June 2012 - ActiveSteve

Climbing Mountains to reach the Race Across the Sky

“I commit, I won’t quit!”. Those words were chanted by the Leadville Race founder, and he made us all recite those very words ourselves. So began the journey to complete the WilmingtonWhiteface 100km Mountain Bike Race. This was the pre-race briefing, and one of the most inspirational ones I’d been to in all my many races. I was in the beautiful Adirondack mountain area, a scant 9 miles from Lake Placid, and 3 miles from Wilmington, NY, the host town of this race. My mere presence at this event was somewhat unexpected, as it was not on my radar at all until I heard about it through Get Out There Magazine. I was there covering the event for them, and also there due to the allure of getting a shot at a slot to race in the the Leadville 100 Race. Yup, the one and same MTB race that has seen Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong, on 2 separate occasions, get beaten by local legend Dave Wiens. Also the same venue where Levi Leipheimer smashed a previous course record held by Dave. That race is only 18 years old, but has quickly become the stuff of legend, and only accessible by winning your way in, or winning a ‘lottery slot’. So there I was, seated in the room with another 300 fellow hungry athletes, looking forward to ripping up the course the next morning. The rest of my tale will take you through the whole race. But first, a word about the area and what Deanna and I got up to on our ‘weekend getaway’. Check out the pictures we took as well as my finalized race review video. Read on friends!

Race Reports Race Review Videos

Road Tripping to Become a Super Spartan!

Howdy folks. Well, after a nice 2 week break, I was back on the trail of another fun race to tackle for me and for Get Out There Magazine. I can honestly say that this program has been both a blessing and a curse for me. It’s great to not have to always pay for my own races and some of the gear that I’m using now, but the extra work I have to put in, coupled with the fact that I’m signing up for more big events than ever, tends to put a bit of a stress on me at times. However, all that vanishes whenever I toe the line and get the adrenalin and endorphins pumping for the day! The Mont Tremblant Super Spartan was no exception to that truism, and once again, I was very fortunate to have amazing weather smiling down on myself and all my fellow ‘warriors’. These obstacle races are all the rage and draw out huge crowds of varying abilities. This makes for a very charged atmosphere, but also tends to ramp up the tension and competitiveness felt by all! I didn’t take many pictures to speak of, but of course, I have a race review video that I pulled together. Once you’ve had a look at the video, come on back and read the rest of my post for details on my personal performance!

Race Reports

A Little Downtime, aka the Value of Lists

Well, after coming off a successful 3 week run of races back to back to back, I was looking forward to having a couple weekends off to spend time at home and get some things done. Our calendar for the summer season is already quite full, with maybe 2 to 3 weekends not fully booked till the fall! That basically means I have to cram in all my house-type projects into a pretty short period of time. That’s not so bad for me, since I like to stay relatively busy, but I certainly don’t feel like being completely flat out all the time :-). So with that, I figured I’d write just a short little post talking about a few of the things that have kept us busy over the past two weekends. Oh, and for good measure, I also managed to rustle up some pictures of the final products of our labour!

Race Reports Race Review Videos

Ripping it up at Raid Pulse

Wow! Another scorching, sunny race day. This was the third race in 3 weeks of back to back racing, so I was rather surprised that my ‘luck’ with the weather held up for yet another event! Where was I this time? Well, not too far from home. About one hour north of Gatineau in a little wilderness area near Denholm. And boy was it gorgeous out there! Definitely a spot I’d keep my eyes open for a little plot of land for a cabin/cottage. I was up there for the 5-8 hour Raid Pulse adventure race, a perennial favourite of mine that I’d once again be covering for Get Out There. As it stood, I was supposed to race this one solo, but two days before the event, I got a call from a friend of mine who was looking for a navigator / team-mate. I saw no reason to decline, so in a last minute twist, I was thrown onto a team. Would be fun to be put into that category and see how we did. Of course, I managed to snap some pics as well as get my video review done while on the race, but read on for a few more insights as to how the race went for us.

Race Reports Race Review Videos

Categorically Tops in Tweed

Greetings my friends! I realize that I’m a little late in writing my posts, but at least I eventually get around to it when I have the chance, right? Hee hee. As my title subtley implies, this post will be about a great race result I had a few weeks ago in Tweed at the Storm the Trent Adventure race that I was racing in and covering for Get Out There magazine. I ended up in 1st place in my category, which was solo male. There were a few others who finished before me, but they were either the team category or the solo masters category (I ended up 8th overall). However, the victory even in my category was not a sure thing given a few technical problems, so it’s at least worth a quick read of my race report to see how things unfolded on another beautiful day of racing. I also wasn’t alone out there. Deanna opted to tackle the ‘trek’ course (I was on the ‘trek elite’), and given the proximity to Trenton, Deanna’s folks came out to cheer us on as well. Accordingly, I’ve got some good pics of the race on top of the video review. Now read on to find out more!