2012 AZTR/300 Discussion Thread

[maadjurguer]

Based on John's FB post, he and and Chris D are done for the ride.

[T-Race]

I'm psyched to see pink dots-GO Jill!

[DaveH]

Way to go Kurt!  Daaaamn.  Getting so fast you are down to shaving minutes off your own records

Nice display of fortitude on Lemmon.  Looking forward to the tales.

Huge congrats!

[riverfever]

Nice ride kurt!!

[THE LONG RANGER]

Chapeau Kurt, pretty bad-ass chase with that storm! Always impressed with your form - beard's looking pretty good, too!

[Erick L]

Bummed to be out of the race, but super stoked to get to watch the dots move along the trail this year! 

From my ride last year, I know all too well what these guys (& girl) are facing coming out of Oracle.  It's a tough stretch of trail, and I imagine any of them who haven't ridden it will underestimate the time it will take to complete the race from there.  Even with his record breaking run, Kurt's ride from Oracle to Picket Post still took 23 hours.  No matter what it looks like on paper, those are seriously tough miles.

For me though Oracle signaled the home stretch.  You smell the finish amid the arid desert air, and feel lifted knowing that monster of Mount Lemmon is in the past.  With 200 miles down, once you roll out of Oracle, it's pretty hard to justify bailing.  I'm confident, from all of the riders I met on the trail, most of which were more prepared to suffer and fight for the finish than I was last year, anybody who leaves Oracle will find a way to come rolling down the AZT to Picket Post.

Thinking of all the riders still out on course.

Erick Lord

[aarong]

fortitude indeed, kurt. impressive ride my friend.

[mikepro]

Did the guy (Kurt R) even sleep?  Impressive effort.  Still, there was somethin' weird there at the end with how much he slowed down.  Leaderboard time splits show that between Oracle and Gila River waypoints Kurt S was 4 hrs faster than Kurt R.

[krefs]

Hey all...back home, fed, showered, and now icing my knees. That was quite the adventure...a bit more so than I would have liked with that storm. I rolled into the Picketpost TH lot at 4:53 and found John Schilling there with camera in hand and a cold chocolate milk a few steps away in a cooler. Very awesome. I was completely spent after pushing as hard as I could starting from the base of climb away from the Gila.

Lemmon had 4-5" of fresh snow for the last few miles into Summerhaven, it was 24 degrees, and the winds were gusting to at least 40 mph. By then, my bike was covered in ice, my rain gear was frozen inside and out, my "waterproof" gloves were sopping wet, and I wasn't in a very good place at all. The folks at the general store got me warm, fed, and caffeinated, so I headed out. My jaw dropped at my first glimpse of Oracle Ridge...snow down to 5000 or 5500' below. That's 3000+ vertical feet of snow...a lot of walking followed! The storm of the 2009 race was far weaker.

One of my goals for the race this year was to try to finish the experiment that I started last year before I crashed out. I was curious about how likely it is that someone could do the 300 without sleep. By 35 hours in, a bit north of Oracle, I was dying (hence my very slow speeds). The new gasline reroute trail through there is also nearly impossible to follow in the dark, even with a third light that I brought specifically for that section. I was able to stay awake, but I couldn't pedal up anything. Eventually, I stopped and slept for 45 minutes. When I awoke, everything had tightened up and I felt far worse. I made it a few more miles before deciding that Picketpost was going to be impossible to reach if I couldn't even get around Antelope Peak. It seemed like it was about time to bail, so I called Caroline and told her that I'd probably be sending a SPOT help request from Freeman Rd in the morning. She essentially came back with something along the lines of "why don't you just sleep for a few hours, stupid!?" So I did. It was easier than trying to continue. And when I got up 3 and a half hours later, I felt strong again.

The Boulders segment was fun as usual, Ripsey was tacky and spectacular, and then the new White Canyon and Gila Canyons sections completely blew my mind. I think the Ripsey-White Canyon-Gila Canyons-Picketpost section is the most impressive singletrack I've ridden anywhere. Period. It's rugged, remote, beautiful, and tough! Check it out if you haven't been out there!

