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.