DSDu Keystone

Ok Duathletes.

I drove out to Keystone on Wednesday afternoon.  Rode round and round exploring different options.  This isn't firm yet, but I think I'm going to run the race in the opposite direction Ray ran the Keystone Cross Country Mountain Bike Race.  So instead of running off into the woods on your left (as you face the pond), you'll take off on the right.  As I mentioned before, the trail choices out there are limited, so I'm pretty sure we're going to run the short loop (with maybe one detour) and bike the long loop.  Honestly, Wednesday was the first time I've ridden Keystone the opposite direction.  It felt like I was riding left handed.  But I really think the trail was more pleasant that way.  Most of the climbs that way are easier and some of the climbs going the other way turn out to be fun little descents.  I did get off my bike going up the steep climb out by the road and in the rock garden on the way back to the parking lot.  But for the most part, it was enjoyable.  Of course, I wasn't riding race pace.

I need to get out there and cut away a few thorns and tree branches.  We'll flag the course before the race and we'll also have some HELP out on the course to direct you and make sure you don't accidentally cut the course.  I'm pretty sure all the runners will be off the course before you can get around on your bike, but it's possible we'll have some laggers.  Also possible you'll get run up on from behind by cyclists while you're on the second run.  As long as everyone is paying attention and calling out when you want to pass, we should be fine.

Feel free to ask questions here.

Courses (x2)

An open letter to myself...

Dear Brian, you need to get out and get acclimated to this heat.  You are pathetic.  That ride yesterday where you kept stopping every few minutes to recover after soft-pedaling was... not good.  Also, you need to eat before you ride.  And hydrating with electrolytes wouldn't hurt either.  Nice ride this morning though; way to get out while it was in the low 80s.

Ok, sorry for that.  Needed to get that off my chest.  

With two races coming up in the next month, you can imagine we're busy busy busy.  So I apologize if I'm not getting information out as quickly as you'd like.  We're doing our best, I promise.  

Update on the Turkey course for SIX IN THE STICKS.  The course markings must be good enough to follow because a few of you have emailed, called, and texted me about it.  Yeah, it's hot.  But I'm hearing good things about the course layout.  I personally think it's a pretty fast course with a lot of fun, windey sections and as much sustained (and not too technical) climbing as can be found at Turkey.  Womack reported to me today that he did two laps at 75% effort in 1:20, so it's possible to ride 30 minute laps during the race.  I think the course is probably around 7 miles, but I still don't have confirmation.  Does anyone have a computer on their mountain bike?

We'll have plenty of cold water and HEED, Hammer Nutrition's sports drink.  But bring whatever you think you'll need to get through the race.  Feel free to email me with questions.

The first race in the DoubleShot Duathlon series is just around the corner!  This is very exciting.  For the first time, we'll be putting on a race at Keystone.  Unlike the mountain bike race, we'll be staging in the main parking lot, just off Old Highway 51.  I haven't gotten out to put up markings yet, but it's pretty easy to figure out which trails we'll be using because there is pretty much only one choice.  I'll get my lazy arse out there asap and give you more details on trail conditions and course directions.

This is going to be a fun year for off-road racing.  I hope all of you spread the word about SIX IN THE STICKS (July 26) and the DoubleShot Duathlon series (August 8, September 5, and October 10).  More racers means more likelihood we'll keep advancing the cause of DoubleShot Racing.

Rainy

How was I supposed to know we were about to have a monsoon?

Just as I was about to walk out the door to ride yesterday afternoon it started to rain.  I decided to drink a beer and wait to ride until this morning.  And it's raining cats and dogs today.

So... my plan is to go out on foot this afternoon and flag the course, so you guys can ride it this weekend.  Red and black checkered flagging.  Hopefully it won't be muddy.

Sorry for the delays.

UPDATE:  So I went to Turkey yesterday and marked the course.  Almost all the ribbons are on your left.  There were a couple places where I couldn't figure out a good place to mark a right-hand turn, so I put a ribbon on the right in your field of vision.  But for the most part they're on your left.  It starts in the shitty "parking lot" that our friends at Riverparks made and heads out south on the sandy singletrack toward 71st.  It was pretty soft and muddy yesterday with a lot of puddles.  And with the rain today, I'm sure it's going to be even muddier.  But it's marked.  Took me 2.5 hours on foot (running) to mark the trail and the insane humidity out there drenched me from head to toe.  I'm not sure how long the course it, but I'd guess 7-8 miles.  It's a FAST course on a bike though, so I hope you'll like it.  Let me know if you have questions.

