2018 AZTR300/750 Race Discussion Thread

[bmattingly]

Denberg made the Mogillon Rim in a few hours over 2.5 days.  He is making great time with so many hours per day moving.  He is on pace to set a great Southbound time and record.  Desert forecasts are heating up.  Hopefully mother nature can be a little kind. 

Kurt is cranking.  Huge day yesterday.  I haven't been on Highline sense the improvements.  Before recent trail work that was a very slow section of trail.  Glad it has been getting some attention.  Kurt will likely enjoy the cooler daytime temps for most the rest of his run.

Congrats Dana.  Way to push on despite no sleeping bag, coyotes, and visions.  Great time.

Congrats to all you other finishers.  Strong group this year.  Well done!

Will be fun to watch the 750s continue on.

[JoePAz]

Wow Dana what a story.  Glad to see you survived it.

[CSMITH]

Hey Scott I can go tidy up and refill the tiger mine and oracle caches Wednesday after work if you need?

[schillingsworth]

I've been adding pics to this album as I get them. The Gold Canyon portion of the route is close to home. I may head over there after work today to see who's around. That'll probably be it for me, back to the two job grind tomorrow.

Also, for those wrapping up the 300. You can snag a sweet elevation profile poster from the link in my signature.  

[schillingsworth]

Oh yeah, I'll be able to take care of the Kelvin cache on Friday.

[ScottM]

Hey Scott I can go tidy up and refill the tiger mine and oracle caches Wednesday after work if you need?

That would be excellent, yes please, Colton.

Oh yeah, I'll be able to take care of the Kelvin cache on Friday.

Yes, please.  Thanks.

Update: Freeman is cleaned up and full again thanks to George Harris. 

Kurt and Denberg are on fire.  Kurt seems to be on record pace, and Aaron might not be much slower -- seems like seven day pace to me.

[Jalene]

Oh yeah, I'll be able to take care of the Kelvin cache on Friday.

Hey John, George and I just cleaned out and topped of the Kelvin cache this morning.  It's in pretty good shape right now.  There's 13 gallons of water in there, plus the designated water for Beardoh and SweetPea.

Freeman is once again in great shape.  We dropped 22 gallons of water there and replenished the two jugs that were designated for thru-hikers.  May, or may not, have sampled the Tequila to make sure it was suitable for our fellow riders.   

There were a few jugs at Picketpost, but not really located in an area all that visible to 750ers rolling through.

[JoePAz]

WTF... Kurt is 32 miles to Flagstaff!   I can't believe that.

[ScottM]

300 results thus far:

Neil Beltchenko - 1:23:13
Kaitlyn Boyle - 2:02:57
Kurt Refsnider (750) - 2:04:55
Dion Clark - 2:15:06
Dana Ernst - 2:15:13
Dustin Eroh (750) - 2:18:07
Darren Smith - 2:18:48
Paul Spencer - 2:20:32
Max Morris (750) - 3:00:15
Jason Reamy - 2:23:47
Ben Hanus - 3:00:27
Rebecca Rusch - 3:00:46
Paul Wissenbach - 3:00:59
Curtis Barrett - 3:02:26
Adam Marcinkiewicz (750) - 3:06:38
Brad Ells (750) - 3:08:38
Brian Lovett - 3:09:56
Nick Armano - 3:12:24
Robert Weinhold - 3:12:24
Anthony Berberich - 3:12:50
Dan Holmes (750) - 3:16:38
Steve Denny - 3:17:14
Louie Konkol - 3:17:16
Jeremy Hardwick - 3:17:25
Beth Shaner (750) - 3:20:32
Greg Martin - 3:19:32
Randy Young - 3:22:17
Paul Kruger (750) - 3:23:25
Dave Hoswell (750) - 3:23:33
Alice Drobna (750) - 4:00:09
Dean Anderson (750) - 4:04:08
Justin Dubois (750) - 4:04:44

As always some of these are not fully accurate.  If you have a more precise finish time, send me an email with your elapsed time in this format and I'll drop it in.  Thanks.

[CSMITH]

That would be excellent, yes please, Colton

No problem, least I can do.

[Dana Ernst]

Dion Clark and I (Dana Ernst) finished together.  Looking at my Strava data, it looks like the time currently listed for me is spot on for both of us.

[mikepro]

WTF... Kurt is 32 miles to Flagstaff!   I can't believe that.

From something like 2.5 hrs behind the current 750 record split time at the M. Rim to ~2hrs ahead at the Flag split.  That is a solid 14hr effort since 4am this morning.
And Denberg continues to fly on wings South.  Impressive.
And good to see Max M., Dustin E. chewing up those hard won miles between Payson and the M. Rim.
And Brad E. looks to be making use of gears to pulling in Adam M. on his SS - those flat miles from the dam to just under Payson have got to be brutal for SS.  But, I'm pulling for you Adam - Ridin' Strong!
And keeping on eye on the ladies 750 to see if Beth S. can continue to close the gap on SS'er Alice D.

