2017 AZTR300/750 Race Discussion Thread

[hanyo66]

I think  next year when I ride north to south I'll just plead ignorance on that road rule haha

[aarond]

This closure  is terrible.  Presumably you can stay on the trail after the north rim.  Maybe all future aztr's will see racers riding through the saguaro with snowshoes strapped to their backs.

[swami29]

Could follow the AZT trail on the North rim!  Ron Thompson and I did that on our singlespeeds the first year  we (raced).Brutal log crossings ....

[schillingsworth]

Ron Thomson is leading a party on the Highline!!

[the tortoise]

Ron Thomson is leading a party on the Highline!!

Ron Thompson is officially my hero!
He may not be the fastest but he is the toughest.

[ScottM]

Could follow the AZT trail on the North rim!  Ron Thompson and I did that on our singlespeeds the first year  we (raced).Brutal log crossings ....

One of the best moments in race history was when you two decided to stick with the trail.

There often many trees down.  And this year it would be a challenge to follow in the snow.

I have never heard of it being enforced (or signed), but technically the AZT in the park on the North Rim is not yet open to bikes.  Whenever the new management plan gets accepted it will be, but as of right now... it's a double gotcha.  Triple gotcha considering the snow.

Quite a year.

For those watching, only the first 9 miles of the pavement are in the park, so in theory riders should be good once they get past that.  Justin has cleared it.  Hemperly made great time crossing overnight, and is poised to nab the SS record by a comfortable margin.

Ron Thompson is officially my hero!
He may not be the fastest but he is the toughest.

Truth.

[phatmike]

Here's my 300 ride report:

http://mikeybikesit.blogspot.com/2017/04/arizona-trail-race-300-race-report.html

[Inertiaman]

Both Justin and Jeff appeared to slow dramatically in the last 2 or 3 miles to the North Rim.  Like less than 1/2 mph.  Or 3 hours to do the last mile.
Is there snow or other trail conditions that are creating challenges? 
Or is the gradient severe there and this is typical?

[taprider]

the data for the dots is only the horizontal distance
the last few miles feels like climbing Everest by the time you biked across the State and hiked across the canyon with a bike on your back

[taprider]

what happened to Jason Shearer and Dan Holmes?

[Inertiaman]

the data for the dots is only the horizontal distance

Yes, I understand how GPS works, but that's an insignificant influence.

[bmattingly]

Inertiaman,

Hiking up the North Rim is extremely brutal, tough even with no weight on your back.  It switchbacks up endless elevation gain.  Rest assured there is plenty of snow for them to negotiate in shady sections.  Everything freezes up at night and gets slippery.  I think our two leaders had heroic accents through the canyon going many hours into the dark.  I enjoyed watching the sufferfest and am inspired by their performances!!

There is no better measuring stick than to get out there and go for it.  Suffering through the long slog is a lesson in pain tolerance.  I can't imagine how hard it is to do with 650 miles of hard riding completed before the hike?  I did a Southbound run so I got the hike over quickly when my legs were pretty fresh.  I broke up the hike between two days with a few hours or hiking in the night and some rest.

Cheers to all our heroes out there giving it their all!!

[Inertiaman]

Inertiaman,

Hiking up the North Rim is extremely brutal, tough even with no weight on your back.  It switchbacks up endless elevation gain.  Rest assured there is plenty of snow for them to negotiate in shady sections.  Everything freezes up at night and gets slippery.  I think our two leaders had heroic accents through the canyon going many hours into the dark. 

The snow is what I'm curious about.  I fully understand the cumulative fatigue + the difficult ascent, please don't interpret my observation as a naive "geez, why are they so slow?" comment.  What I was noticing (although its hard to be exact w/ the vertical-feet-per-hour rate of ascent by going back/forth between my Topofusion graphs and the Trackleaders page) is it appears that their rate of ascent in the last 1 or 1.5 mile to the rim seems to be about half the rate on similar gradients immediately preceding that section.  Which implies to me that the trail surface deteriorated substantially.  Again, just a curiosity.  Also possible that one is shell-shocked by that point and pausing every ten steps to psyche up for ten more.  I suppose we will learn soon enough:  Justin is within spitting distance of the finish.  I'll be interested to hear any feedback from him or Jeff on trail conditions approaching the rim.

[aarond]

I think the last couple miles are always slowest -- fatigue, steeper and more switchbacks, even if no snow.

[taprider]

last year for the last 90% to 99% I was counting switchbacks, but for last 1% (99% to 100%) I had to count steps just to keep motivation
I was thinking every 3 steps = 1 m and I needed to do only 300 m, and that was on a dry trail without much in the way of stairsteps

weather report shows the rim should have been well above freezing at the coldest point last night

[woody]

What a great ride and a big finial push El Freako.

[woodsy]

Congrats to Justin and El Freako. I'll have to make the group start next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[taprider]

GO GO GO Fiona and Paul
no snow reroutes for them and it looks like they are battling by Snow Bowl right now
fallen trees are probably more of a problem than snow

[schillingsworth]

Heck, I stopped at Cottonwood CG during my crossing last year and by the time I could see the N. Kaibab TH sign I still had to stop and rest and it's only 50 feet away!! But, yes, I imagine there's plenty of packed snow/slick spots on the upper reaches of the trail.

Huge Congrats to Justin & El Freako for wrapping it up today. C'mon Jeff Z!! Rhino!! Brett!! Grandma Helga!! Go, go, GO!!

[schillingsworth]

ATTN: 750 Finishers

Don't forget, you qualify for an official AZT completion belt buckle, they're really nice!!

Fill out the survey on the ATA site.