[8 Days 5 Hours 16 Minutes]

8 Days 5 Hours 16 Minutes

That's how long it took me to complete the Colorado Trail Race.  Good for 30th place and a big fat smile on my face that will last until I get to make the first turns of the season.  Everyone wants to know what it was like.  Pictures help.  So do stories. But they all seem to fall short for some reason.

Maybe it's because you can't get through something like the CTR without changing as a person, and that's a tough thing to put into words.  For me, this was my first mulit-day ultra-marathon that I completed. It wasn't about the distance (496 miles), or the elevation gain (65,000'). It was about digging deeper into myself than I've ever gone before.  Physically. Mentally. Spiritually.  The Elk Mountains Grand Traverse is - for me - more dangerous, but the multiday nature of the CTR forced me to strengthen nearly everything about myself.

There's a commercial out now for running shoes that says something like "strong is what's left when you use up all your weak" - man that just hits home.

I ran out of weak just below the pass on the west side of the ten mile range.  I went over the bars and landed on my arm. HARD. Not knowing if it was broken or not, I laid there, face down, way above tree line, in the rain, scared. As soon as I had my wits about me I saw that my left arm was bleeding pretty badly.  I could see a little yellow and deep red in the wound. Fat and muscle.  Awesome! So I grab my first aid kit, clean up the wound and get it bandaged. I also learn that there are 2 deep bruises on my left quad that screams at me every time the muscle contracts.  But I still have to get down this mountain before the storm hits! With over 30 hours of racing behind me, I was pretty wrecked, this was going to be hard.

Back on the bike I realized I can't grip the handlebar with full strength, in fact, I'm only about 50%, maybe even just 40%. This is pretty serious descent on a 4 inch travel bike and my confidence is shot.  I'd rather not crash again and I definitely don't want to re-learn how scary lightning storms are. So I put my tail in between my legs and start pushing my bike.

With almost no confidence, I stick with the plan and make it down to the Conoco at Copper so that I can eat and re-stock my food supplies - sometimes pushing, sometimes riding. Each bump makes my arm hurt to point where I can barely hold the grip. The folks at Conoco were great! They knew about the race and were quick to help out with NOAA weather reports on their laptop and kind words of encouragement.  There's one more burst of rain, but once these clouds role through it looks like we've got a pretty nice window, maybe enough to get to Camp Hale?

A little more inspired I get back on my bike and start heading up to Searle Pass.  I'm moving so slowly! My quad hurts on the uphill. My arm hurts on the downhill. And my lack of confidence has me gingerly rolling along the trail at turtle speed.  All the demons start talking in my head.  All the doubt starts flooding my brain. I'm just wrecked. Maybe I just need a little break? Will a couple of hours of sleep pull me out of this funk? It's worth a shot. So I pull out the ground cloth and sleeping bag and promptly fall a sleep in 0.2 seconds.

I wake up 20 minutes later to rain. REALLY? Where's that big window of weather I saw on the NOAA radar? I'm just not ready to start moving again so I pull out the emergency bivy and huddle in the deepest corner of my sleeping bag and fall back to sleep. A couple hours of shut eye later (8pm) I wake up to a full on rain storm and my down sleeping bag is getting wet.  Note much to do now but start moving.  I pack everything up and get back on the bike. My rain gear seems to be working well, but I just can't stay on the bike.  My legs don't have enough strength for this climb in the dark and my coordination is off.  I keep stumbling on every rock and root, and there's lots of them.  I'm spending more energy trying to stay on the bike them I am on upward progress.  So I start pushing the bike.  My left quad hurts with each step and my left arm is just plain weak. And it turns out my neoprene shoe covers aren't waterproof, at least my feet are warm.  I just put my head down and push my bike through the rain and the dark for the next 2 hours.

Finally the rain stops and I can stop.  I need some sleep. I've had about 6 hours of sleep/rest and I've been racing for 40 hours. I don't want to get my down bag wetter so I slip into the emergency bivy and fall asleep.  A couple hours later I wake up... with hypothermia. I've go the shivers badly enough to know that I've got to do something about this now. I try starting a fire, but everything is so wet that it's not going to happen without a serious effort. So I open the sleeping bag and wrap myself in it and just stand there until the shivers are gone. MMMMMMMMM warmth. Down makes me happy. OK - an hour later with the shivers gone what should I do? Sleep? Or continue on?  I simply don't have the cajones to try riding right now. Weak arm, bruised quad, bad night time coordination, and I just recovered from hypothermia... I'm no hardcore dude, I'm just trying to survive the night. So I slip the wet down bag into the wet bivy and fall asleep knowing that I'm gonna have to deal with drying everything out later.