SIX course update

Rode Turkey on Thursday on what I thought would be the race course.  The trails are more rutted than usual with a lot of exposed rocks and roots.  So I've changed my mind about the course.  I do want this race to be fun, so I'm going to try and route through as many fun sections as possible.  I've also decided to shorten the length of each lap a bit too, because if it is really hot (and it probably will be) you'll be able to get back more often to refill your bottles.

So here's the tentative course description.  I still may change it up a bit, but I'll try and get out there to ride and mark it tomorrow.

Start in the parking lot (what's left of it) and ride south down the sandy trail toward 71st.  Hang tight through Bombshell (or Bomb Shelter or whatever you call it).  Take a left on the cutoff that leads to the drop into the flat roadbed.  Then right into the creek bed and through the loose, rocky rollers out to the paved river trail- left and up around the right curve.  At the next curve, go onto the dirt trail on your right that leads up the ridable climb.  Find your way out to the main trial that leads up from the parking lot, right to another right hand turn up the trail Womack and Mikey built with the bridge at the top.  Continue climbing up next to Elwood, right at the top and left onto the windey trails through the woods.  Keep going straight past where that trail used to end and follow the new trail down to Millennium Trail.  Take a right and ride out to the Spider and across to the west side.  Down the fun hill, whip it around and down those fun rock drops and back through by the dead tree and off the lip by the Pepsi plant.  Left through the trashy creek bed, up the hill hang right.  Through another creek bed and onto the main Y trails to a doubletrack.  Follow it a ways and get off on a new singletrack that leads out to a pond in a clearing.  Sorry, I wish I knew the names of these trails, if they have names.  Hopefully if you've ridden at Turkey extensively, you'll be able to visualize the route.  At this point, instead of following the windey trail along 61st, you'll break off to the left and left again to the south side of the Snake Trail and race that around to the main exit, up the main trail to the upper parking lot and down Lip Buster back to the parking lot.

What do you think?  I think it will be fun, and I'm planning to ride during the race, so I want it to be fun.

SIX IN THE STICKS course

I have the six-hour course mapped out and will go out to ride it in its entirety tomorrow.  Will report the length after that.  It will be a fun course.  You'll be able to rip through most of it, but we're still talking about Turkey Mountain so technical sections are inevitable.  Six hour is a long time to ride at Turkey, so hopefully the course will flow for you.  There won't be any paved sections except for a very short pass up the river trail to connect a couple trails.  It looks like the ride through the "parking lot" won't even be paved, and I'll figure out a solution to route us around ongoing construction.  I hope they have enough of the construction finished so we can have adequate parking.  Riverparks assured me the entire project would be finished by July 26, but I'm planning for the worst.  So don't worry about it- we'll make it work.  

Hopefully you're all still riding a lot, training through this heat.  Get out and get acclimated.

I'll blog again on Friday with as much of a course description as I can give.  Maps of Turkey mountain are somewhat useless, but I'll do my best to give you an idea where the race is.

Next week I'll get out and do some preliminary course marking with red and black checkered ribbon.

Duathlon Competition

I talked to Scott Gibson yesterday and it sounds like he's going to race in all three of the duathlons this year.  Ray Hall is sounding like he'll be racing all three as well.  Scott won the first two years we put on the race at Turkey, but didn't show last year.  Ray finished second two years ago and won last year.  These are the guys to beat.  I hope this inspires some of you to get out and train hard; give them a run for their money ($3200 total prize money for the series).

Ladies, we don't discriminate.  There's $1600 sitting out there waiting for you.  In general, competition in the women's division of our duathlon has been fairly lame.  If you're a female and you have ever been on a mountain bike, get out there.  It's fun.

The economy is kicking our ass this year, so sponsorships are not coming in like we want.  But we're still going to put in a first class race.  The DoubleShot will carry this thing if it has to.  So drink more coffee!

SIX IN THE STICKS website

www.SixRace.com