I’m not sure what I was expecting at the Crested Butte 40 but I knew I needed to start slow and not get caught up in the sprint off the start line. For the first time in my life, I climbed the first switchbacks in last place but actually had passed a few girls by the time we hit the first descent. I had been worried about the Cat 1 men catching me in the first miles but I managed to stay in front of them until the technical riding and continued with them for the first 9 miles. And that’s when I felt like I’d been racing for 50 miles and could barely make it up the next road climb. As much as I wanted to quit, I suffered on at a ridiculously slow pace until the first aid station at mile 19. After a few jokes and some great support from Ian, Alissa and Juniper I began catching people (men and women) on the long road climb up to Deer Creek. By the time we hit the hike-a-bike, I was feeling decent and put my adventure racing suffering skills to work and began to pick up the pace. The final climb up Mt. Crested Butte was still brutal, but I managed to not let anyone pass me and continued to catch a bunch of people that had blown by me early in the race. As horrible as I felt, it was nice to finish strong and know that I have maintained some endurance. Now I just need to continue to get that high end back with lots of speed work and hard training.

Although I hadn’t expected a lot for the race, I was somewhat disappointed with my finish. I raced against a group of super strong women but I had hoped not to finish forty five minutes behind the leader. It will take time to get back into race shape but I’m not the most patient person in the world. This gives me a good idea of where I stand and how much work is left to be done.

The first week of June, I went up to Aspen to participate in the second meeting of the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board.  We enjoyed great food and discussed product we have been testing (including Power Shield Pro and others I cannot discuss) as well as new ideas and future product.  JustAZipper.com has a nice recap of the week if you’re interested otherwise all I can say is that I’m very excited about what’s to come from Polartec!

Axel and I left directly from Aspen and headed to Vail (I was a bit spoiled that week) for the Teva Mountain Games.  Ian and Juniper had been there for a few days, Ian working and Juniper playing with some friends.  The last two summers I have competed in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge consisting of four events in two days and the two years before that in the adventure race.  With Ian working and Axel only eight weeks old, I had to skip the UMC and just race in the 10K trail run on Sunday morning. This 10K is unlike any other I have raced including trail races – it is brutal. Most of the climbing is so steep that even the leaders are relegated to fast hiking so I was happy to finish just a minute or so slower than my time from last year (even with a stop to dump the rocks from my shoes). I missed competing in it all but it just wasn’t possible this year.

Dropping some ounces before the mountain bike race.

Lindsay at Carmichael Training Systems has been working hard to get me faster after the pregnancy and had me doing hill repeats and intervals throughout the week with a mountain bike race mixed in. My legs were sufficiently tired after Saturday’s running repeats and then we headed to Boulder for the Newton Running Form Symposium and Clinic.  Danny Abshire (Newton founder) and Ian Adamson (my old adventure race teammate) gave a great talk on the importance of proper running form to help prevent injuries and increase speed and efficiency.  After an hour and a half run through Boulder and up Mt. Sanitas in the pouring rain on Sunday morning, I joined the Newton crew again for the form clinic.  About thirty runners showed up to have their form critiqued and to practice what we had learned the night before. If you are able to get to one of these clinics, I highly suggest it! If you can’t make one, check out this video for some great tips.

Despite having missed two training sessions early in the week, I had an awesome twelve mile run with both kids in the Chariot this morning. With the temperature perfect, the wind still somewhat calm and not many people on the path, I was able to push my sixty pounds at an average 7 min. 50 sec. per mile pace. With all the foundation CTS has been having me build, I’m excited to get to the next phase of my training when I start to really prepare for racing again. I think I may be able to set some PRs and push the pace in some mountain bike races.

Photo by Kristin Anderson / Vail Daily

Eight weeks to the day after delivering both of my children, I have participated in my first race.  It was the Beaver Creek Vertical Challenge with Ellen Miller after Juniper and the Vail Rec District Hammer in the Hay this time.  I didn’t feel amazing at either race but enjoyed the effort and being back racing.

Thanks to our amazing friend Kerry White and her parents (in from Australia), both Ian and I were able to race.  After a couple nursing sessions for Axel we were on our way.  For the first time, I lined up in the back of the group of starters – Women’s Pro and Men’s Vet Expert.  It was fun to have Ian line up next to me and even better to see him weave through the group to the front of the pack (while I stayed in the back sucking in lots of dust).

