2010 Laramie Enduro

The 2nd time at a given race is usually a dangerous attempt. The lasting memory of the 2009 Laramie Enduro was my aching knees. Well, that and cow shit.

Only 6 of the 'team' got into Laramie this year. I say 'team' since Shannon, Brad and I are not officially on Team Revolution-Peak Fasteners and don't wear the same kit, my schizophrenic team tendencies are stuff for another long, revealing post......

There were several differences leading up to this years version.

1. I have done several Endurance races since the last version

1/2 of3the 2009 PCP2P

Whiskey Off Road

12 Hours of Capital View

2. My knee has not hurt

3. I have done several 4+ hour rides

4. I have done less mid week races

5. I have eaten less vanilla wafers

6. I weigh more

All have relevance, I'm sure.

So onto the race.

We line up at like 6:45, somehow Boffeli gets me to line up on the front row, next to the guys who end up being the top 3. Not that is matters, at least I stayed upright at the start. On the start up the short FS road to the one track, Kris Arnott was in3 the lead, I was hoping he would get the hole shot, but alas, he didn't. The first 6-7 miles were uneventful, and fun on some single track and some fire road. The promised Hawk attack at mile 6.25 never surfaced, sadly. And at about mile 7, on the legendary, shirt, loose dh of Doom, I realized I was in trouble, no I made it down alright, with no idiots around me to take me out. Therein lies the problem, I had no one around me, which meant........

The next 10-12 miles of open, fast FS road riding were going to be done alone, or spent waiting for a slower group. So, I chased, hard, like XC pace hard, never gaining, but never really losing much ground, the group behind me disappeared quickly, and an hour after that fun, I started passing others who were shelled out of the front groups.

I only stopped at aid station 3 this time to switch out hydration packs, but i got there 3 minutes faster than 2009 when I was in a pace line on the FS road section, strange. So began to wonder how much that chase was going to effect my overall time, plus the temperatures were rising.

Knowing the course can be damaging for a long race, cause sections seemed to be in different places during my race stupor, I was trying to do the math in my head of whether or not I was going to beat my 2009 time or meet my lofty goal. In the last 25 miles this year instead of being passed by a lot of riders like 2009, I passed several, including 5 on the last climb aka, Headquarters, which I cleared this year, and walked most of last year, due to sore knees.

I will say that at mile 45-55 i was figuring out how to transfer my PCP2P entry. Alas, I'll keep it.

In the end, I beat my 2009 time by almost 20 minutes, missed my lofty goal by 00:4:27 and only stopped to pee twice. There was less cow poop bogs and lots of FS bridges over mud and streams to help keep the giardia and e-coli at bay. The race was excellently organized, the volunteers awesome and the post race buffet, spectacular.

I'll likely be back in 2011.