CTR 2015 Race Discussion

[geekonabike]

I missed the trail angel shuttle in lake city today, too full. I'm gonna stay here tonight, ride back to the course in the morning, then make a push on for Last Place.

Still Racin!

what don't kill you only makes you smell stronger. ; -)

[Erik]

Nice run Matt!

[mtnbound]

Matt, congrats on a fantastic race!! I am in awe - laying down a 4:4:44 is flat out kickin' butt!  You were right on with Jefe's 2013 record pace!!  4 must be your lucky number.

[jakomait]

Thanks everyone for all the kind words and support for my effort on the trail!  I'm still struggling to compose my thoughts but my hallucinations are finally starting to settle down.  Getting 1 hour of sleep each night has some interesting side effects!  Every time it was just a log or a rock but things we saw out there felt like a vividly moving Dali painting!  We knew there wasn't a jeep with a 8 foot high toy reindeer mounted to the roof backing into a carport on top of Searl Pass but my brain couldn't convince my eyes otherwise.  And I say "we" because I didn't even race half of it, there was some other dude on the bike pedaling and I was just trying to help out and keep him company.  I'd suggest he should try eating something or maybe put on arm warmers but he wouldn't always listen.  I can't make him do it; he'll have to live with the consequences, it's just the way it goes!  Other times he's say I should get the rock out of my shoe or put on my rain jacket but I never wanted to interrupt my progress.  He didn't put up too much of a fight and was a pretty cool guy!

After dedicating my life to this trail for 5 years and learning from the great masters Ethan and Jefe I sit here with a huge glow of accomplishment finally content to just sit in peace without the endless urge to do more training, planning, gear hunting, strategizing...  It was an amazing journey out there and the feeling of watching a sunset above treeline and still marching upward with a stray marmot chirp in the distance will be etched into my mind for the rest of my life.

Good luck to all who are still out there!  Sorry if this is a little incoherent, I've spent the last 2 hours trying to type somethi, oh look a SQUIRREL!

[omurphy]

Amazing ride and awesome post, Jesse! Congratulations. Enjoy that peaceful glow, you deserve it!

[Danno]

I am in awe.

[joeydurango]

Incredible ride, Jakomait.  I am so stoked for you.  Awesome ride my man!

[krefs]

Jesse, HUGE congrats. That was an incredible effort you just put in. And Matt, HUGE congrats to you, too, on one of the fastest runs yet on the CT. I'm sad I couldn't have been out there for longer chasing both of you.

[GrizzlyAdam]

Big time congrats to Jesse, Matt and Jefe. Thanks for distracting me all week from work!

[danwiz]

Incredible ride Jesse! I think I speak for everyone when I say how stunning a 3d20h ride is, particularly on the longest course in CTR history.  This is the 3rd huge perspective changer about what is possible on the CT. The first was Owen Murphy when he blew away the 5 day barrier, seemingly with ease, riding a 4d08h in 2008. He missed a tiny piece of the course, but his time was nonetheless jaw-dropping.  Then Jefe took it under 4 days - absolutely inconceivable when the race started in 2007.  After reinstating the Tarryall detour in 2013, I thought we'd never see another sub-4 day time. Man, sometimes it is so freaking cool to be wrong!!

Yes, let's all wait to hear more from Martin and Jeannie.  I greatly prefer to give folks the benefit of the doubt. They flew in from South Africa, so it was quite a big time/money investment for them to do the CTR and it's hard to believe they would be ignorant of the rules. I corresponded a little with Martin prior to the race, and it sounded like he had gone through the entire CTR webpage. Maybe I need to make a couples division after all?

Finally, we've had a CTR facebook page for awhile, but I finally did something with it!  It's a better framework for posting photos, so feel free to browse and add at will! I think you might have to request to join, but I'll approve anyone who requests ASAP.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/44233836823/

if you have not done so yet....the link below or above has some recent pics.  i got down to Waterton this afternoon to catch Jefe coming through...His Mom and girlfriend were there and a couple other blue dot watchers......Hearing his stories are always entertaining.  Interesting thing....about 30 mins after he finished a couple young kids came over.  asking a bunch of questions.  turns out they just finished the CT from Durango as well.  Took them about 10 days, I think they said.  Must've have been high school or in their twenties at the oldest.  They had a van/camper following them to resupply and mind after them in between segments.  You should've seen the looks on their faces as they asked Jefe how long it took him.  They asked a bunch more questions on difficult segments, how much his bike weighs, how to deal with the rashes they get on their butts....etc....  It was entertaining and they were in awe of what they just accomplished in 10 days vs. what Jefe did.....I bet someday you'll see these two kids lined up at the start some day...


https://www.facebook.com/groups/44233836823/

[Erik]

You know who else only sleeps one hour a night? Right?