4'ish am - OK I made it through the night.  What now? Do I dare continue? Do I really have what it takes to finish this beast? I could roll down the mountain and be eating breakfast at the log cabin in Frisco in 2 hours.  Damn. Dropping out again? Really? No more strength. Period. I'm done. There's nothing left. Wet.  Hungry. Sad from memories of losing my pup Homer this past spring. Missing my wife and daughter. Basically I'm manifesting all things pathetic in a single moment of life. How glum is this?

Screw it! I can still put one foot in front of the other, I'll figure out pedaling later.  Time to re-program my brain and get on with this race.

By 7:30am my gear was dry(er), packed, and I was pushing my bike up to Searle Pass. The sun was out. The sky was blue. I was warm and life was getting better. At some point I even got back on the bike and started riding again. I had just learned what the word strength really means.  It's not what you are when everything is going your way, when you are full of confidence and ready to win. Strength is that force inside that helps you take one more step when all other forces in the universe are trying to keep you from doing just that. Like the commercial says, "strength is what's left when you've used up all your weak."

6 mornings later I would end up in Durango. Charging down the final slopes with a shit eating grin on my face, many pounds lighter, with an animal like glow in my eyes.

Check out the slide show Bob made for me. Pictures are from a both 2011 and 2009 when I road the trail with support from Jen and Homer. It' a big file, so be patient while it downloads:

http://spedden.com/wp-admin/spedden.com/CTR-2011.m4v

So my question is, if one were to use some time of scotch guard or whatever on a non waterproof bivy, is it going to mess up the fabric or anything?

I would give the manufacturer a call and ask them.  Typically, waterproof materials do have some type of "beeding" finish (i.e. DWR, etc.) that needs to be re-applied with time.  The manufacturer will be able to guide you towards which one they prefer.  Over the years I've never had a reason to not follow their recommendations. If their is no recommendation let me know what the material is and I'll do a little research.

I've got the titanium goat bivy and used it on the CTR this summer. It is NOT waterproof and it's meant to be used in conjunction with a tarp. I sold my waterproof bivy (goretex with 2 poles) to get the titanium goat bivy because of the weight.  It was a 10+ year old Moonstone that kept me dry and warm on many trips over the years.  But for bikepacking, the 3lbs was more than I was willing to carry.  The titanium goat bivy weighs in at about 5oz. so there's lots of options for waterproofing and still saving lots of weight.  Tarps, UL tents, tarptents, whatever you can think of.

I guess for me it just comes down to weight.  It seems that there's a non-waterprood bivy + tarp'ish solution that offers more room at less weight than a waterproof bivy.

I have had good luck with Pearl Izumi (X-Alp Seek & Enduro II)for lots of backcountry use. They are the only shoes I've used in the last 5'ish years. I like the Enduro a little better because the straps make in/out a lot easier. Both are comfy shoes for hike-a-bike sections and seem to provide enough forefoot support (using CrankBrother Candy pedals) to keep me from feeling the pedal, no matter how long I ride or what the weather conditions are. All that said, these are both flexible shoes so if you are used to fully rigid shoes these might be pretty soft feeling.

Awesome info! Thanks for the heads up on the forum 

I'm right ontrack with your line of thinking Jeremy11!  There's the proverbial "perfect" kit for everyone, and each one is probably a little different.  I'm on the smaller side at 145, so maybe I can go with something a little "lighter" then a guy that's 200lbs. I'm also a warm sleeper, so maybe a 45 degree quilt is total luxury for me.  I think you're on the perfect path with analyzing you kit and tweaking things that work for you.  I try to change one or two things at a time so that things don't get too confusing for me.  I try to avoid the "Did the new tires give me more traction on the climb or was I producing more watts because of the new gear ratios?"  And that part that keeps me on my toes is that over the years my needs/wants have changed. Overall my endurance has improved substantially so when I work through "worse case scenarios" riding 30 miles a little cold and wet with the typical cold Colorado winds doesn't seem as bad as it did a couple years ago, so I'm fine less gear because I know I can get through it.  It looks like you know where you are comfortable cutting back!  Can't wait to watch your blue dot if you ever chose to do the race!

