Mr. Kerkove and I woke up at 4:30 in the AM on Sunday to prepare to suffer for the entire time that the sun would shine that day.  I downed as much as I could for breakfast (2 eggs, coffee, and a peanut butter sandwich) knowing that I wouldn’t be able to consume much in between our 45-58 min laps over the course of the day.  We had to use our headlamps as we scooted to the tent around 6 AM to race in the co-ed duo category.

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Getting set up, bright and early…before the sun shines.

The start was at 7 AM, and it came up really quick.  We decided it’d be best if Jeff rode the first lap.

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I am cornholio!  I need TP for my very cold bunghole!

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There was an insane amount of media at the event due to the appearance of Lance Armstrong.  It was pretty cool to have front row seats.  Is this a world cup or a charity endurance event? :)

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Yuki Saito, Lance Armstrong, Jeff Kerkove, Jay Henry, and Brett Morgan take the first call-up spots.

Ready, steady, go! The start of the 12 Hours of Snowmass. Giddy up!

Jeff had a really good first lap.  I headed on out up the big hill.  I did ok, but for some reason my breakfast had not quite digested and I was barfing peanut butter sandwich in my mouth just a little bit.  eeewww.   I didn’t feel great the first lap, but that was expected.

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VUUURRRRP!   Uhhh…I don’t feel so good… but I am wearing my new Smith Toasters. Yeyeah!

Jeff was turning pretty consistent lap times and was doing awesome.  My second lap was my fastest and ironically my last lap was my second fastest…and the most fun.  We were winning until halfway through the race…The middle of the race was a trying time for me.  I was bonking because I didn’t know how much I should be eating in between laps and during the laps.  I would take in 2 gus per lap.  A lap was 7 miles, 1500 feet of climbing and my times ranged from 52-58 minutes.  Apparently that wasn’t nearly enough (I am still learning about this endurance stuff), so I ate some Cherry frosted pop tarts (I heard this is good to eat during long races) and a piece of bread with honey at another time.  It was definitely some mentally rough times during some of those laps which will make me so much stronger in future races to come. My legs were dead and felt like they weighed 10000 lbs each and I was barely turning it over.  Granted the first 30 minutes were a huge climb, it still hurt and felt so much harder than it should have.  It was also challenging because you would ride for 50 minutes, then stop for 50 minutes, then try to start again up a granny-gear-riffic rode.  I wished I had a great granny gear ;) Even the fast guys were in their granny.   Near the end of the race, Jeff decided to make a tactical decision and ride a double lap.  I took off for my last lap and suddenly my legs felt light and I was able to blast through the climb and singletrack.  Too bad it took so long for me to come back around.  We ended up doing 13 laps for second place in co-ed duo and were about 7 minutes back from first place.  Not half bad! Jeff also wrote a post here.

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Our little shelter for the next twelve hours…

Podium. Second place.

Other notes:
On the drive up:
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Ummm…. dude… I smell brakes.

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Mountains are getting some snow….!

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Big props to Yuki Saito for taking the win in the men’s solo race and a big thanks to Nat Ross for putting on a well organized, super fun event!! See ya there next year!!!

Tomorrow, it’s off to Winter Park. We are starting in Boulder, going over Rollins Pass, part of the Continental Divide Trail, and into town for some R&R. Wednesday, we will ride back and give you the scoop.

Very nice! (Borat voice)