Pike's Peak Race Report

Another nice race report form Rick and Jan:

Jan and I did the Pike's Peak Ascent (the course goes from Manitou Springs to the summit) this Saturday, 8/21 (it's held the day before the Sunday Marathon). Maybe a bit warm on the starting switchbacks, but nice cool breezes further up and clear skies all day. The race is a little more than a half marathon long and climbs about 7800 feet to the summit. About 1800 runners do the ascent, and it has two waves that start a half hour apart. Rick ran in wave 1 and finished in 3:25:57 for 12th/141 place in his age group. Jan, starting in Wave 2, passed through the enormous train of power walking zombies in the last 5 miles to post a spectacular 3:46:06 and come in 3rd/45in her age group. She received a nice award that evening back in town at a ceremony hosted by Bart Yasso from Runner's World!!

On Sunday we watched the 500 or so marathoners take off (running the up to the summit and back down course) and headed home.

PS: Everyone, however, was humbled by Keith Wood, 81 years of age, who did the Ascent on Saturday in a record-breaking 4:44:09. And he was not sipping drinks with us at the Manitou Springs coffee shop this Sunday morning watching the marathon start either -- he was in the pack heading back up to the summit of Pike's Peak and back (or, as the say, doing the "double")!

RAGBRAI Report

Here's a report on RAGBRAI from Jan Tarr.

During the week of July 25, Rick, Jan, Julie and Ellen did RAGBRAI, the world's largest bicycling event. The 7-day event crosses Iowa via a different route each year from the Missouri to the Mississippi Rivers.

The route this year was (officially) 442 miles long (one of the flatter and shorter routes in the event's history) and the days varied from 82 to 48 miles. One of the great things about the event is the phenomenal
level of community buy-in in both the overnight and pass-through towns (one has to be careful not to put on pounds due to the enormous number of cookie, pie, meal, gatorade, pasta, pork chop, cinnamon roll, etc. stops!). It's not a race, so riders set their own paces throughout. For some riders this involves drinking a spectacular amount of beer along the way. Overall, it's a unique rolling party, very family friendly, and an outrageous amount of fun (and not bad exercise either).

Thanks for Mark Person we were able to all spend one or more days cruising in style on a Cannondale Tandem!

2010 Chile Tri is in the books!

Congratulations to every triathlete that participated, including Mike Montoya and Aubrey Blair-Pattison - the overall winners, along with everyone that sponsored, volunteered for, and organized the triathlon in 2010. It went extremely well and we can't wait for next year.

Results are up, along with a link to a slideshow.