Warm and dry keeps the mental challenges within reach for me.  I was a little light on the "dry" aspect of my sleep kit and nearly dropped out after the 2nd night. The funny part is that it looks like I can drop weight by adding the right "drier" sleep set up.  Grams don't matter, but pounds do IMO. And shelping around wet gear that weighs pounds in the morning waiting for the sun to come out and dry stuff out is no bueno!

My biggest regret from the whole year-long obsession with the CTR?  Spending so much time beforehand worrying about gear, weight, and stuff that seems silly in retrospect when, once out there, it just felt like a prolonged version of what I do all the time.  It was awesome.  Nothing I cared about beforehand mattered while out there.  Simply be prepared, be prepared simply, and you'll enjoy it!

VERY well said man!

Unfortunately for me, I love all the hours my brain spends churning through the gear stuff  I'm still really far from committing to anything for next year, but I'm already 10s of hours into planning for the NEXT ultra. And minimizing weight for my camping/clothing is where I'm at now.  With a 25lbs bike, I'm not shedding weight without either compromising durability/safety or spending some big money on carbon frame/wheels/etc... So, dialing in my ideal camping/clothing setup is where I'm at.

My FS bike weighs 25lbs without bike packing stuff on it. Wheels are Mavic Crosstrails. Tires are Specialized Captains 2.2s UST. Rotors are Shimano XT SM-RT81-M. I add another 15lbs to bike in a frame bag/saddle bag/bar bag for a 40lbs bike packing setup. My goal is to drop this by 5 lbs so that I'm only bring 10lbs of bike packing stuff.  There's a general rule that it costs $1000 to shed 1 lbs from your bike by switching parts.  The only place which isn't close is if you have really heavy tires to start with. I'm a little guy <150 lbs, so pushing a 40lbs is pretty draining.

I choose the Crosstrails because they are UST, stiff, and durable.  If I were to lighten them up I would consider a carbon set of AM hoops. Or maybe something from Stans. Carbon is big money, so unless I get an amazing sponsor it's unlikely that I'll go carbon. A guy can dream right???

Tires: For my riding style (read that "hard on stuff") I really like the UST casings and wider, fuller volume tires.  Thin sidewalls are just begging to leave you gimped up with a tire boot hobbling to the next town, and UST really solves this problem well.  Even if I was running tubes I would probably opt for UST tires because of how much tougher they are.  And I really like a wider tire, at least in the front, so that when I get tired I can just point my bars and plough through rock gardens with confidence instead of picking my way through with narrower tires. I typically use Maxxis tires and love them, but the Captains were really confidence inspiring. They have very low rolling resistance on hard pack and pavement. Reasonable traction on the uphill on wet rocks and roots. Excellent traction on the uphill in dry conditions. They stuck to everything on the downhill regardless of moisture.  And they are so high volume that even in the long rock garden that is sergeants mesa I felt confident in just ploughing through them in the dark.  The only place where they didn't do well was in moist sand/dirt/mud.  They had plenty of traction, but their rolling resistance was negatively impacted and slowed down here.  On the upside, they shed mud with aplomb! For me, light weight xc tires are the bomb for shorter races where I can reasonably walk back (love the crossmarks!).  Check out Jill's experience with lightweight tires on the CTR: http://allthingsepicwithjill.blogspot.com/2011/08/2011-colorado-trail-race-report.html - While it's not fun having heavier tires and lightweight tires really are tempting, it sure is awesome having confidence while ploughing through rock gardens and bombing down the jeep trails and drifting into every burn that you can find!

Rotors: I ran the shimano because the Mavic hubs are center lock compatible.  I won't do this again.  I had absolutely NO problems, but I'm running Hayes Stroker Grams and really should be running their rotors.  It comes down to safety for me.  At some point I started to realize that while I'm having a blast rolling down these Colorado mountains as fast as I can on my bike, I'm relying on precisely 2 things to keep me safe: 1) my tires; and 2) my brakes. My tires were bomb proof.  But I jeopardized my brake system.  Brake systems are designed and tested by engineers as a complete system.  Manufactures spend some serious energy making sure that the system they sell you and are I will keep use safe while dropping down a 3000' descent.  Manufactures use different width rotors and and different materials for their pads and different fluids in their lines, etc., etc.. By switching things up I realized that I might be introducing variables that the engineers never planned on and jeopardize the integrity of the overall braking system.  My point is this, if you want to switch up rotors check with your brake manufacturer first.  They know their product and maybe they've tested their brakes with other rotors and can point you in a preferred direction. Mismatching brake parts has been done by lots of folks safely, but after I spent some time thinking about it the risk just isn't worth it to me. These brakes literally keep me alive and take some pretty intense abuse.  Just think about how hot they get on a major descent that can last up to 30 minutes. The huge change in temperature that they go through impacts every aspect of their ability to stop, and so I'm not comfortable anymore mismatching parts of the system. Nough said, sorry for the rant.