Alrighty, time for some much needed sleep. Thanks for all the congrats...it feels good to be done! Now I get to watch all the dots, too!

[Jilleo]

Congratulations, Kurt. I watched your "no sleep" strategy with interest, because I too have wondered whether it actually slows a person down overall to stay awake continuously rather than nap for a couple of hours. I need to figure out how to go two full nights without sleep for UTMB this summer, and it always interests me to see how it affects other people. Glad you got through it; amazing effort, and fun to follow.

[schillingsworth]

What an incredible event!! Bummed that I'm not sleeping under the stars near Oracle tonight, but we were too cold/wet to push on safely. So good to see a few of our riding buddies out there grinding along.  Very cool to meet a few of you from the boards, good luck to all who are still out on course: J-Bake, E. Foster, Mike, JC and what's his name....Scott.

As I was about to head home from Gold Canyon this afternoon, I checked the tracker one more time & saw Kurt was 14 miles out, but that post was an hour old, so I knew he'd be coming in soon. A quick pitstop for some chocolate milk (greatest recovery drink ever!) & a 20 minute drive over to the finish line and I was able to catch the man himself cruisin' home to another spectacular efttort. Way to go Kurt, amazing!



-John Schilling

[ImAFred]

Looks like Kurt S is through the picketpost area(300 finish)

[bmattingly]

Hey All,

Yesterday afternoon I blew a sidewall on oracle ridge.  Super bummed cause last year I got off route and my GPS didn't work.  I'm determined and have felt pretty good.  Rode into Oracle around dark with Jill H.  My buddy Eric and Dave Goldberg had arrived about an hour before we did.  They headed back out to trail at dark.  Same plan for Jill.  I rode into Oracle Valley last night so I can get a new tire.  Called my Sweetie who lifted my spirits.  Goal is to fix tire then get back to Oracle by around noon and finish the last 100 miles sometime tomorrow.  Tough riding out there for sure.  Good luck to all the riders still on course.

Brad M Flagstaff

[OurManInTheNorth]

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?

[krefs]

Scott is still pushing a solid pace! He should be able to easily gain 2 hours on my time by not having to warm up in Summerhaven, and then a couple more descending Oracle Ridge in better conditions. That'll should give him quite a cushion to work with if he can continue at his current pace. This'll be fun to watch...but I hope his knee holds up!

[Chad B]

Well done Kurt...

[schillingsworth]

J-Bake, say it isn't so!! Last update shows him riding down the Catalina Hwy back towards Tucson.

[raybum]

oh man...looks like Jonathan had enough! Maybe his spot fell off and someone in a car picked it up on their way into town...let's hope!

[DaveH]

All eyes are on Scott now...

Looks like he is arriving to the last spot point just before the top of Lemmon about 35 min behind Kurt's pace.  I do think Kurt lost a couple hours to survival (!) directly after getting there, so yes Scott should build a decent cushion by the time he hits oracle.

Looks to me like his sleep strategy is "if you can't beat'm emulate 'em!".  Krefs should be flattered

While the group starters had a freak winter storm to contend with, Scott is going to have heat to contend with tomorrow.  Forecast is low 90s.  IME heat is a bigger slowdown that wet over the long haul.  Higher water requirements, more stops, and heat absolutely impacts power output in a big way.  Add to that sleep dep, and Scott has his work cut out for him.  Of course, that's how it's supposed to be.  Krefs has been crushing AZT records for a long time, the bar is high.

And, how about that other Kurt!  Wow, that's a shocking ride so far.  Krefs, you have targets all over you.

Pete B will have an interesting story to tell.  Hope he tells it.

Jill is looking great out there!  Eric Foster is gonna get'r done too.  Great to see Marshal making good progress today.

Loving this armchair spectating!

[raybum]

Looks like my riding buddy Steve Wilkinson for the first 2 days of the race fell behind Pete on the climb.   Either Steve had a mechanical, fatigue issues or Pete is just hammering that 32x22 gear...