Oh no, it looks like my all time wooden spoon record on the AZT300 has just been broken! Massive congratulations to JillH on her finish, I know exactly what she went through - total body shutdown in the first few days, hotel recuperation, flats, major mechanicals, weather, detours, food and water issues, already being in the negative energy zone by the time you get to the 300 start after riding to and from the border etc etc etc. If it was anything like my attempt she will look back on it as something like a coming of age ritual too! So many awesome experiences and memories mixed in with the frustrating...

Here's hoping you go further than the trails on the north side of Flagstaff I managed on the AZT 750, Jill. Ran out of time after my slooow 300, had to fly home to Europe. Watching the blue dot and sending you good vibes all the way to the border!

Ian Corfe, 2010 AZT300 finisher and all time slowest completion until yesterday!

Is anyone spotting or similar Shaggy? Beautiful spring sunshine here in Helsinki today, just back from the MTB clubs summer season opening ride, 50km of twisty, v. rocky, rooty and slightly damp singletrack :-)  Saw you weren't riding the loop, hope you recover soon.
(IanC)

Kurt - well done on the new record, I thought you would still be sleeping it off!

Scott was 3 mins ahead of the new record time at Summerhaven, but over 3 hours up at Oracle. He did head into town to restock, but it only took 45 mins or so to get back out on route. I wonder if he'll get the same kind of no sleep molasses Kurt had around this stage, or if the heat will slow him worse than the advantage he had in crossing Oracle Ridge, but it's going to be close I suspect. Kurt took close to 24 hours from Oracle to Superior, showing how changes to the route have made the back of the race heavily loaded in terms of time needed, as from Oracle it's not much more than 1/3rd of the distance. I think Scott will struggle to break 48hrs given that - but then I think El Jefe didn't sleep at all when he put in his record setting, race winning run a few years back, maybe Scott will aim for the same? Exciting stuff!

Scott M was 2 minutes up on Kurt R at Tuscon! I wonder what his sleep strategy is - and also if having avoided the worst of the weather, conditions will be easier for the rest of the route? New new record sometime tomorrow?

Aarons tyre sounds like it might have been the same rock both Mark Caminiti and I opened tyres on after our second start (from Parker after stopping there for a few mins for the 300 start, having broken snowy trail to get there...)

Scott - do you know if Arno intended to start in reverse from Parker Lake, or it was just easier for him to get there and ride the course in reverse to the start?

Lynda - oops, she's listed as a 300 entrant. Are you wishing you were out there? I wondered if your relaxed tour of the gila area a few weeks ago was in prep for a run at a faster 300 time, or a 750 attempt...

And some more cactus pics (this was the day I got both mild heatstroke and hypothermia, think I became obsessed with the cactuses too after spending what felt like half the day mending punctures, tubes, tires etc

Tightly hooked


VeryHooked.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Reaching for the last of the sun


cross.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Some of the most common cacti with some nice blooms


flat.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Those blooms in close up


pretty.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

And some other flowering cacti, with a little bit of the trail. The whole of the length of the 300 had numerous spectacular areas of flowering in 2010...


yellow.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Nope, more pics or everyone will have left these areas behind!

A few from the west of Coranado National Forest and the Santa Ritas, no longer on the route but I presume the trails to the east are similar!

Typical scenery over on the west side of the 'forest'


W Coranodo.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Action Jackson from Texas riding into the morning sun


ActionJackson.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Still some snow on the hills from the previous night (the detour to the west of the hills took most folk longer than via Sonoita to the East, lots of folk slept up in the hills that night though the fast folk still made it to Tuscon before daybreak I think)


Still some snow.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

and the heat came very quickly after the snow the previous day, heading towards Box Canyon Road and the morning sun was already roasting, little shade, this was probably the only cloud in the sky...


BlueSkiesnHot.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Some more cacti from that neck of the woods, the species changes with each small height change or dip in and out of a valley you take on the trail. Some combination of these will be the bane of an awful lot of competitors lives...

