Here we go! All the best out there everyone!

Well said Scott
Long Live the AZTR!

Have fun out there everyone!

Thanks for the on the ground updates Scott.

Love seeing Jefe and Mark C in there...like the ole days!

Lot of familiar names and multi-time finishers...
Can't forget Aaron D.
and Chris P on the tandem.

Joe S and Brian H have multiple finishes. Felipe B has been out there a few times. Ned Bachanko sounds awfully familiar.. can't quite put my finger on it though. Lot of experience in this group.

Ahh the painful high altitude memories 

Have fun out there everyone!

Removed post..

Anyone know what?s up with Ben.  He?s been lingering around Oracle for a while now


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Saw that yesterday too.... listed as scratch today : (

The good times keep rollin' on the AZT

Good sized group out on route. Go Denny!

Kurts spot has been still for about 2hrs. Hope It's just not pinging. I'll take a beer Adam!

Coming up!  

I saw that on his story too. Kurt?s now listed as scratched.

Hey, Adam, while you're up, grab me a beer!!

Coming at you John... 
Anyone else! 

Bryan is about to wrap up an impressive ride in what should be well under 2.5 days barring something crazy. Katie is making her way down towards the mighty Colorado... She just keeps pecking away at the miles. Super cool! And Kurt is Kurt. Hopefully his ankle holds strong and the heat doesn't get to him too bad out there... Will be fun to watch.

The good times just keep rolling 
Small group in this room these days, feels like I'm watching a hockey game with a bunch of buddies, good times!

Bryan is having an awesome ride he'll be under 2d 10h for sure, maybe under 2d9h. Nice Work Bryan!

Those 800 riders are tough.
Jeremy closing in on the finish of his unforgettable journey. Awesome work!
Katie approaching the river. Hang tough on the climb out!

Go Kurt Go!

I see that!! Guess we'll find out shortly.

EDIT: He's going down!!

Woo! Into the night! Get it Jeremy!

Like I told John I was worried something like that would happen once the gps trail ended.  Used signage and the routes on mtbproject and the azt trail app to stay on course and double check, but unfortunately they're not up to date with trackleaders and the latest changes.   Oh well, it's a bummer but I'm not too disappointed.  My full route upload is on strava, since trackleaders and my spot didn't communicate well.  Definitely had some other hiccups but as far as I know I caught them and was able to backtrack.

Noted on spot recommendations.  I'll have to upgrade my plan thing and find a better spot on the bike for next time.  I know my friends and family were pulling their hair out wondering why updates were so few and far between.
ahhh...this is what causes me to lose sleep.  I think about all the things I did wrong or could do better/faster/more efficiently, and little about what went right.  There's always time to shave somewhere.  With that said, it's still fun to theorize....

• I think most of it is course knowledge and obviously importing the correct gpx track.  I burned up a lot of time (especially at night) pulling out my phone, clicking the gps locate thing, zooming in and making sure I was where I was supposed to be. All those little 30-60sec stops add up.  I think consistently moving forward is one of the biggest keys to fast bikepacking, though I kind of wonder if lots of little micro-rests are beneficial in some way to staying fresher.  I did a little out and back on pavement after I-10 where the azt does the bike detour, was confused where I should go and it took 5mins to figure out.  Two more little out and backs on Redington pass Rd, because it was really difficult to follow the 4wd roads at night when they constantly split and come back together, and then split and don't come back together....etc.  Course knowledge on top of the gps is even better, because it's so much easier to rip through intersections and trailheads without even slowing down and looking to see if you need to take a hard/soft left/right, hop on the dirt road or find the single track on the other side of the road or whatever the situation is.
• I flatted the rear sidewall early the second day.  Spent about 20mins changing it to be absolutely sure anything sharp was out of the tire casing and the tube wasn't going to push through the sidewall and I wasn't going to flat it again a couple mins later or pinch flat it from running too low pressure.
• Took too much food.  I pulled almost 4k calories off my bike at the end, which is roughly 3lbs.  That's kind of a lot to drag all that way.  Was thinking anywhere from 40-48hrs, and didn't want to come up short on calories.  I'd probably do less total calories, and more of the liquid/mix variety.  Couldn't tolerate chewing anything substantial in the heat.
• Weather and risk dependent, one could theoretically ditched the down pants/jacket and warm gloves...which means one less bike bag and less weight there as well.  I used the gloves for 20mins after I got my hands wet, and didn't need the puffies.  But similar to taking too much food, better to have and not need than need and not have.  Especially for potential injuries and whatnot at weird times, far from trailheads.
• Would take more water up Mt Lemmon and less down.  Ran out at the beginning of the road climb which wasn't ideal.  Then filtered from the stream at the top and carried that probably 40+ miles and barely used any of it.
• I attempted a couple trail naps, but failed.  Plan was to go until early day two and if timing allowed pass out for 30mins or so when the weather was nice as a little refresher.  Laid down in a wash and after 20mins I was still wide awake so cut my losses and kept moving.  Did a similar thing at the bottom of picket post.  It was 4:45pm and that whole canyon was getting cooked by the sun and I could tell my core temp was super high.  Figured it'd be best to wait for 45mins and let the shadows grow and end up riding more in the dark than potentially dealing with heatstroke going up there.  Tried to sleep but no luck after 20mins so I sat there for another 10mins in the shade and then continued on.  Even without sleep those instances weren't complete losses though.....energy seemed to feel better after being off my feet for a bit.
• Carried 6 AA batteries that I didn't use.
• Kurt told me specifically not to go out too hard, then I probably went out too hard.  It's just too easy to do when you're tapered and at lower elevations and conditions are good.  Should've saved more of that energy for Redington pass and Mt Lemmon climb

