Monday, August 24, 2009

Ultras and focus

I am envious of everyone who is riding with a goal in mind. I have no focus or commitment at the moment. I was supposed to do the Mankele 3 Towers at the end of September, but I can't face the thought of racing hard. I am still enjoying riding but love balancing it with the running now - so I am more motivated to set a running goal.

I am even running(pardon the pun) out of topics to write about on this blog! Horrors!

So I thought I would diverge a bit and ramble on about other thoughts that occur to me. Like the Leadville 100 with a 14 000ft ascent that took place a couple of weeks ago.

This legendary bike race of 100 miles sounds as tough as they come. Dave Wiens has won it for 6 years in a row beating first timer, Lance Armstrong, last year. I can't imagine any one day race here of 160 kms having over 1600 competitors and needing a lottery entry system.

This year, the tables were turned with LA turning in a sublime performance to win by about 30mins - still a 6 and a half hour effort! So touring 3 weeks on the road is clearly great prep for one mother of a race. But I would love to see how a competition between the top international mountain bikers would have panned out - if a Christoph Sauser has been there or a Julien Absalom?

Now that would have been a race I reckon.

And then there is the Leadville 100 mile trail run apparently held this weekend. I can't find the results for 2009 but have seen the second fastest time of 16 hours 14 mins set in 2007. Now that is a long day of pounding. There are special awards for anyone completing under 25 hours!

I always thought we s'effricans were ultra distance mad, but these events and the participant numbers show a whole 'nother side we have yet to explore en masse.

1 comment:

  1. I know the feeling, can't seem to get psyched about any races either, would far rather spend the time exploring and discovering new places by bike.This may interest you though, might even give you a new goal - a multi-day trail run happening in the Drakensberg in November. (http://drakensberg.ning.com/)

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