[Woodland]

You know who else only sleeps one hour a night? Right?

The suspense is killing me...

[cjdunn]

I scratched today at highway 50 near Salida. Achilles' tendons could not take all the HAB. I had some other issues too but that one took me out. I'm not at all disappointed and am actually feeling pretty good considering what I went through for a few days. I could barely eat without puking. I spent the better part of days 2-4 seriously bonked. Segment 23 was especially brutal. I could barely push my bike up some of the hills. I finally just sat down for a long time and ate a little at a time then took a nap. That got me over Coney and all the way to Los Pinos pass. Today was the first time I could eat any significant amount but I was still not getting enough calories. On top of that I've developed a seriously sore throat so now I don't want to swallow. I feel lucky to have made it through Sargents Mesa and Monarch today but the HAB just finished off my Achilles. Last time I had this issue it took six months to recover and I just can't see any sense in continuing and making it even worse. The HAB is bad enough without the pain. I wasn't really committed to "racing" anyway so I don't mind dropping out. I may come back next summer and just finish the second half so I will have seen it all.

I will say that I was disappointed in the actual trail itself. I knew there would be lots of HAB but I assumed it would be worth it. Yes there were some amazing views etc but the riding was not worth all the effort. I kept waiting for there to be stretches of just riding on decent trail but there wasn't much, at least not for very far.  At times having a bike on the trail seemed as silly as wearing swim fins in sand dunes.

The brand new bag for my Sawyer water filter sprung a leak and I was already suspicious that the msr water tabs I used the first day might have started my stomach issues so that kind of sucked. My spot quit on day 3 too. Never had an issue with it before. 

My Salsa Horsethief was awesome. It allowed me to ride up stuff I should have walked but didn't because I was trying to save my tendons. It gave me pleasure to see the grass trampled from others who had walked even though I was grinding out only 1.8 mph in my 26x42 granny. The Horsethief was amazing on the rocky rooty downhills even loaded for bikepacking. I can't imagine a bike better suited to these rough trails.

Overall I'll chalk this one up to experience and move on but I'll say that I'm not too interested in repeating most of the trail I completed. I am amazed at the guys who crush this course. Both for their fitness and ability but also the willingness to go ride a trail that really isn't fit for mountain bikes.

[cjdunn]

Hey Geekonabike Mike!  Glad to hear you are still going. You are one crazy badass dude. I enjoyed your company on the march up to Kennabec.

For those that don't know if he doesn't hurry he will celebrate his 65th birthday on the trail and he's riding a single speed.

[dream4est]

In Buena
At Jan's
Not a bad ride so far
Been sleeping lots

Ready for a run here
Cottonwood last night after a crazy rain has me feeling ready for a couple all nighters

Triple double is coming
A few more days and it is mine

[danwiz]

In Buena
At Jan's
Not a bad ride so far
Been sleeping lots

Ready for a run here
Cottonwood last night after a crazy rain has me feeling ready for a couple all nighters

Triple double is coming
A few more days and it is mine

as phil liggett would say---"dig deep into the suitcase of courage"
have fun out there!!!

[joeydurango]

Bummer, Chris!  Glad you are okay though, I was wondering.  Sorry you didn't like the trail - as a counterpoint, I gotta say that I love much of the trail between here and Salida for its own sake (although there definitely are a few short sections of "what the hell?").  Different strokes, I suppose...

If you do come back and do the second half sometime you may find the trail more to your liking.  Things definitely get more typically MTB after Salida in this direction.

[mtbcast]

‪#‎ColoradoTrailRace15‬ - Nick Patzer called in from Copper!

An earlier call attributed to Mick Lester was actually Nick.

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/ctr15/

[Stefan_G]

In Buena
At Jan's
Not a bad ride so far
Been sleeping lots

Ready for a run here
Cottonwood last night after a crazy rain has me feeling ready for a couple all nighters

Triple double is coming
A few more days and it is mine

Hell yeah, Mark!!

[Matt Schiff]

In regards to Jesse's killer ride, I'll keep it short with words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPjvDE-rKo0