Tall


Tall.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Various


mixed.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Hooked


Hooked.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

From the looks of things, Max Morris and Kurt are very close together out in front at the moment, position depends on whose spot ping came in last. Both have overhauled Brad Mattingly who started early (and is now in that lovely yellow ITT colour - thanks Scott!). Those three (and about 10 others) are all past Sonoita and heading to rejoin the old track up Box Canyon Road, which can be a furnace in the heat but shouldn't be a problem in these temps. Lead 750er is Kurt Sandiforth, with Jill H going very strongly in second not too far behind, and just in the 300 top ten. Right I'm off to bed, someone else can take over and I'll be back with more pics in the am! Tomorrows exercise is a few hours hike through some German vineyards followed by a meal and wine tasting session - I'll be wishing I was on a bike I'm sure! (Until the wine kicks in anyway).

OK - Scott mentioned 3 none USA folks - the roll call lists Arno Minner from Germany on the 750, Beto Avelar from Mexico also on the full 750, and Steve Wilkinson from the UK doing the 300. All are rookies, though Steve has done I believe the GDR and possibly also the Colorado Trail events previously.

We also have our first female entrant in the 750, Jill Hueckman, who had tyre, tube, valve, everything problems in the 300 last year (from her blog here, http://allthingsepicwithjill.blogspot.de/2011/04/azt-300-race-report.html it looked even worse than Mark C and my problems of '10!) but was mixing it with the leaders before having to bail.

Good luck to everyone but especially you folks - coming from abroad makes logistics and even silly things like what to buy at gas stations to eat that won't make you puke that little bit harder, and Jill has guts to not only refuse to play the 'girl-card' as she put it but turn it on its head by staring down 750 miles from the Mexican border early this am...

Right, while I'm on a roll...

This was in the car park at the top of Montezuma as we last minute tweaked (and put more clothes on) before heading to the border start...


2010 AZT snow.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

Oh and just before the border patrol came to see what we were doing at the border in the snow at 6am... They noticed us but not the group of 3 or 4 clearly illegal aliens sat under a tree just off the dirt road running along the border, all wearing identical pac-a-macs, shivering in the early am snow! Not sure what there chances of not getting picked up were, pretty low I'd guess.

Didn't take too many pics the first few days, and had so many problems (3 hours sleep in 2 nights before the start - oops! - tubeless, tyre, stans and tube issues, brake pads, weather, heatstroke and hypothermia in the same day, a 'resting' heartrate that was double normal and wouldn't come down) that the leaders will probably be on my day 3 sometime later today!

Oooh and I think those are my first pics posted on here, yay, it seems to have worked!

So only Scott is ITTing? (and Brad M, kinda)...

Do we know if most folks started at 9? There seem to be a number of different starts (though only 1 before 9, despite folks thinking they would, I guess the weather changed that) - is that just when their first Spot marker hit after 9am?

Here's a couple of pics from my 2010 300 finish/750 attempt.

1 - the 750 full meal deal lineup in the snow at the top of montezuma road a few miles from the border (even getting there was epic, our ride had to turn back halfway up!)


CIMG3224.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

2 - then the start itself (we barely made it there for the offical 6am setoff)


CIMG3226.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

3 - and the same day closer to Patagonia once we'd joined the 300ers and got out of the snow (and had worn our drivetrains and brakes to shreds in those first few miles to Parker Lake!)


CIMG3234.JPG by ssproflex, on Flickr

V jealous of those guys n gals out there now, though after a heavy late snowy winter in Finland I'd have been even less fit than my first attempt... Still might try a Oct/Nov run one year.

Ian

Sounds good Alan - I had a quick look on the website for the Chemins route and concluded it wasn't completely finished :-) I'm hoping to make it back to the UK this summer for Aidan's EWE (England-Wales-England) event which at the moment is looking like about 1000 miles, mad!

Alan - your Chemins du Soleil plan sounds v interesting. Let me know if you have any more plans/details. Great that there are more of these events popping up in Europe and the UK, so you don't have to go all the way to the USA for something like this (though have is a different thing to want!).

good stuff Sean. Might be heading your way summer next year - when were you planning a race and when would be good for an ITT weatherwise?

Good luck! I'm planning a mid November attempt, cooler but longer nights. Can't really offer any advice though!

Yeah, I think that the problem is that you are allowed everywhere, makes routeplanning more difficult! Nuuksio (Reitti 2000) is the only long loop I've worked out so far, jest heading out this aft for a lap!

Less than a mile between Eszter and Jarral in the battle for 4th. And Eszters Spot point was a whole 6 minutes later so she might be even closer!