By the end of the four lap race, I was one of the last racers on the course and I finished third (out of three finishers since one girl decided to drop out).  I felt like I was hours behind everyone since I couldn’t really see anyone else, but I finished only one and a half minutes behind second place and about five minutes behind first.  Although many men beat me that don’t normally, it was awesome to be racing with friends again and getting my heart going.

Ian finished in a strong fifth although I think he could have been third or fourth if he had started with the front of the pack and not pulled two guys to the finish so they could pass him at the line.  Our friend and Honey Stinger co-owner/team captain, Len Zanni, took top honors in the Men’s Pro in a field of super strong racers.  Nice job boys!

Hammer in the Hay results can be viewed here.  Vail Daily article here.

Since this was a training race, I continued this morning with my training from Lindsay at Carmichael Training Systems.  This meant an hour run with five 3-minute hill repeats.  Yep, officially whooped from racing last night and running hill repeats in 80 degree weather but it’s all worth it!

Monique Merrill rocking at at Loveland a few years ago

The ski mountaineering world championships started in Andorra on Monday.  A strong team of racers representing the United States are competing with 22 other nations.  As of today, two of the four races are complete with the US making a strong showing.

My adventure racing and Pierra Menta teammate, Monique Merrill, is especially proving that the US has a presence in ski mountaineering.  Mona has placed in the top 10 for both the vertical and the individual races.  Awesome job Mona – keep it up!

The team race is Friday and the relay will take place on Saturday.  Travis Scheefer and Nina Silitch are updating their websites with race recaps and photos.  Also, results can be found at the ISMF site.

I wish we had this explained to us before the race and wish the racers also had a better explanation.  Not sure if anything would have changed in the overall outcome but it would have made it a much more even playing field.

AR World Championships 2010 in Spain!

UPDATE:  I apologize to Grant that wrote the very informative article explaining the Portugal race format and want to make clear that he does not direct or have anything to do with the event.  He was present at the race this year and thought it would be very helpful to all of us to get a good explanation out there.  Thanks Grant!

Chris Forne at the finish of the 2009 Adventure Race World Championships

After a long tough race, Nike Beaver Creek finished in a very respectable second place at the 2009 Adventure Race World Championships.  I have not spoken to anyone from the team so haven’t gotten the story from the source, but it sounds like the final outcome had to do with some confusion on cutoffs.  The latest post on SleepMonsters has a quote from Chris stating that they thought they had to be through a bike leg by 2 o’clock when in reality they just had to start by then.  Due to this, they missed three checkpoints in the trekking leg causing them to no longer have the most received checkpoints.

This race had a difficult format to follow (and race and support) throughout and I’m unsure how I personally feel about optional checkpoints and sections.  From the results, it appears that some teams skipped entire sections of the race while still finishing ahead of other teams that completed all portions.  Maybe I just needed to be there to understand better, but this doesn’t seem right especially for a world championships.

No matter what happened, the new world champions, Helly Hansen Prunesco of England, raced extremely well and strong to win in such a strong field.  Helly Hansen Prunesco received the most checkpoints and came on very strong towards the end proving they have what it takes.  Congrats to HHP!  Lundhags Adventure, Orion Health (last year’s world champs) and Navigator RaidLight rounded out the podium.

Congrats to Mike Kloser, Monique Merrill, Chris Forne and George Christison and everyone that competed in the race as it sounded grueling.  As much as I enjoy being the Monday morning quarterback, I miss being out there to experience it myself.

Congratulations to Mike, Gretchen, Jay and George!  Way to stay strong and pull through!

From a quick note from Mike Kloser it sounds like the prologue was ridiculously fast just like last year and Day 1 involved lots of muddy mountain biking causing mechanical issues for many of the teams.  Nike-Beaver Creek had a good day despite Mike feeling ill and only one flat on the bike to finish the day in the leaders jersey.  Day 2 proved a little more difficult for the team with a mechanical setting them back from the beginning and Mike continuing to be sick.  It sounds like he cannot keep any food down but is at least able to stay hydrated.  Thankfully it sounds like he has recovered very well from a big crash earlier this summer and that the rest of the team is feeling well and racing strong as usual.  That is one of the great things about adventure racing – everyone goes through bad spots and the rest of the team is there to help that person out and get them through it.  And since I know how strong Mike is, I’m sure he’s not slowing the team down one bit.

