gratefulskier
08-14-2007, 08:50 AM
Lostone mentioned the Herc Open in another thread.
I did the Long Course on Saturday and it was a blast. John Atkinson designed one tough course and he and Matt and Laura did an amazing job of setting up the course. Parts of the course were cleared with a mower, but Matt told me that they had to use weed whackers to clear a lot of the course. I can't imagine how hard that must have been on some trails like Spillsville and Ripcord.
Doug Lewis ran a great race, showing that he is not just a wintertime athlete. I do a lot of running, year-round, and I was nowhere close to him on Saturday.
The long course had five significant climbs. The first was up Snowball and the traverse to Allyn's. The second was Ripcord to Spills to Ripcord to the summit. The third was Lower Downspout (from the Castlerock entrance) to Bailout and Lower Castlerock. The fourth was Village Run and then straight up skier's right of Sunrise. The fifth seemed easy - Sleeper Road to Waterfall and then up to the top of Gate House, but after the previous 4, even that one hurt.
For people not quite that adventurous, the short course did just the first climb and then returned to the base.
With lots of food, a band, and $25K in cash prizes for those in shape to contend, it was a great event and I hope it will be back next year. It's certainly a good mid-summer test of fitness. Considering that snowmaking could start as soon as 11 weeks or so from now, we should all be thinking about getting in shape for ski season, right?
After the race, I enjoyed some cold beers with Bubba and we talked to Lostone briefly. Bubba said that he would have entered, but the race didn't have a 100KG weight category.
My quads still hurt today.
GS
I did the Long Course on Saturday and it was a blast. John Atkinson designed one tough course and he and Matt and Laura did an amazing job of setting up the course. Parts of the course were cleared with a mower, but Matt told me that they had to use weed whackers to clear a lot of the course. I can't imagine how hard that must have been on some trails like Spillsville and Ripcord.
Doug Lewis ran a great race, showing that he is not just a wintertime athlete. I do a lot of running, year-round, and I was nowhere close to him on Saturday.
The long course had five significant climbs. The first was up Snowball and the traverse to Allyn's. The second was Ripcord to Spills to Ripcord to the summit. The third was Lower Downspout (from the Castlerock entrance) to Bailout and Lower Castlerock. The fourth was Village Run and then straight up skier's right of Sunrise. The fifth seemed easy - Sleeper Road to Waterfall and then up to the top of Gate House, but after the previous 4, even that one hurt.
For people not quite that adventurous, the short course did just the first climb and then returned to the base.
With lots of food, a band, and $25K in cash prizes for those in shape to contend, it was a great event and I hope it will be back next year. It's certainly a good mid-summer test of fitness. Considering that snowmaking could start as soon as 11 weeks or so from now, we should all be thinking about getting in shape for ski season, right?
After the race, I enjoyed some cold beers with Bubba and we talked to Lostone briefly. Bubba said that he would have entered, but the race didn't have a 100KG weight category.
My quads still hurt today.
GS