[Jalene]

Yes!!!!!  I am SO stoked for Kurt!!!  According to my Kurt's Kicking Ass spreadsheet, when Kurt arrived at the Mogollon Rim last night, he was 02:26 behind Neil's record pace.  Kurt tapped into Flagstaff 02:57 **ahead** of Neil's pace!  That's a gain of 5 hours and 23 minutes over that section!!  That is beyond beast mode.  That effort was on about 4 hours of sleep since the Gila River waypoint early, early Saturday morning, too.  It is beyond exciting to see Kurt on fire like this again!  Woohoo!

[ScottM]

It sure seems like Kurt tore it up today.  I'm not sure I could ride what he did today, unloaded. 

Still not a comfortable buffer on the record for him, but if he can keep up this momentum, it could soon be quite comfy.

[hanyo66]

We’re obviously out of the race - but just topped out on the canyon crossing.

Never again!!

[OUWxGuesser]

What a blast! Race (more like ride) ITT report for Aaron Kennedy here.  To recap my setup, I had work in Tucson on Thursday and managed to get airfare booked in advance so I could put in an ITT attempt starting on Easter.  It was a trip of many firsts...  
First time to Arizona and my first time doing a multi-day bikepacking race/trip.   Prepped with the reading of a bazillion race reports, I set off a bit behind schedule and finally got going around 10:30am on Easter.  

Day 1:
 A good wakeup and butt kicking in the eastern part of Canelo Hills. What really struck me was the large quantity of rocks! Very few miles were 'easy'. Took way too much time with pictures, and 'descending' to the trailhead above Patagonia.  This culminated in sunset @ Red Bank well.  I figured I would push on and get by on gen hub light.  Way more slow going than I thought and I ended up crawling along in near-darkness as I had inadequate light and the full moon came out about an hour too late. Made it to the trailhead and realized nothing would probably be open in Patagonia.  Reluctantly called it a day at the trailhead. Wish I would have started about 2 hours earlier (and should have brought a helmet light)! Felt great after the day of riding and stayed hydrated.

Day 2: Descended into Patagonia and got a good breakfast in town.  Headed out to Sonoita and restocked for the long leg to Tucson.  Battled a NASTY cross/headwind heading west on the gravel roads... despite the scenery, this was the low-point for my trip. This was balanced by a fun stretch along the gold mining operations and took in plenty of history. Once again, spent too much time taking pix... even had to backtrack a mile as I left the camera behind at one point...  Got to Kentucky Camp and pushed to high point before dark.  Based on the prior night, didn't want to get stuck without light so I ended up camping a few miles past high point.  As I found out the next day, those miles were pretty easy going so I should have kept going. Extremely windy night but I had a pretty good spot under some trees. Found a good water source a few miles down from my camp.    

Day 3: Made my way north and went through water pretty quickly.  Those climbs in and out of the deserty ravines with clear skies and warmer temps were no joke for my North Dakotan body!  Was behind on hydration but planned on topping off water at Twin Tanks. That's where my ride went off the rails.   In my mind, I was thinking Twin Tanks was like the other cattle troughs that were easy to filter. I spent over an hour probably getting more dehydrated while trying to filter ample water. Probably the nastiest stuff I've drunken. I got 2 bottles worth and decided that would be enough to get me to Veil.   Ironically, I should have just pushed as those miles were the flowiest/fastest of my whole trip.  Got to the Sahuarita trailhead and decided I'd ride into Veil to replenish.  By this time it was late Tue. afternoon and I was faced with the dilemma... do I track back to the AZT and loop try to get to Mt. Lemmon? Or do I go into my work day with some recovery.  

To make long story short, I called it primary mission accomplished and ended the AZT ride there.  This gave me ample time to pack the bike back up on Wed. and ship it home.  Now that my touristy take is over, I have a much better idea of time management for the first third of the route.  In total, my moving time was ~20 hours to get to I10  and I got back into Tucson with no bike or body issues. Clearly need to push it harder next time! Kudos to the fast folks out there tearing it up!  

Photo gallery at: https://www.facebook.com/OUWxGuesser/media_set?set=a.10106372243859117.1073741865.9612126&type=3

[Dana Ernst]

I caught up with Kurt as he was passing by my house in Flagstaff. I can’t belief how fresh he looked. Amazing. Video here:

https://instagram.com/p/BhYW03vljtq/

[LandSharkBrian]

We’re obviously out of the race - but just topped out on the canyon crossing.

Never again!!

Whoa - that was good for a morning laugh.  Thanks for that!

[joeydurango]

Dana, your Friday night doesn't sound particularly pleasant...  

I've had some sleep-dep hallucinations myself, and heard plenty of stories, but your cactus-as-clothing racks and '50s-era shoppers one is in the same league as Jakomait's dinosaurs rampaging across the landscape.  Or Chris Neumann's goblins living in non-existent abandoned cars along the upper stretch of Junction Creek.

Glad you were able to finish it out though!

[hanyo66]

Whoa - that was good for a morning laugh.  Thanks for that!

im walking like I have a stick up my ass and slept for 10 straight hours lol