With the time change to China, the racers should be back up at the hotel and resting for Day 3.  I hope Mike does not have what I had last year as I can’t imagine racing again while feeling like that.  Hopefully after some rest and hydration, Nike-Beaver Creek will be able to have a great day again tomorrow and move back into the lead.  Visit the Wulong Mountain Quest site for more reports and overall standings.

Len Zanni leading Lance Armstrong & Jay Henry up the first climb in Snowmass a few weeks ago.

Primal Quest is about 600 miles and will go on for at least 3 or 4 more days so I have been more obsessed with the Leadville 100.  Of course the big thing with Leadville this year is Lance vs. Wiens and breaking the 6-hour mark.  Lance has become somewhat of a local in the Roaring Fork Valley and Wiens has been a friend for several years after adventure racing together.  So who  have I been cheering for this morning?  Len Zanni of course.  Len from Honey Stinger and Big Agnes is my dark horse to either be on the podium or take a surprise win.  Although Len works full time and has two young kids, he is strong, has been training with Lance and has been having an amazing season.   Of course I’m cheering for Dave and Lance and everyone else, but really we are just hoping Len can keep up the pace he is racing at currently and that he has no mechanicals or crashes.

My new shoes! Imogene, Wildcat & Fireblade

L to R: Imogene, Wilcat, Fireblade

What I really should be doing is deciding which of my new La Sportiva trail shoes I should put on and try out on the trail.  All three shoes look great and I’m having a hard time deciding which pair to try first:  Fireblade, Imogene, or Wildcat.  I guess it will depend on how much more rain falls this morning and how long I get to run for.  Tough decisions.  Although I’m no longer racing in the TransRockies (more on that another day), I’m looking forward to putting lots of miles on these new shoes.

As I finally finish up writing this, it looks like Lance is going to win the Leadville 100 this year despite flatting and riding with 5 – 10 miles left.  Although he won’t break the 6-hour mark, it looks like he’ll easily break the record Dave Wiens set last year.  Wiensy should be claiming the second spot on the podium and third is still up for grabs.  I hope Len can pull it off but either way it has been fun to watch.  Salomon Crested Butte is still on the heels of OrionHealth in Primal Quest with about 450 miles of racing remaining.

Here are top 10 from Leadville: 1. Lance Armstrong, 2. Dave Wiens, 3. Matt Schriver, 4. Alex Grant, 5. LEN ZANNI, 6. MAX TAAM, 7. Travis Brown, 8. Manuel Prado, 9. Mike Hogan, 10. Jason Tullous.  Huge congratulations to Len and Max and the Honey Stinger team!

I feel like the swim was a little longer than last year but I was faster which was a huge relief.  By no means was I fast in the water, just not as slow as my first race last year.  I was the last pro out of the water as usual with many of the amateur men passing me but only a few of the women.  This set me up for a better climb up Beaver Creek as I did not have to pass as many people as last year and kept me going on my own rhythm.

As has been the case for the last couple of weeks, I felt very sluggish on the bike.  I haven’t put as much time in on the bike as other years and have skipped all the local races which really gets the high end going but I’m still slower than I should be.  Around a half hour into the climb I passed a few other pro women that are great swimmers and started to settle into a pace.  The pace turned out to be slower than last year but not as bad as it could have been.  Once we arrived home, Ian discovered my rear disc had been rubbing so bad he couldn’t get my wheel to spin a full rotation on its own.  I don’t think this changed where I placed overall but I’m sure it made me hurt a bit more.

Coming into T2.

We transitioned into the run up at Beaver Creek resort with a great crowd cheering everyone on.  The run is on a combination of singletrack and dirt road and seems to climb and climb.  Although I was a few minutes slower than last summer, I was able to pass a few men and only get passed by one.  Not bad considering how I felt.

Finally finishing.

I finished in 9th place quite a ways back from the top three women: Shonny Vanlandingham, Danelle Kabush and Sara Tarkington.  With an amazing field of women I was excited to still be in the top 10 and to have finished the race.  I plan on taking a bunch of rest the next few weeks to fully flush this cold out of my system so I can hopefully start to feel closer to 100% again.  Check out the race results with splits here.