Thomas Mckeen and I teamed up to see how we did together as a team, in hopes of racing together in 2014. No doubt, Thomas is a great teammate and a hoot to race with!
Things started off on the bikes. I wasn't sure how I'd do because I'd recently done the Epic Challenge and was still getting over the asthma issues that had flared up at that race.
But, things were fine. We started off fast on some fun single track, did some climbing and fun technical descents. And even some loop-de-loops at a bike trick's play park.
Then, we were off on foot. The foot section was a short distance, but it was all vertical. Thomas and I ran as much as we could and made good time; this trek is where we put the most distance on the other teams.
Back at the TA, we got back onto the bikes and rode to the next section. We dodged tons of weekend walkers along Clear Creek and played frogger with traffic on our way to the next climb. Once there, Thomas and I knew which trail we wanted to take. A local was adamant that we should take a different, parallel trail…we knew if time was an issue, this wouldn't be the right choice, but because he was adamant and we were curious what the trail looked like anyway, we went for it. He had said it was all rideable….but it wasn't. That's okay. We weren't surprised judging by the map. We hike-a-biked much of it, and opted for a technical class 3 scramble with our bikes to have a little more fun to get to where we needed to go. We got there, and zoomed back to the finish line. |
Final results 1. Chelsea Luttrall and Thomas McKeen 4:30 hrs 2. Tie James Luttrall 5:54hrs 2. Tie Marcia Van Eden and Becky 5:54hrs 3. Derek Allison 5:56hrs 4. Kim Heintz and Chris Marcinek 6:04 Hike only John Van Eden and friend Ryan Ognibene: "All of these teams did such an amazing job battling back and forth the whole race. I can't believe how close most teams were together. Congrats to our two first timers. Chris and Becky you guys did amazing."
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