2010 AZTR discussion thread

[wookieone]

Man Kurt is on fire! If he even comes close to record times amidst doing the whole thing, that is bad ass. I am sure he is capable of finishing before sunset, he is waaaay faster on the bike than I, but during the 750, that would be simply amazing! Good entertainment. Best of luck out there, Kurt, Mark and Ian, way to keep rolling.

[ScottM]

Raining lightly in Tucson right now.  Doesn't look to amount to much, but it's been very windy all afternoon.  Kurt is likely getting blown around on the Catalina Highway, where no matter which direction the wind is going, there's always a head wind somewhere.

He's still within an hour of record pace.

[tRoy]

Love Mark's Call in "...make it to Flagstaff one hike-a-bike at a time..." 

Snowed a fair amount up above 9000 this weekend.  Really good powder turns! 

There will be snow/mud on Hart Prairie from snowbowl road all the way around to the NW side of the peaks. 
This is great to watch and read.  Thanks everyone.

[DaveH]

As of 7 AM MT Kurt is about 1:54 behind Jefe's record pace.  He's had 2 stops of ~ 4.5 hours.  And he's moving again.  Both Jefe's and Kurt's time splits take into account rest stops.  I don't think we'll see Kurt resting much before Superior.  He is most certainly not riding like someone going for the 750

We have us a nail-biter today!! 

[ScottM]

Yep, it's going to be close.  Talk about crushing dreams, to quote Jonesy from earlier in the thread.

Looks like a perfect day out there.  Hasn't even warmed up much yet.  It's supposed to get into the 80's, but we'll see if that even happens.  Calm, no wind yet either.

[OurManInTheNorth]

Lost and Found

Lost - tyre n tube woes (for 1 day and counting at least) in Mesa. First flat free day yesterday woohoo!

Found - one pair of cycling legs. 50 miles on pavement in Mesa sorting the bike on Sat, then an exact ton in the 24 hours to Payson. Seems it takes me 9 days to get back to fitness after a winter of little cycling. Double woohoo!

Close encounters

Animals I've nearly ridden over during the last 9 days:

1 - those birds that sleep on the trail. Are there no predators round here?! You can get within inches and I had to brake for a few on the second days singletrack, a ton more last night into Payson, and they fly about 10 metres away and settle down for the night again right on the trail! Crazy...

2 - Snake. Rattlesnake. 3rd of the trip heading out of the desert, early am, gps track and scots cues say go all the way to a wash to turn right onto it and ride down on it, flying down a hill, wait thats an AZT marker post 300 feet from the wash saying turn right onto singletrack, haul on brakes, look at map, look at wash, look at gps, look at rail, notice rattler when it starts rattling about 20 feet away , that would have been squashed if I hadn't spotted the marker yikes! Pretty big one, warming in the sun, of course I got a nice snap (on max zoom, yikes!)...

3 - the large black and orange lizards, seen 2 now, 2nd was millimeters from being squished, out of the saddle on the climb up to the last singletrack to the AZT 300 finish, passed a whisker away just concentrating on rocks, only realised after I'd passed, spun round, he was still on the trail just sunning himself, got a nice pic of that too,...

4 - other assorted small lizards - nearly ridden over might not be 100% accurate - millions on the singletrack down to the piketpost AZT300 finish, sunning then take off down thre trail and carry straight along instead of jumping off to the side, hauled on the brakes for about the few hundred, realised I couldn't see tyre tracks because the lizards tails made so many marks in the dust, quite probably ran over a couple :-(

Right - enough of the preamble, decision time. Going to make the decision pretty much now as to whether to try to push through to Flag and pull there or stop here in Payson. Former will be really pushing it to make work and family commitments but I packed for these conditions and don't want to have dragged all that stuff without using it... Aggggh. More soon!

