Exciting stuff.

Return from St. Kevin's-7 or so miles left...can you say power flats?

Heading back into the final miles...to the blvd.

The beginning of the boulevard. This is my least favorite part of the entire 100 miles. Seriously. A steep climb up loose baby-heads at mile, oh, say, 96. Good times.

On Wednesday, I got up a little earlier and headed down to Twin Lake to ride the climb to Columbine Mine. 10 miles out, just a hair above 3000 feet of elevation gain. I am starting to like this thing. Really. It isn't so heinous until the top 1/4, where it gets loose, steep and off camber and you have to hold your line to the right at all times or you will get run over by guys like Lance and Weins.

Approaching the top of Columbine. Off to the right is where is starts to get tricky.

The view from the top. I know I will not be able to appreciate it on Saturday when I am drooling all over my top tube, so pictures were in order.

I am feeling so incredibly ready to get after it on Saturday. My plan? Mentally commit to the sufferfest, ride as hard as I can and only focus on the things I can control. This year, more than ever, is going to be a total circus. Knowing that I am faster, fitter and smarter than I was in 2007 when I did it in 8hr 31min will encourage me to empty the bucket even more. I've got my splits mapped out, calories counted, bike dialed and a totally healed tailbone. I even have Maddy the dog here all week keeping me calm until Nate arrives on Friday. The only bummer about this year is that I was denied a front group call up :( Although I finished 61st overall in 2007, it wasn't last year, so I don't get a position in the front corral. I am also not associated with any race sponsors. My email from the LT100 that said "no"recognized that they "know that there are many fast riders that will be lined up behind that front corral."

Oh well,the answer is always no unless you ask, right? Looks like I will be lining up about 300-400 deep. I just heard that Rebecca Rusch is racing. Makes me wonder who else is racing who is not on the start list. Me? I got my yippee card in the lottery in February!

Happiness is...

Happiness is riding my new Tomac Carbide SL

Happiness is miles and miles of new, super sweet singletrack on Teton Pass courtesy of the USFS and Friends of Pathways.

Put the two together? Yup. Wicked happy Amanda.

The Real Report

Here's a link to my more diplomatic evaluation of the Intermontane Challenge: Amanda's Team Kenda/Tomac Race Report

Some rest and recovery sure does make it easier to find the "perspective" that eluded me while my head was melting inside of my helmet all week.