I think sub 37hrs is possible, potentially even 36 if you go super risky on gear choices.

Very detailed Timon. If you decide to come back it'll be exciting to see you make those adjustments and raise the bar further. Those sleepless nights pondering can be very strong motivators. I always said doing these courses twice is really the way to test yourself. The first time through you're going on hypothetical plans. The second time through after tires have been on trail you know what to expect and can clean up your inefficiencies.

Not that we're in the same league but my GPS failed on me at 100 miles in, just past Highway 10 approaching Colossal Cave the first time I rode the 300, which was also my first bikepacking race. I had a goal of sub 3 days and came in at 3d 1h 47 min, that was hard, but I had some work to do and some things to work on.

That was a very strong motivator to review and clean up now that I knew the course. Two GPS's, gear totally reviewed and trimmed down, tried not to stop too much, kept moving forward, tripped balls and took off 8 hours in my first ever single speed race the next year, that felt good.

Hope to see you back out there at some point. Until then, celebrate your effort. As Scott mentioned, this really was a leap in what is possible on that course and we're all super pumped for you.

Kept things interesting, hitting refresh non stop!
Yeah that 10,000 point thing can be a tough lesson learned. Didn?t seem to impact your speed, though I?m sure it was stressful.

Huge congrats Timon on a historic ride, particularly for a rookie run. Be curious your thoughts of where, if anywhere you could make improvements on this already superhuman effort now that you know the course front to end.

Enjoy the downtime and celebrate your achievement. Great viewing for us all on here that?s for sure.
Well done!

For all you time split data geeks (like me) I created a Google doc from the Trackleaders leaderboard grid going back to 2010. Makes it a little easier to find what you're looking for. Link to the file is here: Google Doc AZTR Time Splits
It's also linked on the AZTR website on the Results page, down with the Records.

Thank you John! This is great.
I?ve constantly got multiple tabs open from previous years comparing splits, toggling back and forth between dot refresh?s.

Awesome finish Jefe! fastest SS time!
So close to that elusive sub 2 day mark. Those navigational missteps at the beginning may have been the difference. Great to see him back in form. Amazing effort.

Come on Jefe, Crush those pedals!

💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 He?s ripping out there. Hope that time he lost early in the ride won?t cost him a sub 2 day ride. I think it?ll be close. Get it Jefe!

Received a text from Timon, 6:30a start, 9:22p finish. So, 38h 52m (1d 14h 52m)

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Wow... huge congrats Timon! Insane effort out there.

Our Superbowl hahah. This is awesome.

Didn't realize Jefe was on a single speed! He's on pace for right around 2 days.
Historical night on the AZT!
Enjoy it all!

Congrats to Katie Anderson for completing the 300 portion of the 800!! Keep rolling!!

Yes! glad to see a dot on the red line portion of the map! Keep on it Katie.

Did he seriously hit the Gila at 1d 8 hours!?
Kurt was 1d13h in 2014... Neil last week in 1d 17 hours
Insane effort!