Another note on rotors.  I think I'll be switching to a 170mm front rotor for any long backcountry trips where I'm adding weight via bags. My rear brake pads were about 70% used after the CTR, but my front pads were completely toast! In fact, I should of replaced them 2-3 days before I finished but since they were still stopping me I never thought to check in on them.  A big mistake that I won't make again. By moving to the 170mm rotor I'll gain increased braking power at a nominal weight increase. I would expect to see less wear on the pads too, but I'll have to test this to be sure.

Chainring: I run a 1x10 and love my 30T from Extratlite and love it.

For me (and my bank account) I'm saving weight on all the stuff I add to the bike. It's not free, but it is cheaper than most bike parts.

I use the Garmin Oregon 450t, typically with the fancy rechargeable batteries that they recommend. To conserve batteries I turn it on when I need it and then turn if off once I figure out where I'm going.  This is actually a pretty easy thing to do get in the habit of.  I'll also turn it on just make sure I'm on the correct trail too. While it would be nicer to just leave it on, I like carrying less batteries.

My night time riding on the CTR was a joke. I was stumbling all over the place. While I never crashed, I did end up walking more then riding in the dark because of my clown like night skills.  Part of this may have been my lights, but for me the biggest part was my poor vision.  My left eye was much weaker then my right eye and it negatively impacted my depth of field.  So, for me, riding at night safely starts with good vision. I just had PRK (laser) to correct this yesterday.  Assuming your vision rocks I think a minimum of 70 lumens works if you have a bar mounted light and a helmet mounted light.  More is better. And there's so many lights on the market today that make 70 lumens look dim that I'm pretty stoked to see this product segment mature.  Most, if not all, of the truly bright lights suffer from over heating.  Once things get too hot it negatively impacts battery life. To this end most current "bright" lights require use of proprietary rechargeable batteries.  I know plenty of racers have figured out the battery issue for the CTR and use these brighter lights.  The upside side is that the more lumens you have the safer/faster you are.  The down side is that they are comparatively expensive and you can't buy replacement batteries along the trail.  

I've got two PrincetonTec EOSs and I'm happy with them for a lightweight "dim" setup. It's pretty clear from looking at the amount of time that I wasn't moving that I wasn't serious about riding at night though.  "If" I were to do another ultra it would be my goal to change this. I took the step to get my eyes zapped to fix my depth perception issues, so I'm pretty psyched to see if the 70 lumens will suffice for more serious night riding.  If not, I'll be looking into the fancier brighter lights.

Something else to note about night time riding... I think the type of trail determines how many lumens is desired.  My depth perception issues never showed on wide open trails over the course of a year of use.  I started riding in the dark last fall and would ride safely at speeds of up to 25mph.  Almost all of my rides last winter would start in the light but end in the dark.  When I say "wide open" I mean no trees or bushes on the side of the trail.  I think riding on trails that go through forrest change the dynamics of night time riding and probably make brighter lights more desirable.

I bet no one uses 70 lumen lights on 24 hour races anymore.  Why would they? It's no big deal to have a spare battery on you and the burn times on most bright lights are in the 6 hour time frame on their brightest setting.  At least that's what they say.  I'd love to hear what some real life experiences are with these lights.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

I've been watching this company for the last couple of years.  They are clearly a progressive company and one of these days I'm gonna crack and buy something just to see what it's really like.  Their products get some reviews on sites like backpacking lite and I remember their vest being reviewed in either elevation outdoors or backcountry skiing.  The vest suffered from breathability issues, which makes sense if you think about it.  If it holds air, it's not going to breath.  I really like their sleeping pad design concepts too, I just wish I could try one out before dishing out the greenbacks.

