Bisbee Hill
And the courses keep rolling on. Today was at Bisbee Hill, and we were warned that the red course was crossing into blue territory, with a total length
of 9.3 km. The area also proved to be very open running in most places, with only patches of sagebrush instead of a nearly continuous cover like yesterday.
September 3, 2009 Red course at Bisbee Hill, near Laramie, WY. Click to enlarge.
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One Cowboy Relay
Today was the first official race of Laramie Daze - the ever popular one man (cowboy, girl, whatever) relay. We had a mass start and each were given
a map case with four maps in it: Loops A, B, C, and Z. The first three loops were all very similar, but each person had them in a random order. The
last loop was the same for all runners. Each time we completed a loop, we were supposed to remove the top map from the case, drop it in the box at the
finish chute and proceed out on the next one.
September 2, 2009 Loop A at the Gates of AMT Hell, near Laramie, WY. Click to enlarge.
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Huff and Puff at The Pond
Day 2 of Laramie Daze. I woke up around 8:30 AM at the Yellow Pine campground, grabbed a quick Pop-Tart for breakfast and headed up to the
suggested training map at Medicine Bow. The training course was flagged with yellow and blue tape and split into two halves - one middle-type, 10 controls,
4.5 km and a second half with 6 controls over the same distance. I only did the first half in order to save my legs for the afternoon, and managed
a respectable 7:30 pace on the relatively flat terrain, even with two mistakes. I was the only one out there - Peg, Ludwig, and Ardis (at least two of them
from TSN, I don't remember exactly) showed up around the time I finished.
But here was the afternoon course. Very different.
September 1, 2009 course at the The Pond, near Laramie, WY. Click to enlarge.
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On the Plains of Despair
Today was the first day of events at the 2009 Laramie Daze! After the relaxing hike up Medicine Bow Peak in the morning, I hit Laramie for lunch
and wi-fi and headed up to the map called Plains of Despair for the 3-4 PM start window. Course geekery below.
August 31, 2009 course at the Plains of Despair, near Laramie, WY. Click to enlarge.
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MIX Race Report - Part III
Part II of the MIX race report ended with a paddle down the Manistee River, ready to go
into a nighttime trekking section before we'd see our support crew again.
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Some Different Perspectives
(as if I haven't posted enough about MIX already!)
Both Brian and Molly have also put together race reports with their own take on the Michigan race.
Molly's report is aimed for those less familiar with the sport and is set up in a slideshow format, with
pictures that she took on the course in addition to pictures from our support crew.
See it here.
Brian also posted his take on his
Attackpoint log.
MIX Race Report - Part II
Part I of the MIX race report brought us to the beginning of the rafting section on the
Sturgeon River. We had just completed a 33-mile overnight trek through the Chandler Hills. It was mid-morning and we were
ready to be off our feet.
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6th Place at MIX!
At the finish
We had a good run for our first big race of the year! We arrived in Traverse City on Monday night, checked in with race staff
on Tuesday morning, and had our maps and instructions by 3 PM. So that was a reasonable amount of time to plot the points, choose
routes, and assemble a course walkthrough in addition to getting our gear set. Chris made us a pan of chicken lasagna to make
at the house so we didn't have to waste time going out for dinner.
So at 7 AM the next morning, we're all lined up at the boat launch on Elk Lake, about 10 miles NE of Traverse City. It was a
water start, with all of us sitting in 2-person plastic 16-foot canoes on the water. The sun was just up and there was a stiff
headwind from the ESE.
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Hills, Hills, and More Hills
Today was a perfect, sunny weekend day for a meet along the hills and bluffs at Afton. Today's setter was Gedas
Adomavicius, who is starting to get a reputation as a setter of technically difficult courses. The steep relief at Afton
added a physical challenge as well, with a 5.4% grade on the red course. I wore the Active Ankle again, over tucked-in pants
to avoid ticks, and had a run I'd probably rate 6-of-10, with no major mistakes, some minor mistakes, and a considerable
amount of walking up the steep parts.
May 2, 2009 Red course at Afton. Click to enlarge.
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Strange Outfits at Wirth Park
(No, it's not what you might think.) Last night Jerritt invited the whole group out to Wirth around 6 PM
for an... audition, of sorts. He and a friend were making a short promotional video to be shared between
True North Adventures
and the
Minneapolis Tri-loppet, and he was looking for volunteers to run, bike and paddle in "corporate"
wear. So of course, those of us interested in hamming it up all showed up after work without changing clothes. I even put on
a tie. Both Mollys were there in power suit attire, and Tom showed up everybody by arriving in a dark pinstripe suit with an
orange tie and sunglasses.
We did all three disciplines, including a paddle on Wirth Lake in Jerritt's old aluminum canoe. We ended up taking almost
an hour to record the video; the videographer didn't seem to have a
real solid plan of what to do for each segment, so we ended up putting together scenarios and executing them two or more
times, which was quite a bit of fun as we had to remember things, like what order we were in running over the crest of a hill.
The video will be a couple minutes long, and I'll post a link when I know it.
After that, we changed into real workout gear and ran the actual course. More after the jump.
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