High Altitude Challenge 2011

Well another High altitude challenge is in the books. This is such an awesome off road duathlon held right here in our backyard and put on by Coates Cyclery, Mt Baldy and Redhook Ale. There are no timing chips, no 10 pages of rules, no bouncy house start and finish line, just a bunch of hard core athletes looking to tough it out and finish at the top. Times are with a stopwatch and order of finish is the old bib number tag threaded with twine method, ah its beauty is in its simplicity.

Sporting the Coach Tony gear at the start of the race

The format of the race goes something like this: Racers gather at the parking lot of Mt Baldy ski area, rolling start on your  Mountain bike down to the Falls Fire Road. Then the climbing starts, a total of 3400 feet in just under 7 miles up and around the ski area itself. After that hop off the bike and its a 3 mile trail run, straight up and then back down with a rolling sprint to the finish. But one complication... the race starts at 6000 feet and goes up!

Race day weather was perfect, although Claremont was socked in the clouds as my wife Jill and I left the house, it was clear and blue at the Mountain. My major problem with short and intense races like the Challenge is I need time to warm-up and settle in to my race pace. There is no such opportunity at the HAC, after the riders parade through the lot and hit the Falls road its uphill climbing for the first 30 min. That first sharp climb saw my HR shoot up to 145, my legs started burning and I felt like I was going to puke, I knew right then it was going to be a rough morning! Unfortunately I lost the 3 leaders at the top of the second steep section (I can't say second climb because you are always climbing!) and wound up playing catch up the rest of the way.

Jill sprinting for the finish line.

The ride contained a couple of downhill sections that were technically pretty tame but when you HR has risen to 158 and you hands are tingling from breathing to hard they are a little rough. Now mountain biking is something I do for fun, I am not a really a good fat tire rider, so other racers always make time up on me on downhills. That being said I felt if could maintain a solid forth during the ride I was hopeful I could jump a spot or two on the run. I was able to finish the ride strong, trying to maintaining a high cadence and saving a little leg for the run.

Jill lookin for some 02 at 8000 feet!

My transition was quick and easy, our bags had gotten a chairlift ride up to T-1 and the fine volunteers had everything laid out by bib number at the bike racks. In years passed the run course meandered around the ski area before heading uphill, but a course change this year took us staight up the "Chute " trail. It was a rough ticket getting off that bike and heading UP such a steep section on foot. About halfway up the trail I had to break out the power walk, the combination of the incline and low oxygen was too much to continue to run. Later I found out most of the competitiors had to walk a least a section of the "chute."

Coates Dudes taking home some hardware!

The run course was little shorter but steeper than the previous two years. Whether here or at a an Xterra I can move the puppies pretty fast on the trail runs, I do tend to run the trails quite a bit. With this in mind I pushed the pace hoping to move up to third overall. I was succesful in closing the gap on the runner ahead of me but to my chagrin a hard charging youngster, (re: someone about 25) was closing the gap on me. The youngin and I reached the summit at about the same time but he was a bit faster on the downhill than I and slipped ahead of me as with both closed in on #3.

Relaxing in the Elite Tribe uni

The final sprint saw the kid make the catch and finish third, I did not close fast enough and ended the day 5 overall and 1st in my AG (40-49). It was a great time but I again have learned I need to be committed to a solid warm-up before shorter races. I will have to bring the old windtainer along and get those juices flowing before the start, making everything just a little easier. Again thanks to Corey and his crew, Mt Baldy and Redhook for putting on the race. We are going to try and grow it a little next year, but hopefully keep the stopwatch timing in effect!

Our Sponsor, Corey from Coates Cyclery with Jill during the raffle.

Enjoying some post race brews!