+1 for what tubeSSnapper said about "Light , tight and RIGHT"!  That's a damn good mantra, for racing, and for a weekend jaunt.  The lighter everything is the more fun you will have on the bike.  I thought my CTR setup was as light as I could possibly make it.  And for my experience, it was.  But now I can see ways to drop another 5lbs without spending a lot of money, and another 5lbs with spending a lot of money.  If my kit was 5-10lbs lighter I would of been able to ride more of the sections that I had to push. And that fact doesn't change if I were going a weekend trip either.

I think that's why I really like these little ultra light stoves (i.e. gramcracker/penny-stove) - I like the mountain house 1 person serving dinners, and they use 1 3/4 cup of water.  It takes the solid fuel tablet 8-10 minutes to get that amount of water to a full boil depending on altitude using ti mug with a carbon lid.  Also, the fuel tablet is only about 60% burned for that amount of water. I just let the rest burn off. I think that there's probably a way to safely reduce that weight here for racing, but wouldn't take the time for a weekend trip.  There's no space issue with the gram cracker either, most of it folds flat, and the on piece that doesn't is a good place for a fuel tablet. 

If you really wanted to, you could easily make your own gramcracker out of windscreen aluminum or a beer can.  It wouldn't be as light as the ti, but if you just wanted to try it out I'm sure it would be fine.

I've used similar solid fuel setups for backpacking and bikepacking.  I'm curious, what do you use for a potstand and windshield?

Thanks,
baker

Sorry for the very late response, I got caught up in all the CTR energy.  To answer your question, a just find 3 rocks that are about 3 inches high and circle the gram cracker.  Flat rocks are better, but not required.

Someone, possibly posting here, has been training with a fully loaded bike at Marshall Mesa in Boulder (who also evidently likes the Southern Sun, too).  Are you on here?  That is my neighborhood, too--love to share a beer at the Sun when your race is over.  I am definitely out--the clavicle surgery just didn't leave me enough time to recover this year (among other things) and I wish you ALL a ton of good fortune and good weather!  (best of luck on the Weather thing :-))

I was loaded and riding out on Marshall Mesa this morning.  And of course, I love Southern Sun, 2 FYIs are all I need to get me to my happy place.  Not sure if I'm the guy saw or not though, I have a red dry bag on my bars.  Either way, I'm up for beers after the race!

Too bad about the clavicle, but at least you were able to get the surgery.  I broke mine a number of years ago when I didn't have any health insurance and I opted for not having the surgery.  Since I broke it in two places it healed crooked and rubs funny on my pack strap.

Good luck Dan! Have fun out there!

+1 on the mac with basecamp

While I might be as enthusiastic about Garmin's software, it does work as designed on my mac.  I think we nearing 2 year mark with mac + garmin too and no real problems.  I just find the garmin software confusing to use, regardless of platform.

For years I used a converted cannondale 3.0 with flat bars for commuting and loved it.  Give it a shot.  If you like the bikepacking scene you can always upgrade later.

You may also want to check out all the bars that folks use on races like the tour divide.  Lots of options now-a-days allow for multiple positions that help deal with each persons nuances for things like hand positions, etc.

Wow, that is  a lot of racers! Who knew people like to suffer this much?  Seems like this race alone might be keeping revelate designs pretty busy!

Wow! What can I say? That seems soooo tough! I seem to need some real downtime to recover from any major effort. Once, after a thwarted attempt on aconcagua I slept and drank yerba for a good week before acknowledging that the world was still spinning.  These guys are pretty inspiring!

Nice Dave! Funny how a little picture can bring you right back on the trail? I can't wait for some Colorado sunrises!  I still remember my very first mountain top experience where I was looking down on the clouds.  I was 16. It was winter. And I was climbing Algonquin Peak in the Adirondacks with some friends.  The morning started off so cloud the snot was freezing my nose.  By the time we made it to tree line the wind was just slamming into us so hard we could barely walk with our snow shoes on.  So ducked behind a cairn, dug a little pit, swapped for some crampons, added a layer of clothes, and started scraping our way to the summit. 16 years old, in some serious weather, and this totally amazing cloudscape below us!  What a treat!  Thanks for bring back some good memories Dave.  Can't wait to make some more next week!

I hear you Toby! Just because I liked it while riding it sure doesn't mean I'm gonna like while racing it.  My goal is to keep the emotions in check and just love every minute that I can!

Does anyone know if the TD and CTR have ever been done in the same year by one person?