[OurManInTheNorth]

ps - those photos of Kurt at the border are so funny - can Matt or Brad or someone put up one of our 6.30 mexico pics for contrast? I have no cam cable... 5 of us huddled against the snow and wind, minimal visibility... Am looking forward to meeting Kurt before I pull, at this rate was it 6 days to Utah?!

Ian

[ScottM]

Ian -- excellent on the lost and found!  Great to finally get some steady flat-free miles in!  Whatever you decide you've had a great run.  Thanks for the posts here.

I would love to see a photo of the AZTR start. 

[ScottM]

I posted the AZT 300 results here:

http://www.topofusion.com/azt/results.php

Official start time was 9:08am.  I updated the tracker to reflect that, and a few of the finish times are based on the first SPOT point at the finish line.  If you reported your actual finish time in the thread, I used that.  Just let me know if there are any corrections.

Also, I'm collecting links to writeups, both for finishers and DNFs.  If I missed your writeup, please post here or email me the link.  Thanks.

23 starters, 8 finishers.  65% attrition rate.  Ouch.

[Stefan_G]

My money's easily on a daylight finish of the 300 course for Kurt today.  Man, he is really drilling those last 90 miles.  I think he may even arrive at the Gila river by noon, which will give him plenty of time to finish before sunset.  Sure wish I was out there chasing him again.

[OurManInTheNorth]

Ha ha my finish time for the 300 was 12.08 (I took a photo about a minute after with my watch in) so can you round me down 4 mins to a 7:03:00 dead please Scott? :-)

Sod it, Flagstaff here I come (slowly I presume).

[marycycle]

AZ Trail 300--Day 3
http://clockoutclickin.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/az300-race-day-3.html

--Mary (part of the attrition rate)

[ScottM]

My money's easily on a daylight finish of the 300 course for Kurt today.  Man, he is really drilling those last 90 miles.  I think he may even arrive at the Gila river by noon, which will give him plenty of time to finish before sunset.  Sure wish I was out there chasing him again.

Yep, I agree with a daylight finish.  Breaking the record is looking less likely though.  He's really going to have to boogie in these last miles to do it.

Currently running about 1.5 hours behind record pace.  That'll be hard to make up in the next ~6 hours.  He needs to finish by about 5:40 tonight (he started from Parker at 8:38, so a half hour before Jefe).

Still one heck of an impressive run.  Hope he can keep it up all the way to Utah, eh?

[ScottM]

Sod it, Flagstaff here I come (slowly I presume).

Yeah, that's the spirit!   

Time updated, thanks.

[ScottM]

We have Kurt's Gila River split... and he has closed the gap to just under 1 hour.

It's gunna be close.  I doubt he knows Jefe's exact time (I don't even know it for sure) but just the knowledge of what it is roughly has got to be in his mind.  That has to be a huge motivator, and all indications point to him going for it.

It'll be incredible if he pulls it off!

[DaveH]

Jeebus.  If I'm reading the tracker correctly he is only 45 min behind the virtual lead.  I wonder if he knows that...he's riding such a controlled pace it seems he knows exactly what he's doing.

Jefe is your hair standing on end?!?  Somebody is chasing you.

Suspense!

What will he do once he hit's 60?  Make tracks for Roosevelt, hole up in an AJ hotel, or seek whatever food and shelter he can find in Superior?

He sure is making good on all the pre-event chatter

[tRoy]

Exciting! 

Sunny and 60+ degrees in Flagstaff today.  Most of the trails are gettting really nice around here...  Hope it holds and these guys can make it here. 

[Chad B]

Very exciting! This is going to be close.

It will be interesting to see how what happens after Superior, motor on at the same pace or slow it down a bit?

[ScottM]

...suspense builds as the walls of Box Canyon prevent any SPOT signals from making it to the constellation...

[Chad B]

...suspense builds as the walls of Box Canyon prevent any SPOT signals from making it to the constellation...

Less than three hours left. A SPOT point would be useful right now also. Seems possible at this point that he could beat the record, although that 4k of climbing in those 20 miles from Box to the Picket Post TH is a doozy.